My kids' Dad

A Creaking Shell

While in Orlando in April one of my relatives gave me a copy of Menace in Europe. While the title is rather sensational the content is far more measured and reasoned. From the opening I found the author's reasoning and experiences compelling and believable then another relative browsed through it he quickly declared that he was in complete agreement with the statements he read. This lent far greater credibility to the material because he was a German citizen up until a number of years ago. The statement that really inspired him was one about the self destructive path that Europeans are on. A central premise of her work is that Europe has lost its faith in God and is now lost in emptiness.

A section that was particularly insightful for me was about Marseille Espérance which is the "hope of Marseille" that offers a way to stem the tide of extremism that has swept France. It pays lips service to the official French policies of the preeminence of individual rights and secularism but in truth recognizes separate ethnic cultures and organizational structures.

[after] September 2001... demonstrations in support of the Palestinians, marchers shouted, "All Arabs are Palestinians. We are all suicide bombers." ... The violence in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, and other major French cities has continued, and in some places worsened. In these cities, anti-Semitism appears uncontainable. But in Marseille, the animus has fizzled out. The city reacted with revulsion to the burning of the Or Aviv Synagogue. Citywide protests against anti-Semitism were immediately organized; Arabs participated in [these] demonstrations. The leaders of Marseille's Islamic community firmly condemned the attack. By contrast, after similar violence in Toulouse, Muslim community leaders offered not one single gesture of solidarity.

The author also looks at other European attitudes, such as her interviews with members of Rammstein, a self described left wing German band that emulates Nazi habits. These men are very popular and oppose the American intervention in Iraq. But they dismiss the behavior of Saddam Hussein. As a scholar from a German institute explains that the Germans have a chip in their shoulder because Americans did the ultimate injustice of having liberated the Germans from Hitler then protecting and supporting them for decades. He also states:

"...more than 60 percent of Germans believe that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is worse than the German treatment of the Jews under the Nazis. ... And with Israel, one could say, they just will not forgive the Jews for putting them in the black box of history."

Pretty classic (and now all too common) stuff in blaming the victim for your deficiencies.

The final chapter is short and sums up the situation very well. She describes:

"European anti-Americanism is a cultist system of faith, rather than a set of rational beliefs, and as such is impervious to revision upon confrontation with facts, logic, evidence, gestures of good will, public relations campaigns, or attempts on the part of the American secretary of state to be a better, more sensitive listener. ... The American Left's contention that it is the current administration's foreign policy that has made the United States an object of hatred is a naive delusion."

In many ways we are seeing these attitudes imported into the U.S. for similar reasons and with similar potential impact. A majority of Americans still have faith in a greater power - I don't know what it will take for that to happen in Europe (short of an Islamic takeover due to demographic shifts). Of course as the Kingdom of Heaven film about medieval Europe and a Crusade reveals you can also have faith and passion without heart or reason.

Refreshing debate

I have been intrigued by the writings about noted contemporary French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy. He takes heat and gathers respect for his unorthodox position within liberal thinking, so I was very pleased to actually hear him this last weekend on BookTV.

This panel discussion featured Francis Fukuyama, William Kristol, and Bernard-Henri Levy about Levy's new book, "American Vertigo: A Journey in the Footsteps of Tocqueville."  Don't let the title mislead you, the topic is modern day culture and politics as seen in the light of a great historian. They respectfully discuss their different perspectives in ideology along with their admiration of one another despite obvious disagreements. The discussion was illuminating into each of their perspectives, by Levy's was harder to comprehend due to his occaissional grasping for English and  frequent reference to other philosophers which I had difficulty placing in context. Despite Fukuyama and Kristol's strength of argument, Levy comes across as a serious and responsible intellectual - as well as one full of good humor.

Precolumbian Geography

Holidays are a great time to indulge in my vice of watching BookTV, today I have so far caught two of several very intriguing presentations.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann is a discussion about the forgotten civilizations of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. Mann refutes the notion that the Amazon is fragile and virgin, but that perhaps as many as 100 million indigenous peoples lived throughout the Amazon basin at any time within the last several thousand years. He shows evidence of the aggressive land management techniques used to tame these now wild places and how the civilizations were quickly laid waste by disease as Europeans engaged in trade with these civilizations. Mann also notes that the lack of available domesticable animals led to culture that had little resistance to disease since the great pandemics have typically been the result of disease mutations where the sicknesses have jumped from an animal species to human.

Mann also describes the diversity of cultures within the Americas, the Incas were very centralized and rigid - whereas tribes in the North East of North America were libertarian in nature.

Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America -- Climate Change, the Rise of China, and Global Terrorism by Harm de Blij is a powerful discussion of the impact of geography upon human fate. He tries to show us that despite all of the debate today we are living in a golden age.

Harm de Blij warns us of the coming global cooling and that he has great faith in the ability of the Earth to recover from most types of events whether human induced or through some externality such as an asteroid. He states simply that climate change has been part of the planet's life for 460 million years and that we are in the middle of a 35 million year ice age, which in the last 450,000 years features 4 periods of global warming (called interglacials) lasting each around 10,000 years separated by glaciations (cooling periods) of around 100,000 years each. The current warming period has lasted 13,000 years so we are due for a sudden and prolonged cooling period.

But Harm de Blij is also brilliant as he discusses topics such as the spread of global terrorism, which he states is fostered by failed nation-states and inaccessible terrain (such as the Pakistani mountain ranges). Just like Tom Barnett, he warns of the spread of terrorism into sub Saharan Africa due to these conditions.

Better stock up on blankets.

The World has Changed

Omar from Iraq the Model has this to say:

Bottom line is: the world has changed, we're not living in the fifties anymore and when a tyrant is kicked out, no other tyrant can claim his place. Why? Because nothing can be done behind closed doors anymore, the whole world can watch and have a say in almost everything everywhere and the era when thugs could reach power against a nation's choice is over. The world has simply changed and the change cannot be reversed.

This fellow in Iraq sees the past, present and future. Do we see the effect we can have?

Dictators, Moms and Manhattan

I noticed an ad in Fortune magazine for an upcoming Fortune GLOBAL FORUM 2005 conference for China and the New Asian Century where Chinese President Hu Jintao will be the keynote speaker and thought that Barnett's view of peacefully rising China is unfolding before us.

Then I noticed that the Feb 13 issue of Parade listed the world's 10 worst dictators based on input from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Reporters without Borders. What strikes me as odd is how President Hu Jintao of China gets the number four spot. While China is certainly not free and the regime is repressive, it seems odd to compare despots who rule as absolute dictators with heads of government that happen to be repressive. That would be like calling Gorbachev a dictator. Both men were leaders of repressive regimes, Gorbachev led his country to freedom, Jintao may be on that path as well. If it means anything China went from number three last year to number four this year - a trend that ought to continue.

Our local paper has a piece on the growing demand for Chinese baby adoption by single mothers. The repressive Chinese government prefers adoption by couples and restricts the number of annual adoptions by single mothers and forbids adoptions by homosexuals. I can't imagine being a single parent and wanting to adopt children - it takes my wife and me all we got to raise our kids. Seems like some of these women are succumbing to 'biological clock anxiety' or just plain selfishness.

I forgot to mention that last week we took the bus into north Manhattan then the subway (A train) down to the World Trade Center site. We walked to Battery Park and then to a nice restaurant overlooking Times Square before heading back to the hotel. I can't believe how civil and clean the subway is now (last time I rode was over 35 years ago). WTC was somber and stirring. I was surprised at the 17th Century history that was leeching out during our walk through lower Manhattan, from the thought of the old stockade designed to keep the British out (now called Wall Street) to the site of the United States Custom House (today the National Museum of the American Indian) which was formerly the site of Fort Amsterdam and the one site forbidden to Native Americans at the time.

Our flight back from Newark was delayed and we missed our connection. Instead of staying the night in Detroit, I rented a car to drive the two hour drive home - my business partner managed to find a few other souls who were desperate to go with us. We spent the middle of the night talking about spyware and identity theft, one of the passengers (who happened to be the navigator from the flight) asked how some of the online companies were able to provide information such as social security numbers on others. I guess the recent ChoicePoint scandal answers that question.

Rule-Sets and positive models

I just returned from a business trip to New Jersey and realized that I need my own personal rule-set reset. This has been in the making since last year when I ran a 10K run and after a few weeks found my knee uncooperative in any kind of running. Coupled with business travel and too much sedentary activity I have reached a point where I am motivated to change some dietary and exercise habits. After an extended exercise sabbatical I was pleased this morning to be able to complete a short run. Thankfully I didn't require a system perturbation, such as a heart attack, to motivate me but I have noticed that the context of my environment has a huge influence upon the success of my efforts. The rest of my family flew out to the West coast to see relatives and I am taking a few days off from work to catch up on personal efforts which have suffered as a result of too many hours spent at work. Just like breaking the habit of cigarette smoking, the greatest obstacle to embracing and implementing a rule-set reset is the existence of old habits.

The boys at The New Rule Sets Project, LLC look at global security issues such as system perturbations such as World War II led to rule-set resets such as the Marshall Plan and implementation mechanisms such as NATO. Their focus is on current issues such as globalization in a post 9/11 (system perturbation) world. As in my case the problem in moving forward seems to be the old habits that nations are reluctant to release. Within the US typical mind-sets that pose hurdles are various positions such as our role 'nation building' and as a 'global police force'; the role of the UN; deficit spending; outsourcing; and short term returns.

In the world of IT Security it may be worth considering the rule-sets of network firewalls. Network firewalls are always being 'tweaked' - rule sets are changed slightly to adjust for business at hand, such as allowing the public to reach a new web site. It is unusual to make a sweeping change (rule-set reset) without good cause (system perturbation driven). An example of this would be a huge spike in virus/worm/malware activity (or perceived increase in threat) that triggers major policy change (such as going from a 'default allow' position to a 'default deny' position or blocking outbound traffic not on well known ports). While this change may be seen as very positive from a security practitioner's point of view the resulting change would certainly cause a huge upset to the user base. Any experienced security person would consider this and understand that the big obstacle to trying to implement this new policy would be people's web habits. A couple obvious ways to get this better policy implemented would be by dictate (unilateralism) or by stages (evolution) but in any case would still involve pain on all sides.

Back to New Jersey... Network firewalls are extremely dumb. (Well - technically packet filter firewalls are really dumb, whereas proxied based firewalls are rare. Joel Snyder points out that historically proxy firewalls also 'cheat', vendors wrote proxies for certain applications and the rest of the traffic is handled in a filter like manner.) IT Security models are typically negative which is that we block stuff that we know is bad and otherwise allow activity. The system that I saw in New Jersey by Whale Communications called e-Gap offers a positive model that looks for good and known behavior and blocks other behavior. One of the reasons IT is struggling with malware and patches is that formerly unknown activity causes trouble until new signatures and patches are developed and deployed.

I see that e-Gap will be very valuable in networks as a supplement to protect sensitive applications and systems at an affordable price. (I recently read an article that estimates a thorough application vulnerability assessment may cost $50,000 per application.) Whale has a problem because it's product does not neatly fit into a standard category. They do several things all within the same product (although licensing determines functionality): e-Gap is a remote access device (SSL VPN) which is able to limit access to application specific functions; e-Gap is an application firewall with some common applications pre-defined; e-Gap 'breaks' the network connection to protect systems from network based attacks; and e-Gap provides end-point (remote PC) evaluation to ensure that remote PCs are secure enough to access an application. Most of their competitors can't or won't come close to providing the value they offer. I had the opportunity to see their impressive product, meet their staff which is very smart and full of enthusiasm - watch them closely. The time seems ripe to consider the advent of another system perturbation as applications are being hacked through application weaknesses rather than through network or OS hacks. The time seems right to adjust our rule-sets where we add another layer of defense to critical applications as well as ensuring that potential clients meet minimum qualifications.

Some of the positive/negative models can be seen in daily life:

• You normally aren't blocked from walking into a public store such as Target. But if you start behaving 'wrong' such as screaming at the top of your lungs - then you will be escorted out of the store.
• You aren't given a tour of available homes until you are 'qualified'.
• You could attend an event like Woodstock and almost any behavior was tolerated.

Along the same lines, some applications require nominal protection, others require better protection and others even more protection.

Grand Rapids Event

I am looking forward to this event next week.  The title is not very descriptive of what I believe will be his presentation. I have heard Dr. Mohammed speak and was impressed with his message. As a practicing and educated Muslim he advocates a reformation of the religion. His message is that Islam as it is currently taught is incompatible with the rest of the world.  He understands the origins of Anti-Semitism within the teaching of Islam and clearly presents the historic background.

Born in Guyana, South America, Dr. Khaleel Mohammed is an expert on both Judaism and Islam.  He will present a fascinating lecture to a mixed Jewish, Muslim and Christian audience on a variety of topics centering on the representation of Judaism and Jews in the classical Islamic literature.  Dr. Mohammed is unique in being accepted by both the Shia and Sunni sects of Islam and in the fact that, as an imam and scholar, he actively supports the cause of Israel.

Islam and Judaism - Can they co-exist?
Dr. Khaleel Mohammed
Saturday, January 29, 2005
7:30 p.m.
Temple Emanuel
1715 E. Fulton

Facilitators
Alli Metwalli and
Sheldon Kopperel
$10.00 in advance
$12.00 at the door
$5.00 for students

Sponsored by: Jewish Cultural Council – 616-942-5553

Dr. Khaleel Mohammed is professor of Religion at San Diego State University, and
a specialist in Islamic Studies. Dr. Mohammed was born in Guyana, South America
and is now a citizen of Canada. He has studied at both traditional and Islamic institutions
and Western Universities.
After a Bachelor’s degree in Religion and Psychology (Mexico), and a brief stint in
the Canadian Army, he received a Saudi government scholarship and studied at the
Kulliyat Shariah, Muhammad bin Saudi University, in Riyadh. On his return to
Canada, he received numerous fellowships and awards, completing an MA in Religion
(majoring in Judaism and Islam) at Concordia University, and then his Ph.D (Islamic
law) at McGill. From July 2001-August 2003, he was at Brandeis as that University’s
first Kraft-Hiatt postdoctoral fellow in Islamic Studies. His area of research was on
the imagery of the Jew in classical Islamic literature.
Dr. Mohammed has published books in Arabic and English as well as several articles
in scholarly journals. Dr. Mohammed is truly unique, since he is one of the few
Muslim scholars accepted by both the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam.

On the personal side

I am deep into Barnett's Pentagon's New Map after having listened to the brief on C-SPAN and dug deeply into Barnett's blog. This is one of the most engaging works I have ever read since I am constantly writing notes in the back of the book and find myself getting lost in thought after reading so many paragraphs. I will review the book once I finish it. For now something that strikes me is the need to use quantitative measures to identify the Core and Gap and treat them less as either or and more as shades of purple (in reference to the recent election with simple maps depicting the outcome in terms of red or blue states when in fact most states were a closer mix).

On Friday my wife and 6 year old son went to a high school football game which gave me the opportunity to take my 3 year old daughter out on a date. She chose the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) and I was able to enjoy her complete enjoyment of life - her singing and dancing while eating pancakes for dinner.  I decided to rent a couple of films and en route as we pass a pickup truck she lets out a loud 'see you later, sucker!' - I have got to find out how my wife drives with the kids... Disney's 'Aristocats' captured her attention the rest of the evening.

The other DVD I picked up was "Supersize Me". The film squandered a lot of potential in order convince us that McDonald's is evil, too bad but not a complete waste of time. And besides the whole family is thoroughly enjoying the British fireplace we installed in our den/newly created library. It has been getting down to freezing, so we pull the heavy drapes on the heavily windowed little room, brew some tea, crank up the fire and we're all as cozy as can be. My son has also discovered the German board game "Mensch Ärgere Dich Nicht", so that has become quite popular with us. I am hoping for a very snowy winter for plenty of this family time.

Last night I was up way too late searching for software to easily take economic and other data and display on a map of the world. I found something that looks like it will work - so now I just need to find lots of free time that doesn't take away from the family... to remember those days when there was so much time you had to worry about getting bored... my wife is very patient with my extended hours of writing, reading and watching C-SPAN.

Today was a typical Sunday, enjoyable, fun, intriguing and exerting. During my getting ready for the day rituals I stumbled across a C-SPAN Washington Journal live call-in piece with Nadia Hijab from The Palestine Center in Washington DC. It was the usual one sided nonsense about the terrible Israelis and poor Palestinians. She ignored the hard questions (such as how Palestinians feel about Suha Arafat's opulent living off the aid money intended for the poor) and dissembled the rest. However it is always difficult to hear the American public call in live and hear how many are justifiably grieved by the suffering but wholly lost as to the actual causes. It struck me that for years the same arguments have always led nowhere and that Barnett provides an understanding which is rarely or never considered (that this is really not a struggle about religion or liberation, but about globalization). I will develop the matter further, stay tuned.

Next I taught my son his in-home weekly Hebrew lesson. We were so disappointed by the local offerings and attitude that we  arrived at 'if you want it done right, do it yourself'. A common attitude is that young children don't have the interest or attention to learn Hebrew. I call it ridiculous and lazy. His progress is amazing and his joy in learning sweet. One of my few fears for our children is the danger of losing that love of learning. You know, it is that same thing that you see when your child thinks he is too old to enjoy Winnie the Pooh, just uncool, too mature... Tammy Bruce spoke on CSPAN-2 discussing the danger of 'group think' and how we give up our selves to be part of the group. He loves 1st grade and his Wednesday night class as well. How will he keep that innocence and still gain maturity?

Next the local Sunday paper, checking e-mail, VPN to work check a few things. I can't resist tinkering with the mapping software - it is called EPI info and distributed by the CDC. It looks like it will be a great first step - gather the data into a spreadsheet, normalize it, then link the results into the maps. There is some very cool stuff on the web, in particular some web based front ends that uses ODBC to keep the maps live - but this is spendy stuff and I first need to validate my idea.

Then while my son is engrossed in GameCube and the ladies are at work I take on the winterizing of the house. We live in a charming house built in 1931 and rather than modernize the house and lose its charms we chose to restore. It would be far easier to install modern windows or storms (not to mention cheaper) but there is something very satisfying about taking the screens down and rehanging the the storm windows once the weather changes. It is a concrete acknowledgment of the change of seasons and a good excuse to slow down and let my mind wander. I take the same approach with mowing our lawn (a little non-powered reel mower that makes the quietest whirrr) or shoveling the snow in the driveway - very physical acts in our knowledge worker world. Barnett is right on about the problem with globalization is the rate of adoption, the need to find our cultural equilibrium as we move forward. We cling nostalgically to our traditions, often ones that we grew up with. But the world is changing and always has, the old house I live in was a modern innovation when my father was young. The America of 200 years ago is nothing like the one we grew up in. Yes there are core principles that haven't changed, this is how you can read the Bible or 2000 year old historic documents and find yourself how surprised at how modern they are. But for all those who hate Walmart because it has destroyed the corner market, you are taking on the wrong enemy. You either need to stop change or change people's values or better yet take on a more important issue. Where was I? Oh... This task also forces me to wash the exterior windows - the house always feels nicer with clean windows.

Next the ladies are back and we promised to take my son bowling (recently discovered at a school party). I have never played with 'bumpers' before - what a nice innovation. We play three sets, two on two lanes. My son gets 123 and I get my best score ever of 159. Funny how when you are really focusing on fun you get some good scores. My daughter sort of walks up to the line and drops the ball - it slowly rolls toward the pins - I wonder if the ball will ever make it to them. My sons also drops the ball with some weird underhand wrist action causing the ball to careen off both sides of the bumpers. It is very strange to see a bowling ball zig zag towards the pins.

We get home to have a typical home cooked meal with old fashioned family conversation (and taunting and laughing and whining and all). I feel so sorry for those people that eat most of their meals away or without their whole family - something that the Supersize Me film brings to mind. We chose to lead a life centered around our family knowing that we would sacrifice to have this. But the gains are infinitely greater for us than the sacrifices.

Finally bed time rituals, some crying, some laughing, then back to the virtual world...

Rosh Hashanah 5765

It seems appropriate to start the "new year" with perspectives I would like to present on this blog for the coming year. These are topics that are at the forefront of my thoughts right now.

Currently the U.S. presidential election campaigns are in full force. Although I don't want to get sucked into the rhetoric coming from all sides, I do want to cover the longer term issues that have surfaced and stirred the passions on various sides.

In talking to people of various political opinions it becomes obvious that most Americans share similar and compatible core values. We cherish our children, try to respect those we encounter and shun violence. Yet when it comes to political debate some of the nicest people lose reason and civility. This line of thought leads me to consider my own positions which defy the simplistic categorizations. This led me to look up the definitions of "conservative" and "liberal" at Webster Dictionary's online site. The result is fairly long winded and thorough. The site takes care to point out that terms such as "conservative" and "right wing" are not synonymous and can in fact be opposites. Oddly enough the "conservative" page has a list of prominent popular conservatives and the "liberal" site does not. The material that seems most relevant is:

In the United States and western Europe, conservatism is generally associated with the following views:

Personal responsibility.
General opposition to "big government" policies or state economic interventionism .
Anti-communism, including a belief that the former Soviet Union was an "evil empire".
Support for Judeo-Christian religious and moral values.
Support for strong law enforcement and strong penalties for crimes.
Restraint in taxation and regulation of businesses.
Support for a strong military, and well-defended protected borders
Support for drug prohibition.
Restraint in many state-run social programs such as welfare and medical care.
Opposition to abstract and allegedly unequitable policies such as affirmative action and progressive taxation.

The key characteristics of classical liberalism are:

The importance of the individual
Freedom
Reason
Justice
Toleration and diversity

Both definitions contain a respect for the individual and freedom from excessive government interference. The whole definitions also call out that political liberalism is about reform and change whereas political conservatism is about preserving the 'best' in society and resisting radical change. From this perspective I embrace both sides, culture is slow changing, but there is a need for change. History teaches us that some of the radical changes such as Nazism and Soviet Socialism were 'sold' as positive reforms but were monsterous creations that sought to crush the human spirit. We have to consider how to safeguard ourselves from similar outcomes, modern day programs have similar dangers. I have seen first hand how the good intentions of welfare programs have destroyed families and created a culture of dependency (upon drugs and the state).

It is also obvious that 'classic liberalism' is not being promoted by the 'Left', the modern term 'progressive' is a thinly veiled reference to socialism and state domination which I believe most Americans (rightly) reject. My experiences on Kibbutz gives me pretty good insight into the potential of communism and socialism. In a small society such as a Kibbutz or even a family, these systems are able to work, in a larger society the corruption of power is too hard for rulers to resist. (Personally I believe this is due to the personal nature of interactions in a small group, you know and respect the people too well.) I don't feel threatened by the 'Right' since they as a group don't seem to be interested in wielding power. The success of our government seems to be in the balance of power between the conservative and liberal perspectives. Right now we seem to be out of balance because the two major parties are not representing these two forces. The Democratic party is struggling with their identity, are they liberals or are they socialists? The current drive toward the 'popular vote' and away from the two party system is a mistake. Look at other democracies which have more popular representation, such as Israel, and notice the unequal influence of niche parties, most citizens there recognize the undue influence those small groups have and see a need to reform their system.

It is no wonder that the majority of our population does not vote, most people just don't have an interest in politics and realize that politics is full of corruption and deceit. It is our civic duty however to engage our minds and to ensure that our children develop critical thinking skills.

Other things I would like to cover:
Reviews and thoughts of books, presentations and various concepts that I come across.

I am currently reading Ben Stein's "Can America Survive?",
studying French, (we'll see how helpful this was when I go to France this weekend)
and pondering Thomas Barnett's works. (right now considering the parallels in Info Sec)

The broadcasts on BookTV on the weekend of Sept 11 provided an interesting juxtaposition:
Eric Brende - Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology
(goes off grid - time saving devices consume our time - limit technology - life better with less technology)

Paul Driessen - Eco-Imperialism
Starts out with a treatise on the benefit of technology, especially the need to help Africa combat malaria and disease using DDT and the death and impoverishment 1st world environmental activists have wrought.

Also:
Underlying causes of antagonism toward globalization
- Muslim's fear of women turning into our MTV images?
- US concerns about losing jobs?

The conflict between faith and science (Tower of Babel syndrome?)

Truly a New World Order

This weekend I was privileged to stumble across the CSPAN broadcast of Thomas Barnett's briefing of The Pentagon's New Map. I found this three hour presentation so compelling that I watched it again when rebroadcast at midnight. Lately I have found the quality of programs on CSPAN/BookTV so high that I consider it to be television's redemption. Not that I don't enjoy entertainment on TV, but there is so much entertainment and so little quality. The political arguments are just so much noise most of the time and it is difficult to find quality information which isn't crafted for a specific political purpose. And not that there aren't a lot of genuine opinions which are in and of themselves fascinating, but there is very little critical thinking going around and even less based on good research.
And this is where Barnett stands out. He offers us his research as a professor at the U.S. Naval War College without political bias. In fact if you guess his political leaning you are probably wrong.

Three statements initially stood out in his brief:

If you don't read the Wall Street Journal you don't understand security.

Johnny went over there and is never coming home.

Better to check cargo containers where they start not come

The first statement validates my own choice a few years ago to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. More importantly Barnett describes his engagement with Cantor Fitzgerald for several years prior to their obliteration in the WTC on September 11. He discusses how they engaged him and how much understanding the financial community knew about security and had even foreseen trends that would lead to terrorism strikes within the US. Barnett also described money as a coward, fleeing from danger and risk. This forms the basis of much global strife today. People around the world want to have a part in the wealth but in countries that won't play by the global laws, money just stays home. He cites China's admission into the WTO as an example of hope and how far countries are willing to go to play. I also see a parallel with Dr. Raymond Tanter's thesis that peace is a function of a country's acceptance of 'executive authority restraint'. This is where even top government officials are bound by the law. Tanter likes to use the example of Arafat scratching his head wondering why Ariel Sharon doesn't just have his accusers (of financial scandal) shot.

The second statement signals a fundamental shift in the global security apparatus. Barnett advocates a return to the two group solution. Our war machine stays intact in essence, but a larger 'sys admin' group is responsible for developing peace. His example of Iraq as a failure of this encourages him, since failure drives change not success. This security function will be the largest public sector export and long term or permanent.

The third statement not only speaks to the 2nd point, but also signals the first economically viable and logistically sensible solution I have heard to this specific problem. So many security solutions we are involved in are 'sub-optimal'. This is a striking example of a problem that is looked at systemically and leads to a holistic solution.

Barnett also posits:

So expect more 9/11's until you can demonstrate that such efforts are meaningless because our systems (economic, political, social, security) are so robust that the disruptions suffered are minimal.

This is a sober assessment of how to deal with terrorist motivations.

From a current political perspective he also states that it doesn't matter who wins the election, the map will still look the same. It really becomes an issue of how willing we are as a country to embrace our role as the lone superpower. Isolationism will not change the facts, just weaken our position and batter us economically.

In the Q&A at the end of the DVD Barnett reflects that the basic rejection of globalization for fundamentalist groups, in particular Muslim countries, is their unwillingness to allow women freedom.

In "Enter Stage Right" he states:

The real battle cry of anti-globalization forces should be "slow down!" Not "go away!" Of course, a bin Laden and an al Qaeda are going to fight globalization's advance into the Islamic world tooth and nail, because they see their chances to hijack societies there back to their 7th century definition of paradise slipping away with each year that globalization encroaches a bit more into the region. So expect their struggle to get more desperate with time.