Iraq: Leaving Behind Chaos
Ulrich Putz, Der Spiegel (in German) | September 3, 2010
As US forces withdraw from Iraq, they are leaving behind a “security situation that is worse than it has been in years.” ++ Despite the official fanfare, there is little rejoicing, as the Americans hand over responsibility to the Iraqis. ++ Terrorists are increasingly targeting traffic policemen: For every day in August, on average five security officers have been killed. ++ The US withdrawal has upset the political balance in the country, which has led to the increase in violence. ++ The task now is to prevent civil war.
A study by the Center for the Transformation of the German Armed Forces claims that peak oil production may well be reached this year. ++ This would mark the end of cheap oil. ++ The study warns that markets may fail and the global economic system become destabilized as a result. ++ The global oil market would no longer abide by economic laws but rather come under the sway of bilateral agreements. ++ China for instance might secure preferential access to African oil by agreeing to increase weapons deliveries to exporter nations.
The discovery of 72 mutilated bodies near San Fernando underlines just how bloody and pervasive the so-called war on drugs in Mexico has become. ++ The Mexican drug war is the direct result of the US spending “a fortune spraying carcinogenic chemicals over Columbia’s coca-growing areas.” ++ Known as the balloon effect, drug dealing simply shifts to another location, as long as demand remains high. ++ It is time to “take the drugs trade back from murderous criminal gangs.” ++ The only way to do this is to legalize drugs.
Two ways of thinking on fighting crime are emerging in France. ++ While the one group seeks salvation in security technologies and tougher sanctions, the other “fears the advent of Big Brother.” ++ However, “there are no ready-made solutions to the security challenge.” ++ Much more money needs to be directed at security policy studies that are chronically underfinanced in France. ++ An independent commission should be created to study the criminal situation on the ground.
The Pentagon’s new “Cyberstrategy 3.0” treats our global communications highway as a zone of potential warfare. ++ The approach focuses on a concept of deterrence, whereby American infrastructure will be beefed up to a point that renders it capable of surviving any attack. ++ Militarizing cyberspace is a costly strategy with limited benefits. ++ “As with human viruses, hostile computer bugs will evade our best efforts at quarantine. A new (and expensive) obsession with cybersecurity is not what this traumatized country needs.”
