What Obama Faces in a Campaign Against ISIS – NYTimes.com

P091111CK-0217 President Barack Obama and Firs...

P091111CK-0217 President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, along with former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, pause at the North Memorial Pool of the National September 11 Memorial in New York, N.Y., on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks against the United States, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011. The North Memorial pool sits in the footprint of the north tower, formerly 1 World Trade Center. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a good article by the NYT, which is well worth a read. Check it out!

via What Obama Faces in a Campaign Against ISIS – NYTimes.com.

Personally, I’m not convinced that this is robust enough.

Key additional questions are:

  1. Who is in charge overall?
  2. Will the US seek UN approval?
  3. What are the objectives?
  4. What’s the time-span?
  5. How will the US avoid collateral damage?
  6. What about the politics in Syria and the Assad regime?
  7. How does this so-called strategy dovetail with US security & foreign policy?

Thoughts?

Opinion – Tricky questions for Scots lucky enough to have a vote – FT.com – John Gelmini

English: Alex Salmond photographed in his cons...

English: Alex Salmond photographed in his constituency at Turriff (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dr Alf is correct, Alex Salmond and the Yes campaign, aided and abetted by the BBC, have sold the people of Scotland a pup.

The Barnett Formula provides on its own £3,500 gbp a head as a direct subsidy from London and the South East; on top of that the UK is a nett contributor to the EC and most of the rebate it gets is distributed to the Celtic fringe, which of course includes Scotland.

Alex Salmond provides free social care for adults north of the border and free tuition fees, courtesy of the English taxpayer, and south of the border, we are saddled with the extraordinary costs associated with force mergers of 8 Scottish police and fire commands.

In addition, we have more freight movements in England and more car ownership, so we pay a disproportionate amount on Petroleum Revenue tax which, together with the National Lottery, is bankrolling the NHS, which the Scots as the unhealthiest people in the Union use the most per head.

Supposedly, they are going to be better off yet they should lose £6,500 gbp a head per year.

Alex Salmond has put forward wildly optimistic figures on North Sea oil revenues and seems to think he can use the pound, create a separate defense force without extra costs and despite having been told he cannot, remain within the EU automatically and keep the pound.

At best, this man is a demagogue, with an inflated ego and “Braveheart syndrome”.

He and his fellow demagogues need to be told some home truths and his Scottish MPs need to be sent packing from Westminster, with a one way ticket and all the money we send to Scotland should be redistributed as a tax rebate for those of us living in England who subsidize the rest of the United Kingdom.

Either way the Barnett Formula needs to end along with David Cameron’s career followed by his immediate replacement with Boris.

Hopefully commonsense will prevail and the Union will remain intact.

If it does not then we need to become a tax haven and rid ourselves of the troublesome Celtic fringe once and for all.

John Gelmini