@rickolson

Former US SRAP, Ambassador to Pakistan, UAE. Views entirely my own.

[Michael Weiss @michaeldweiss]

Incredible deep-dive by my friend @huibmodderkolk and company into how Dutch intelligence (AIVD and MIVD) missed the full-scale invasion and was adamant it wouldn't happen, based on assumptions about Putin and a well-placed asset in Russia. "Only a tiny circle of confidants — perhaps ten people at most — knew about Putin’s war plans. It explains the mismatch with the Americans. The US intelligence agencies evidently had access to someone or something inside that innermost circle." https://t.co/h8yp1iDqmH

[@rickolson @olson_rg]

@Mpolymer Superb piece, many thanks for posting

[@rickolson @olson_rg]

@hugolowell Who says America doesn’t exercise leadership anymore? (Irony alert)

[Orla Joelsen @OJoelsen]

U.S. Ambassador Excluded from Traditional Danish Celebration

For the first time, the U.S. ambassador is not welcome at the traditional Rebild Festival, where the ties of friendship between the United States and Denmark are celebrated today.

The reason is that the Municipality of Aalborg was only willing to maintain its financial support of 400,000 Danish kroner on the condition that no one appointed by President Donald Trump be invited.

Aalborg’s mayor, Lasse Frimand Jensen, describes the situation as “a dilemma.” On the one hand, he says, it is important to preserve “good relations across the Atlantic.”

“But on the other hand, we also want to speak out against the way Donald Trump and his administration have acted toward Denmark,” he told TV 2.

The Rebild Festival is the world’s largest celebration of the United States’ Independence Day held outside the United States.

—TV2

[Al Franken @alfranken]

Happy 250th, everybody! I think our Founders would be surprised at how much money Trump made last year. And without slaves!

[David Frum @davidfrum]

250 years after July 4, 1776, the successor of King George III pays taxes and publishes his returns. The successor of George Washington does not. https://t.co/CbIXDe8UQY

[@rickolson @olson_rg]

@theepicmap UAE and Oman are mislabeled. What is ‘Qatrain.’

[Senator Jeff Merkley @SenJeffMerkley]

Huge win!! In partnership with Senator Lisa Murkowski, we protected the Ocean Observatories Initiative—critical sensors that are essential for managing our fisheries, forecasting weather, and understanding climate change.
https://t.co/3qnd9oUeXS

[Aaron David Miller @aarondmiller2]

Rule number 1 according to @BorowitzReport only negotiate with morons. https://t.co/G4YyeAYAHj

[Bob Elder @southernphd]

I never met Gordon Wood, but I have a story about him.

In one of my grad school seminars, we read Wood’s Creation of the American Republic. The sheer erudition and evidentiary depth of the book bowled me over.

Back then, before kids and before life accelerated to warp speed, I used to call my mother every Sunday to catch up. Lots of times, we ended up talking about what I was reading that week in my grad seminars or for leisure. Mom had an omnivorous mind, and she was always looking for something else to read. She was a true intellectual—curious about almost everything, always eager to integrate new arguments or ideas into her existing schemas of how the world worked or to have those schemas challenged and changed.

When we talked that particular Sunday, I think I tried to describe to her part of Wood’s argument about the relationship between the state constitutions during the Articles of Confederation era and the federal Constitution. Maybe I was tired, maybe I didn’t completely understand her questions, but the end result of the conversation was that Mom had questions about Wood’s argument that I didn’t answer satisfactorily. I told her that she should probably just read the book, and we said goodbye.

She did eventually read the book, but the next Sunday, Mom started our conversation by saying, “Well, I had a lovely conversation with Gordon Wood this week.” For a split second, I thought she was joking, but then I remembered who I was dealing with. I started to sweat. “How?” I asked. A whole variety of unlikely scenarios in which the foremost historian of the American Revolution and my mother, who lived in Wichita, Kansas, might have met ran through my mind. “Oh, I just looked up his office phone number on Brown’s website and called, and he picked up!” Mom said. I decided I would have to find another profession.

As it ended up, Gordon Wood spent about an hour on the phone with my mother answering her questions about the Constitution. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot for the man when I imagine him picking up the phone in Providence and finding Becky Elder from Wichita on the other end of the line. His generosity in that moment spoke very well of him.

Rest in peace, professor.

[@rickolson @olson_rg]

@JoshuaClaybourn Very sad indeed. His course on the American Revolution was one of the great intellectual awakenings of my life.

[AF-Pak Hand @stevesi28838948]

Well done.

[Danny (Dennis) Citrinowicz ,داني سيترينوفيتش @citrinowicz]

The war has not moved Iran’s red lines by even a millimeter.

if anything, Tehran has added the Strait of Hormuz to the list of preconditions. More importantly, Iran is refusing to engage on the nuclear issue at all until its broader demands are addressed first.

This is yet another indication that the Iranian leadership believes it currently holds the upper hand and has no intention of capitulating to American pressure.

From Tehran’s perspective, the naval pressure campaign and economic siege have failed to force strategic concessions. On the contrary, Iran appears to view the crisis as an opportunity to expand its leverage and redefine deterrence vis-à-vis Washington.

The Iranian response leaves Trump with very few viable options, and all of them range from bad to worse: either accepting terms that are politically impossible in Washington, or escalating further in ways that could trigger a broader regional confrontation without actually changing Tehran’s core positions.

Iran is not Venezuela!!

[Alan Eyre @AlanEyre1]

WADR, Francesca Albanese is a modern-day hero.

[Alan Eyre @AlanEyre1]

Yes. What @Rob_Malley said: this war was a massive strategic own-goal.

[Andrew A. Michta @andrewmichta]

A quick observation about US domestic airlines. As a rule, I try not to complain about daily inconveniences, but my flight today to Houston on @united just did it. And mind you: I am a million-miler with them, which apparently means nothing. But my comments apply to all US domestic carriers overall, especially @Delta. Since I came back home from Germany over two years ago I have been flying quite a bit on our domestic airlines. BLUF: They should rank among the worst in the world-too often I have ended up on old dirty airplanes with surly flight attendants, practically zero service, regardless whether you fly economy or first class, the check-in process that reminds me of drill sergeants barking orders at recruits, frequent aircraft breakdowns and missed connections, and delay, after delay after delay. All the while the prerecorded monotone tells us how much they care about us, how important we the passengers are, and our safety. The quality of service across the board is a good indicator od the condition of our society. US domestic carriers don’t care because there is no real competition here anymore when it comes to air travel. Planes are routinely overbooked, delays make travelers miss their connections and nobody cares. On board you are treated like a nuisance. So today it finally hit me why this is happening: to US domestic carriers we are no longer passengers; we are self-loading cargo. And so it goes….

[Karim Sadjadpour @ksadjadpour]

14 Wars, like revolutions, are judged by the political orders they build, not by what they destroy. Trump is measuring this war by what he has destroyed. History will judge it by its lasting impact on Iran, the Middle East, and the broader global order.

[Barry R McCaffrey @mccaffreyr3]

Very useful statement on using US military forces to seize HEU fissile material at two underground bombed storage areas deep in Iran.

This is nuts.

A division sized ground intervention requiring engineer assets and an airfield.

Much more risky than the US Marines besieged at Khe Sanh in Vietnam.

To stop the Iran nuke program… get weapons inspectors on the ground.

[Emma Ashford @EmmaMAshford]

What I particularly don’t understand is that telegraphing this operation likely increases the risks to US forces.

[Ivo Daalder @IvoHDaalder]

NATO’s founding document is the North Atlantic Treaty, signed Apri 4, 1949 (77 years ago next week). It’s short, very readable, and has just 14 articles. https://t.co/cCcHwI9lYW 2/