Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Real missions for James Bond
Foreign Policy proposes five real missions for James Bond, if only the West had such a super spy at its disposal. Conspicuously and unaccountably missing: The location and penetration of a certain cave.
5 Comments:
By 
Escort81, at
Tue Nov 11, 12:47:00 PM:
I think the cave location is implied in Mission #4: "Which Tribes to Bribe?"
I am not sure if there are any hot looking Pashtun women for 007 to hang out with, though.
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Nov 11, 01:03:00 PM:
I've heard from folks who've been to Afghanistan that their women wear veils for a reason...
By TigerHawk, at
Tue Nov 11, 05:23:00 PM:
Not sure, Escort81. #4 involves splitting the Taliban as we did with the Sunni Awakening in Iraq. That may buy some peace in Afghanistan, but why would it get us any closer to The Cave?
By Escort81, at
Tue Nov 11, 07:26:00 PM:
OK, here's the language from Mission #4:
Which Tribes to Bribe?
The mission: Travel to the mountainous Pashtun regions of Afghanistan and gather information on tribal leaders. Determine which ones are connected to the Taliban and if they can be lured away with money and other incentives.
Briefing: As Taliban militants have retreated into the Pashtun regions of Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan, they have become increasingly difficult to fight. Coalition forces often cannot distinguish between local tribes and Taliban members, resulting in unintended casualties that only play into the hands of the Taliban insurgency.
Now, this is Bond we are talking about. Maybe the Roger Moore Bond (who I actually liked a bit) goes into those mountains without offing OBL, but the Sean Connery Bond is not going up to that altitude to negotiate. He knocks on the cave door, has a gentlemanly dinner with OBL and his henchmen, uses his smoke-producing cufflink to provide a diversion so that he can recover his Walther PPK that the henchman have set aside, puts 2 bullets in OBL's chest, says "As-Salamu Alaykum, Sheikh," straightens his Savile Row cravat, and departs.
By Pax Federatica, at
Thu Nov 13, 01:26:00 AM:
From Mission #5: There is some consensus among experts that a form of collective leadership centered on the country’s National Defense Commission (NDC) would emerge if Kim dies or is incapacitated.
In other words, getting back to the 007 theme, life imitates Die Another Day. That movie posited a North Korea bent on invading the South after a coup by "hardliners". But the film never said exactly who the hardliners were replacing, and made no mention of Kim at all. I had always been baffled by this, but now this scenario, or at least one a lot like it, is apparently close to coming to pass in real life. At least the real NorKors don't have an "Icarus"-style killer sun-focusing satellite at their disposal...
