] A country’s potential to warrant a U.S. military response
] is inversely related to its globalization connectivity.

There are some excellent observations in this article about the way that 911 focused the US military establishment on real problems and the way that military organization is changing. However, I'm not sure if I buy the primary premise, that lack of connectivity produces threats. The guy lists Yemen as an "end of the earth" from a globalisation perspective. I'm not expert on the middle east, but I'm pretty sure that observation is about 180 degress from correct. If I recall correctly, Yemen is one of the most cosmopolitain places in the Middle East, where immigrants outnumber naturalized citizens like 10 to 1. They are really really well connected.

So why are they a threat? Because, and really he does get to this in the essay but I think this point deserves much more emphasis, telecommunications and transportation technology have ended the relationship between ideology and geography. To be sure, if you grow up in a place that is poor, oppressed, and war torn, you are more likely to consider violence as an option then someone who grows up comfortable. However, is it really possible to remove right wing militia or left wing black blocs from the global security equation? Are these people less dangerous then Al'Q?

The lines will be drawn idealogically and not in terms of nationality, whether we like it or not. I think the fact that this guy is still leaning toward drawing lines on a map is evidence that he hasn't fully groked what is going on.

To paraphrase the Matrix, "There is no map."

The Pentagon's New Map

Even if you're not Polish or Canadian, everyone can appreciate the beauty of a jelly donut.

FAT TUESDAY BABY!!!

] Britain's The Observer newspaper has published a memo
] that purportedly orders increased espionage against U.N.
] Security Council diplomats. The memo is likely a forgery:
] It includes un-American spellings, and the writer
] apparently lacks understanding of the U.S. intelligence
] community's structure.

I found this link first. Stratfor is a reputable source, but apparently there is more information at the Drudge Report (U: which I can't find but Politechbot has some info). The funny thing is that The Observer is continuing to insist that this is real and has changed the spelling "back" on their website. (No word from them about the phoney classification level, etc...)

Observer story likely faked.

] By appearing to disregard a series of ever-escalating
] actions by Pyongyang, the US may hope to alarm its allies
] and partners in the region to become more involved
] themselves in the North Korean problem. That would help
] bridge the gap between those who want the US to enter
] direct talks with the North - something the US wants to
] avoid - and the US view that Seoul, Beijing, and Tokyo
] must be part of any resolution.

A good analysis of U.S. Strategy in N.K.

Why US is reacting quietly to N. Korea's provocations | csmonitor.com

] The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks'
] campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New
] York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war
] against Iraq.
]
] Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which
] involves interception of the home and office telephones
] and the emails of UN delegates in New York, are revealed
] in a document leaked to The Observer.

The Observer | Special reports | Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war

] The global economy is in very very very very bad shape.
] Last year when WEF met here in New York all I heard was,
] "Yeah, it's bad, but recovery is right around the corner".
] This year "recovery" was a word never uttered. Fear was
] palpable -- fear of enormous fiscal hysteria. The watchwords
] were "deflation", "long term stagnation" and "collapse of
] the dollar". All of this is without war.
]
] - If the U.S. unilaterally goes to war, and it is
] anything short of a quick surgical strike (lasting less
] than 30 days), the economists were all predicting extreme
] economic gloom: falling dollar value, rising spot market
] oil prices, the Fed pushing interest rates down towards zero
] with resulting increase in national debt, severe trouble in
] all countries whose currency is guaranteed agains the dollar
] (which is just about everybody except the EU), a near
] cessation of all development and humanitarian programs for
] poor countries. Very few economists or ministers of finance
] predicted the world getting out of that economic funk for
] minimally five-10 years, once the downward spiral ensues.

Newsday Reporter's 'Spilled' Email

] But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is
] justified than that it would be perilous to allow the
] U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be
] reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering
] and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this
] Administration is fostering, including among its most
] senior officials. Has "oderint dum metuant" really become
] our motto?

U.S. Diplomat's Letter of Resignation - nytimes.com

] It's the most viewed video at www.c-span.org. Skip 28 minutes
] into the video for the appropriate part. A reporter asks Ari
] what the US is prepared to do for Mexico in return for its vote
] in the security council. Ari gets indignant and replies that the
] US doesn't buy votes from other countries. Hilarity ensues.

Ari Fleischer gets laughed out of press briefing

] One anti-war organizer said the volunteers -- including a
] group of civilians from London who arrived in Baghdad
] last week -- are there to make world leaders think twice
] before bombing and causing "white Western body parts [to
] fly] around with the Iraqi ones."
]
] But the move has led some in the Pentagon to question
] whether volunteers are still non-combatants, or whether
] they have crossed the line to assist the Iraqi regime.

CNN.com - Human shields add to war worries - Feb. 27, 2003

] "You, our brethren, be firm and keep the path and hide in
] waiting and prostration [as in prayer] for it is only a
] matter of a few days, a little more than ten or less
] until we hear the cry announcing to us the good tidings
] of Allah's victory [coming] by the hands of our brethren,
] the Jihad fighters. This is a serious matter and not a
] joke."
]
] 'The Operations Have Already Been Set and the Lions Have
] Taken their Positions'

MEMRI: Terrorist Attack Within 10 Days?