Reads of the Week

Our long lost cousin?

One term and out?

Looking for a national strategy

The past week has been uber busy for me as I attended to classes and hosted visiting family for a mini-reunion. A few posts caught my eye as I spent today catching up on my blog reads. The lead off post belongs to good blog friend Dan Abbott, who is soon to be Dr. Dan Abbott now that he has successfully defended his dissertation.

Dan recently took note that the blogs have been abuz with speculation and comment on this interesting discovery. I am sure that the GEICO caveman will be happy to know the've found his missing link.

Now turning to a more serious topic, I found both Tom Barnett's latest post revealing in his appraisal of President Obama and Mark Zafranski's post on American Strategy both compelling reads that deserve a careful review.

First Barnett, has come close to seeing Obama as a one-term president, as noted in this first paragraph of his column in World Political Review.

As somebody who voted for President Barack Obama, I am surprised to find myself believing that he is slated to be -- and more so, should be -- a one-term president, a possibility that Obama himself has already broached publicly. It's not any one thing he has or hasn't done that has led me to this admittedly premature conclusion. Rather, it's a growing realization that everything Obama brings to the table in terms of both deeds and vision suggests that history will judge him to be a transitional figure. He is a much-needed leveling-off from Bush-Cheney's nosebleed-inducing foreign policy trajectory, no doubt. But he is not "the One," in whom so much hope was invested for the revitalization of this clearly disoriented superpower.

Hold on to your hats, as Tom takes the reader beyond the glam and looks deeper into the role that he sees Obama playing. New Rules for U.S. and The World, Obama Spells Relief, not Cure. The question of the day, who is on the horizon to be the grand visionary and leader America longs for?

And if by ironic chance Mark at zenpundit has this jewel of a post where he links an essay by Dr. Thomas Rid on the Kings of War Blog.  Mark's comments put him in rare company as one of the more horizontal thinkers in this sphere.

Let’s set aside the question of Sun-Tzu, Musashi, Kautilya and other Asian strategists. Also the subject of John Boyd as Col. Boyd did not lack for kind words in the KoW comments section. We’ll just concentrate on Rid’s query of “Why so few American strategists of great stature?”. It’s a very good historical question.

I think there are a number of possibilities:

Read the whole post for a taste of Mark's astute observations.
The Desert of American Strategy

Closing out this week, The U.S. Naval Institute Blog hosted this post I don't want no teenage queen....I just want.... about a subject I wrote about a few weeks ago entitled The Return of an Old Friend.