Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski has a dirty little secret. He was a Soviet military intelligence agent beginning in 1946. History buffs recall that Jaruzelski enjoyed a stellar career in Soviet-occupied Poland. He was once the youngest Communist general in Poland; the Minister of Defense; the Commander in Chief of Poland’s Communist armed forces; the Prime Minister; and the General Secretary of the Communist Party. Jaruzelski occupied most of those posts simultaneously. One usually remembers him simply as the military strongman who, to crush “Solidarity,” imposed martial law in December 1981 and, thus, ended Poland’s bid for freedom. He was greatly vilified [...]
The United States embassy in Baghdad is a bustling complex with a staff of over a thousand Americans, more than in any other country. Its Iraqi counterpart in Washington is a quiet, shuttered red brick house adjacent to Dupont Circle with maybe a dozen staffers headed by Ambassador Mahmoud Sumaidaie. who has held the post since May. Sumaidaie may be Iraq’s leading voice in the United States, but he speaks in a whisper, and very selectively, steering clear of the high volume public debate about the future of his country. For a diplomat whose country dominates the news, he has [...]
The German government recently completed its first major defense review in twelve years. The “White Paper 2006 on German Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr” stresses the German government’s commitment to work with the United States, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other “networked security structures” to promote international peace and stability. In particular, the document highlights Germany’s role in helping solve a “broad” (i.e., predominately non-military) range of security challenges outside the North Atlantic area.<<ad>>Despite its bold vision and comprehensive assessment, the White Paper fails to resolve three major problems that constrain Germany’s [...]
