Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 25, 2016

Wikipedia

William Hartung, Real Clear World/Tom Dispatch: Why Is It So Hard to Reduce the Pentagon Budget?

Through good times and bad, regardless of what’s actually happening in the world, one thing is certain: in the long run, the Pentagon budget won’t go down.

It’s not that that budget has never been reduced. At pivotal moments, like the end of World War II as well as war's end in Korea and Vietnam, there were indeed temporary downturns, as there was after the Cold War ended. More recently, the Budget Control Act of 2011 threw a monkey wrench into the Pentagon’s plans for funding that would go ever onward and upward by putting a cap on the money Congress could pony up for it. The remarkable thing, though, is not that such moments have occurred, but how modest and short-lived they’ve proved to be.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 25, 2016

Insight - Battle for Mosul can shape or break Iraq further -- Samia Nakhoul, Michael Georgy and Stephen Kalin, Reuters

How important is Mosul for Isis? – video explainer -- The Guardian

Why Iraq needs more than a military victory in Mosul -- Salah Nasrawi, Al Jazeera

US Scrambles to Contain Flaring Turkey-Iraq Tensions -- Jamie Dettmer, VOA

Saudi Conflict With Iran Takes Its Biggest Toll in Yemen -- Mohammed Hatem, Bloomberg

Why Sectarian Violence Is Resurging in Pakistan -- Abdul Basit, National Interest

Pakistan Police Academy Attack May Signal New ISIS Alliance -- Sami Yousafzai, Daily Beast

In Pakistan attack, hints of a new ISIS foothold -- Howard LaFranchi, CSM

Rodrigo Duterte's "Iron Clad" Relationship With the U.S.? -- John McBeth, The Strategist

What Is Rodrigo Duterte Trying to Achieve? -- J. Weston Phippen, The Atlantic

China Can Resist a Crash But Can't Prevent One -- Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg

The Myth of Putin -- George Friedman, Geopolitical Futures

Fear, frustration add to tumult of French presidential race -- Konrad Yakabuski, The Globe and Mail

CETA collapse evidence of a larger EU problem -- Bernd Riegert, DW

Canada's Willy Wonka -- Andrew Mitrovica, Al Jazeera

Brazil's President Turns Scandal to His Advantage -- Mac Margolis, Bloomberg

Clinton Should Stop Whining About Russian Hackers -- Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg