A Tab?
I thought a tab was a cigarette. I don't smoke. Obviously something else in your parlance FV.
In the case of Banda Aceh, perhaps more emphasis could have been placed on reconcilling the conflict in Aceh province beforehand rather than the denial of self determination by the Jakarta regime, ably backed by the present - and previous - US administrations. This would not have stopped the catastrophe from happening, but it would have greatly assisted indigenous response, rather than the Jakarta view that this was a strategic windfall in their campaign to supress the locals.
I do not criticise the US response; rather, I have pointed out that in my first post that overstretch is a feature of a market economy by enhancing profit through the control of the means of production.
Presumably you have read some of the body of literature about Globalization, then? It challenged my orthodoxy after 20 years in uniform.
A issue more related to the thread, perhaps, is the matter of recruitment. I recently sidled through the graduate recruitment fare, full of multinationals and government departments handing out loads of goodies and free tickets for copious amounts of food and drink - as well as offering some pretty impressive jobs and internships - and staffed by young, exciting people. I then spied the RAF stand, situated near the gents toilets, and what a sad spectacle. A long-in-the-tooth Cpl with tattoos and a positively elderly Flt Lt, bulging out of his no 2s with the remnants of a hearty lunch sporting his shirt. There were a few free pens on offer. The jobs that people were being led down were derisory (eg a physics tripos being offered an enlisted med-tech job); I suspect most graduates at the fare would have viewed the whole effort as pathetic, although I accept that those who want to fly would, I hope, not be deterred by such a poor show.
CC