One good... two bad...

The current American administration certainly has a demonstrated willingness to take action... generally the concern voiced by observers regards the thought involved prior to said actions...

Here are three reports: one good; two astoundingly ill considered

A (rare) direct action Special Operations mission scored a major kill, doing in Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who was (among other villainy) an operative in the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania Embassy Bombings. Good riddance.

This is a case of Presidents getting the credit when people actually doing their jobs do it right. Fair enough; the chief executive has to take the blame when things go sideways in public, after all. So good job for approving Operation Celestial Balance (this raid) and BZ to the operators who got it done.

But...

The apparently intentional contempt for established alliances held by the Obama administration has been obvious for months now, and Asian alliances have gotten a particularly short shrift. So much so that advice given here (to the previous government, however) was to plan for the day when the Americans would lack the will and means to effectively contribute to the defense of Japan. Well, the day the U.S. leaves Japan to its own defense grows closer. This was actually floated by the Yanks back in April, but it hit the open source media this week designed to tie in with the change in government to the DPJ majority.

And...

It seems that no decade is complete without a Western sell-out of Eastern Europe's liberty or security. This time, it is the abandonment of any meaningful antimissile defenses based in the region and the obvious corollary of conceding regional dominance to Russian desires. The antimissile system was not about Russia, of course. It was intended to thwart Iranian aspirations of having a nuclear missile threat to Europe. However, the timing of the agreement (during the Russo-Georgian crisis last year) *and* the associated guarantees of an American presence providing improved air defenses (which could be reasonably considered a trump card over Russian intentions) both cast the U.S. as making a commitment to the Eastern European NATO members. But this commitment is neither desired nor fulfilled by the current regime in the 'States. What makes this bone-deep foolish is that it looks like *nothing* was gained in a realpolitik sense from Russia.

Oh, bother.