America needs to show the world and ourselves that we still stand for justice. A proper investigation needs to occur and if found guilty an appropriate punishment must be dealt. The anger of the grieving family will not go away with a fair punishment but an honest and transparent trial will show the Afghans we are not evil and unjust. We may never recover from this catastrophe but we cannot let that prevent us from being the great country that we are.

The rhetoric around Iran consistently indicates a war is going to happen at some point but no one expects there to be a declaration of war when it begins. The US has declared war 5 times since adopting the Constitution and has won every time it did so. The last time the US declared war was World War II and since then has had military engagements in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba, Angola, Panama, Laos, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya (maybe a few others I left off). Most of our post WWII endeavors did not go as planned either because the country was not fully committed and/or the scope of the mission kept expanding. Once the US and/or Israel attacks Iran, will the mission be complete after their nuclear program is destroyed? Or will we also have to ensure the Ayatollahs are replaced with democratically elected leaders? And what if the former members of the IRGC start a civil war? At what costs are Americans ready to pursue another war?

Of course I don’t think the American public even with the very real threats of terrorism and issues with illegal immigration would subject themselves to such abuses of their privacy but unlike the past, technology has actually made the monitoring of millions of people possible at a relatively affordable cost. What I suspect will happen is that much of the surveillance will get implemented incrementally with convenient excuses to justify each step such as cell phone tracking for 911 calls, GPS tracking for stolen cars, and facial recognition to locate fathers behind on child support. Over time we will be like the frog who hasn’t realized they are in boiling water because it happened so gradually. Luckily though, I am not aware of anyone who has developed criminal prediction techniques likes those in the Minority Report!

The media will be quick to point out that a Ron Paul victory in Virginia was more an anti-Romney vote than pro-Paul and they would be right but the Paul campaign from the beginning has been focused on gathering delegates and not outright winning the primaries. An underreported storyline is how the Paul’s campaign from 2008 has stayed involved with local GOP precincts and has outmaneuvered the other campaigns with detailed knowledge and commitment to the complex delegate processes (many catered for a Romney funded campaign) and may in fact be winning the delegate count despite not getting the votes. Paul’s approach is not being kept secret as Rachel Maddow of all people points out but is being ignored by other outlets which just might make Tampa a little more interesting than expected.

Given the death of Osama Bin Laden and the estimates of only a few hundred Al Qaeda members active worldwide, it is strange that such a severe measure was deemed necessary by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Barack Obama, even when told by two 4-star Marine generals that the bill was “misguided and unnecessary.” A few years from now, how easily will this act allow for the military to indefinitely detain American citizens for doing the following:
- Drug and Human Trafficking
- Joining a local Tea Party chapter
- Demonstrating at an Occupy rally
- Posting on a blog (uh oh, watch out Jim!)

The loss of civil liberties is a slippery slope and is typically justified with the rare examples of extreme behavior. Does anyone doubt the United States had a rock solid case against Anwar al-Awlaki? But instead of trying him in a civilian court, he was tried in absentia by the Yemeni govt and then assassinated by an unmanned drone. Since when as Americans did we allow the outsourcing of our judicial system?

A) Iran will go into submission and maybe an Arab Spring-like uprising will topple the Ayatollahs.
B) Iran will start proxy wars quietly assisted by opportunistic countries (i.e. Russia, China, Venezuela) all over the world to bleed America and Israel.
C) Iran will attempt to close the Straits of Hormuz causing more direct US military involvement.
D) Iran will purchase nuclear weapons directly from North Korea or Pakistan.
E) Iran will purchase nuclear weapons directly from China or Russia.

The excuse given to stop Iran’s nuclear program “at any cost” is typically the notion that as soon as Iran has a weapon they will “wipe Israel off the map”. But interestingly Mossad does not seem as worried as we are. Is it plausible that our GOP presidential candidates know more about Israel’s security situation than Israel’s top intelligence officer? Perhaps the Mossad knows that Israel cannot be blown off the map with a few nuclear weapons and that the 100% chance of nuclear retaliation that would make Shock and Awe look like a video game, is a deterrent even for the Ayatollahs and their problem child, Ahmadinejad, who had to be bitchslapped for suggesting the Iranian people should have more freedoms.

To be clear, the debate is not whether we should want or not want Iran to have nuclear weapons but rather to what extent should the US go to prevent Iran from developing one. Will the American foreign policy of pre-emptive strikes prevail or can the most powerful nation on the planet find an economic and diplomatic solution?

1) To balance the budget and get the United States out of debt, which is currently considered our largest national security threat, which would you prefer:

A) Cut absolute Federal spending immediately to prevent any more borrowing from nations such as China and then continue spending cuts in the future to start paying off the debt.
B) Reduce the acceleration of increased spending in turn hoping that increasing the debt at a slower pace will help grow the economy by over 40% to cover our current overages and eventually start paying off the debt.

2) When it comes to the well being of our citizens, how should the Federal government handle health and moral concerns:

A) Delegate to the states to experiment and cater rules and regulations best suited for their populations and enabling the migration of citizens to states most in sync with their personal views.
B) Allow the Federal govt to dictate a “one-size fits all” solution that puts the burden on the individual states for enforcement and imprisonment for failure to comply with laws the majority of the citizens of the state may not agree with.

3) To foster peace, prosperity and democracy in the Middle East, what should the United States foreign policy in the region be:

A) Create economic and diplomatic ties with every country in the region and use America’s consumer market to create financial incentives for goods and services from the Middle East while simultaneously opening up markets for American exports creating jobs in the U.S. Leverage the trade relationship to influence Middle East leaders and their newly created middle-class to cooperate with the West on terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
B) Preemptively attack every nation on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon (but not Pakistan because they already have a weapon and they are our “friends”) and isolate those countries with sanctions and restricted military movements. Once said country has been toppled, occupy country until democracy is restored (even if it was there before) and rebuild and improve any infrastructure damaged during the attack at American taxpayer expense.

4) To enable and foster the Free Market, which should the Federal govt adopt:

A) Allow for competing currencies, which are backed by a variety of commodities and are less susceptible to inflation, pyramid schemes, bubbles and currency manipulation by foreign counties.
B) Centrally manage the economy with a few Keynesian economists that set interest rates once every 3 months but can also inject huge sums of paper money into failing banks to purchase additional bad debts.

If you chose “B” to all 4 questions then congratulations, you are not a fringe citizen in our society. What you believe in is not challenged and you are happy because the status quo is what you want so it really doesn’t matter what happens in the next few election cycles because things will generally be going your way.

If you chose “A” to all 4 questions then our condolences because you are simpleton that doesn’t understand how the world or logic works. You probably are a racist who own more than one gun, believes in all sorts of conspiracy theories and wants to smoke pot all day.

If you chose a mixture of A and B, then you’re a confused soul that is easily swayed by the media and choose who you vote for based on important criteria such as “which guy can I have a beer with” and “boxers or briefs”.

Perhaps Buffett is thinking about his legacy but I will remember him for funny Geico commercials.

The new fiscal year is just 45 days away and the chances of passing a budget, much less a balanced one, is virtually zero. Instead of spending political capital on pushing a balanced budget amendment, the Republicans should push to reduce our military footprint around the world, specifically in Libya, Germany, Korea, Japan, Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only will bringing the troops back save many billions of dollars and enable our servicemen to spend their paychecks locally versus abroad, but it will also give the Republicans a negotiating stance with the Democrats to reduce entitlement programs in the upcoming budget battle.

In the meantime, precious metals such as gold and silver will continue to increase in value. I only wish I could use it to buy and sell items with.

I feel much the same way about the recent killing of UBL. While I was ecstatic and quick to run to the White House to celebrate his death with thousands of others, I wonder what myself and everyone else in America would have been doing if it had turned out more like Carter’s Operation Eagle Claw. Democrats and Republicans alike would have been jumping over one another to condemn Obama’s failure, over-analyzing every single misstep. Luckily for us, we only lost one helicopter, which is likely being shared with the Chinese, and none of our soldiers, whose families are now concerned about retribution.

Let’s imagine for a minute that instead of Pakistan, UBL was living comfortably just outside of Paris. Using our assets in Germany, we could possibly launch a similar commando style raid into France. But violating a country’s sovereignty gives them the right to attack us, just like we can kill an intruder in our home in self defense. What are the repercussions of going into a country without their permission to execute a military operation? Does anyone doubt that Pakistan’s ISI is plotting something against the United States right now? Perhaps it’s another Mumbai style attack or maybe they are more willing to share nuclear technology with the desperate factions of Al Qaeda. At a minimum, they are blowing the cover of our spies and sharing our stealth technology with the Chinese.

While the CIA and ISI have a strong distrust of one another, it cannot be denied that back in March 2003, they jointly captured mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. I do believe the many claims that the ISI would leak information to targeted terrorists so they could escape before a raid. But how often did those leaks have financial consequences? Since Sept 11, 2001, the United States has given Pakistan over $18B in foreign aid. How much of that money was used to instead harbor UBL and facilitate attacks on India?

What would I have done differently? For starters, I would not have started the victory dance just hours after the raid. Instead, I would have kept UBL’s death a secret as long as possible while we scoured all the laptops and DVDs from the raid so we could pursue other terrorists without giving them a head start. But for the actual raid itself, I would have done much of the same intelligence work to locate him (which does not include torture btw) but logistically had 2 fronts on the raid. The first contingent on the ground to surround the compound and keep the Pakistanis in check. The second contingent similar to what conducted the actual raid but with more stealth helicopters to extract UBL and take him to Afghanistan. Getting ground troops into Pakistan would not be simple and could take weeks as to not raise suspicions by the ISI. I would not have informed the Pakistanis until 1 or 2 hours before the raid but I would have informed them and made it clear that ALL of their foreign aid would be in jeopardy as well as sanctions including freezing assets of top officials and declaring Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. Of course I’m not a military strategist so I’m sure there are many improvements to be made on what I just stated.

While the crazy hook shot from Obama is one for the history books, I fear it is not the game winner, but will take us into overtime in the global war on terror. I hope I’m wrong.

In addition, all of this is happening with the backdrop of another government shutdown just around the corner. Unfortunately, while the Pentagon is estimating the cost of Operation Odyssey Dawn for the first week at $600M, Congress can’t agree on cutting more than a few billion when they need to cut over a trillion. Since we are freezing over $30B of Gaddafi’s assets, why not take that money to pay for the no-fly zone and help us pass a budget for FY2010?!?!

We spent about $0 on getting Mubarak to step down from power and that is the same amount we should spend in other uprisings. Any perception (true or not) that the US is assisting anti-govt groups will immediately be used to crush the protests. Anyone who rises to power with US assistance will (likely rightfully so) be viewed as a puppet and will continue to deny Egypt the stability it needs.

America’s ability to change the world has always been by example. Providing our people with freedoms and the rule of law is much more respected than a barrel of a gun. America’s success is a direct result of its foundation of civil liberties and free markets. Countries around the world, including the US, should follow America’s example to spread peace and prosperity.

Especially in the case of technology and internet companies such as Microsoft and Google, whatever status they have as the top dog in a particular domain (i.e. desktops, web search) is only maintained as they consistently provide better products. Bill Gates is quoted as saying “Intellectual Property has the shelf-life of a banana” and his former company is keenly aware that better ideas are always around the corner. Sure they can “buy up the competition” but how do you stop the next Facebook built out of a college dorm from eating out of your profits?

If talented people leave the govt, they most likely will be replaced with less talented, less motivated individuals and because they are less capable, they will require more people to perform the job of the single talented individual. Reminds me of one of my favorite George Washington quotes:

“My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty… it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.“

Sadly, I think this penny-wise, pound-foolish move to reduce federal spending will actually end up increasing the size of govt. A better move in my opinion would have been to pursue the Pay For Performance schemes where civilians could get compensated based on their contributions instead of their seniority.

1) Instead of 2 years it should be 4 years of college or military service. If the college route is taken then a degree in a technical field (i.e. engineering or science) must be pursued.

2) Signing up is not enough, completion is necessary. For the college route, a degree at an accredited university must be achieved even if it takes more than 4 years. For the military route, service must be completed without any dishonorable discharge.

3) After satisfying #1 and #2, the person will receive a H1-B visa and must find employment for at least 1 year.

4) After satisfying #3, as long as there is no criminal record and no credit card debt of $5K+ for 90+ days, then the person will receive a green card.

I’m sure some will say the conditions are too harsh while others will say they are too lenient. Given some of my family’s and friend’s experiences, I would say it’s just about right.