H&I Fires* 8 SEP 2008

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 8 Sep 2008 | 11:59 pm MDT

2008 Milbloggies

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 8 Sep 2008 | 6:00 am MDT

Blackfive TV: Military Science Fiction Writers Series

→ BLACKFIVE | 8 Sep 2008 | 5:05 am MDT

Argghhh-onauts: Episode Five

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 8 Sep 2008 | 4:03 am MDT

Oil Prices Fell and OPEC Was Not Amused

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 8 Sep 2008 | 12:50 am MDT

The Media Folds A Hand

→ Winds of Change.NET | 7 Sep 2008 | 10:20 pm MDT

From the NY Times:

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel’s coverage of the election.

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change - which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle - is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

"The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what’s supposed to be straight news programming," said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.

As Rasmussen notes, the media is getting hammered by the public because of the perception that they are in the tank politically.

'Yet we still let everybody look at it.'

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 7 Sep 2008 | 9:01 pm MDT

Afghan PRT Shows How It's Done

→ Winds of Change.NET | 7 Sep 2008 | 8:39 pm MDT

A while back, "Fort Apache, Afghanistan" discussed the Provincial Reconstruction Teams, who combine civic projects and aid with military force projection. Cuba was way ahead of everyone with this idea, and it's an important one. Many NGOs will not operate in dangerous situations, or will choose to buy their security via collaboration with evil, or will be governed by political or financial rather than humanitarian goals.

In an era of failed states, that level of reliability won't cut it. NGOs can still play useful roles, but there must be a military option ready to go. PRTs have made solid strides since 2002, and have now become an alliance-wide concept, with other countries like Germany, Spain, Canada, Austraia, et. al. leading PRTs in key areas. It's also a cross-service effort, as this article shows:

"After two Air Force medical professionals spent some time on the ground in Southeastern Afghanistan, they came to a conclusion -- providing clinical medical care for locals was just a band-aid solution for three major issues plaguing the country. So they made the decision to take a step back and think outside of the box for solutions.... The two were determined to find sustainable, cost efficient ways locals could combat the three largest medical killers in the country diarrhea, malnutrition and childbirth complications."

They've managed to make a long-term difference in all 3 areas.

A Soldier Speaks as Soldiers Do

→ BLACKFIVE | 7 Sep 2008 | 7:15 pm MDT

The Mac

→ Mudville Gazette | 7 Sep 2008 | 4:22 pm MDT

Willie Brown on Palin

→ Winds of Change.NET | 7 Sep 2008 | 1:21 pm MDT

Willie Brown is probably the smartest politician I've ever personally met. I'd pay good money to see him and Karl Rove sit down and chew the fat on the mechanics of politics - there's an Internet TV show idea for someone for free - and today, in the SF Chronicle, he's got his take on Sarah Palin.

Palin's speech to the GOP National Convention on Wednesday has set it up so that the Republicans are now on offense and Democrats are on defense. And we don't do well on defense.

Suddenly, Palin and John McCain are the mavericks and Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the status quo, in a year when you don't want to be seen as defending the status quo.

From taxes to oil drilling, Democrats are now going to have to start explaining their positions.

Whenever you start having to explain things, you're on defense.

I used to go watch him at the Alameda County Labor Council's BBQ, where he once finished his speech by exhorting the whole crowd to put their hands up in the air. Then he told them to reach down and take out their wallets. Then to told them to take the wallet from the person on the right, take out a bill, and pass it out to be collected.

I thought it was a brilliant piece of stagecraft. My GOP friends thought it perfectly summed up Democratic political philosophy.

BTW, in his column today, he slags my old town, Oakland:

By the way, there's a new dining tip for people going out in Oakland.

Be sure to order soup.

That way when the robbery starts, you can slip off your jewelry and drop it into soup so the robbers won't see it.

...zzzzzinnnngggg....

A look into the possible future.

→ BLACKFIVE | 7 Sep 2008 | 1:09 pm MDT

National Security Is Not a Basketball Game, Sen. Obama

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 7 Sep 2008 | 12:07 pm MDT

It's Sunday...

→ Mudville Gazette | 7 Sep 2008 | 10:47 am MDT

Nice Picture, Bad Analysis

→ Winds of Change.NET | 7 Sep 2008 | 10:21 am MDT

In my work life, I follow a lot of blogs about social media; one of them is 'The Network Thinker' (in my Bloglines feeds to the right over in the blogroll).

There was a post there today by blog author Valdis Krebs on 'bundlers'.

I downloaded data of the top bundlers of donations for the 2000 and 2004 Bush campaigns and the 2008 McCain campaign. What's the overlap of donors between the Bush and McCain campaigns? Will the same people influence both campaigns/administrations? Or will it be starkly different groups? Or something in between?

Below is a map of those who donated to BOTH Bush and McCain. The campaigns are shown as the two red nodes on the left of the map. The green links show donations coming into the McCain 2008 campaign. The blue lines show donations coming into the Bush campaigns of 2000 and 2004. The 128 bundlers, who have contributed to both McCain and Bush, are shown in the arc on the right.

A nice graphic follows, and then the conclusion:

Most of McCain's 534 large bundled donations [76%] came from donors who did not donate to either of the Bush campaigns. Yet, this kernel of 128 bundlers keeps consistency across all three Republican campaigns in the 21st century.

The Gang of 128 may not allow McCain to wander too far from the current philosophy and approach. If elected, McCain may be different than Bush, but he might not be that different.

Even smart people can be stupid sometimes, and even people who do social network data representation and analysis for a living can be misleading.

So, instead of showing the complete network of bundlers, and highlighting the overlap, Valdis shows only the overlaps - strengthening the conclusion that McCain's campaign is 'more of the same'.

Instead of looking at the amounts, and giving some idea of how much money the overlap represents - we get nothing.

And, finally, it would be useful to see how many of the bundlers were also bundling for the other side - as a not-insignificant number of them do.

I love this kind of data analysis, and get pissed off when it's been done badly. As in this case.

If I get some time this week, I'll play with this - in fact, let's make it a group project. Can some of you help out by downloading the bundler database from, say Public Citizen into a csv table and sending it my way?

I'd love to get data from this cycle and '04, for McCain, Bush, Obama, and Kerry...we can look at the overlaps and relative amounts. Any other analysis ideas?

A brain-cleaning post for you

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 7 Sep 2008 | 8:29 am MDT

Sorry about that...

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 7 Sep 2008 | 8:26 am MDT

Feminists and Republicans: Strange Bedfellows?

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 7 Sep 2008 | 4:13 am MDT

And now for something completely different...

→ Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys.. | 6 Sep 2008 | 10:16 pm MDT

Fnding Strength in Adversity: Ken Walters

→ Winds of Change.NET | 6 Sep 2008 | 7:45 pm MDT

Nortius Maximus sends this tip in:

"A former engineer who was disabled and living on benefits has turned his life around - after a stroke rewired his brain and turned him into an artist....

'I hated it in school. I was never really the arty type, more hands on. But I have to say wherever this new found love for art has come from it's certainly changed my life forever. Although I didn't realise it at the time, having a stroke was the biggest blessing in disguise I ever could have wished for."

IA, MND-B Soldiers seize munitions in Baghdad

→ Stryker Brigade News | 6 Sep 2008 | 7:03 pm MDT

Alaska on a Shoestring

→ Mudville Gazette | 6 Sep 2008 | 5:46 pm MDT

Eagleton

→ Winds of Change.NET | 6 Sep 2008 | 4:17 pm MDT

So, increasingly deranged (see here and then her) Sully and many of the Netroots crowd are bitterly clinging to the "when will McCain drop Palin" tagline.

Seriously - and I mean this seriously, as someone who wants Obama to win - how do we get him to drop Biden for Hillary?

Trashed in Colorado

→ Mudville Gazette | 6 Sep 2008 | 3:05 pm MDT

Missin' the Mission

→ Mudville Gazette | 6 Sep 2008 | 12:16 pm MDT

Power in Taji

→ Stryker Brigade News | 6 Sep 2008 | 7:14 am MDT

NFL Kickoff

→ Stryker Brigade News | 6 Sep 2008 | 7:08 am MDT

Iraq in Photos

→ Stryker Brigade News | 6 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am MDT

A Good Take On Hurricane Preparedness

→ BLACKFIVE | 6 Sep 2008 | 5:54 am MDT

Russia's Kosovo Precedent

→ Winds of Change.NET | 5 Sep 2008 | 5:16 pm MDT

Russia’s Vladimir Putin darkly hinted that his country would invade and dismember Georgia months before last month’s war in the South Caucasus region began. “We have Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Pridnestrovie [Transnistria],” he said back in February this year after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, “and they say Kosovo is a special case?” Putin has a point, but only a very small one. The overwhelming majority of Kosovars want nothing more to do with Serbia just as the majorities in Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia want to secede. But there the similarities end.

Kosovo is a viable nation state of more than two million people, greater in size than its neighbors Montenegro and Macedonia which also broke free of Yugoslavia recently. (Montenegro’s secession from the Yugoslavian rump state of Serbia-Montenegro in 2006 somehow didn’t produce any hand-wringing about a “Montenegro precedent” in Russia or anywhere else.)

South Ossetia, meanwhile, has a population of around 60,000 people, the size of a small American suburb. Abkhazia’s population is less than 200,000, around the size of a large American suburb. These are not viable nation states.

Nevertheless, last week Russia recognized them as independent. Unlike Kosovo – which is formally recognized by 46 counties, including all of the G7 – no country in the world other than Russia recognizes the “independence” of Abkhazia or South Ossetia. That’s partly because what really just happened is de facto Russian annexation. Before the invasion and dismemberment of Georgia, Russia made the majority in South Ossetia and Abkhazia citizens of Russia and gave passports to anybody who asked. I just returned from a trip to Georgia, and the Russian military wouldn’t let me enter South Ossetia or even the central Georgian city of Gori because I did not have a Russian visa.

Read the rest in COMMENTARY Magazine.

Ask an Infantryman -- "HUSBAND SCRATCHES HIS HEAD AT WIFE'S LOVE FOR LINGERIE"

→ BLACKFIVE | 5 Sep 2008 | 4:09 pm MDT

Roundtable: Hurricane Divers!

→ BLACKFIVE | 5 Sep 2008 | 4:01 pm MDT

Mayors and Organizers

→ Mudville Gazette | 5 Sep 2008 | 3:38 pm MDT

IA, NP, local citizens combine efforts to seize munitions in Baghdad

→ Stryker Brigade News | 5 Sep 2008 | 2:58 pm MDT

100 Years of Army Aviation

→ BLACKFIVE | 5 Sep 2008 | 1:24 pm MDT

Balad Air

→ BLACKFIVE | 5 Sep 2008 | 9:16 am MDT

Friday SarahCuda

→ BLACKFIVE | 5 Sep 2008 | 8:39 am MDT

Georgia and the Former Soviet Union: Impacts & Options

→ Winds of Change.NET | 4 Sep 2008 | 11:20 pm MDT

Ukranian President Victor Yushchenko discusses recent events in Georgia, in "Georgia and The Stakes For Ukraine." Note especially this quote:

"The tragic events in Georgia also exposed the lack of effective preventive mechanisms by the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and other international organizations."

They're only exposed if anyone was stupid enough to believe in them in the first place, against all available evidence. See also Poland's foreign minister, Radek Sikorski:

"Parchments and treaties are all very well, but we have a history in Poland of fighting alone and being left to our own devices by our allies."

Russia's actions have even prompted renewed debate in Sweden and Finland about joining NATO. Speaking of Finland, Max Boot makes a very different point. Eastern Europe, including the Ukraine, has the means to defend itself...

The 2 Approaches

Ultimately, there are only 2 approaches when one is faced by a larger neighbor or Great Power at one's doorstep, with designs on one's territory or regime.

Option #1 is acquiescence to its policy demands. Libya is a good modern example of how that doesn't always come out badly. They came clean on a nuclear/biochemical WMD program that was further along than the CIA thought, dismantled it transparently, and openly addressed their previous involvement in terrorist acts. Response: growing integration into the international community, regime still in power - probably with a big infusion of new French military equipment pretty soon.

If the Great Power is inflexibly predatory, however, as China was with Tibet and Russia has been with Georgia, we come to option #2: making it too expensive for the Great Power or hostile neighbour to force the issue. In other words, deterrence.

Diplomacy is a viable tool in this regard. Mongolia, for instance, is fated to balance perilously between Russia and China. As the threat from one grows, its best hope is usually to tilt toward the other and hope to play them off. Robert Kaplan's excellent book Imperial Grunts has a whole chapter on American efforts in Mongolia. The USA acknowledges the reality that America can't save Mongolia if it comes to that. So they work to make the Mongolians more capable on their own, while improving ties with other nations via participation in UN peacekeeping missions et. al. That's certainly no guarantee, as Georgia demonstrates, but better something than nothing.

Note, however, that the tools for option 2 are weighed as (capability x likelihood of capability being used). Which is why Yushchenko's assessment is an absolute killer for the UN or OECD as a solution to any serious security issue. Likelihood of effective response approaches zero. Likelihood of their effectiveness for anything involving Russia? Zero. And any number times zero is... that's right, zero.

Might as well just admit this up front. Even as we admit that there are no guarantees in international relations.

Incidentally, that lack of guarantees is why "prevention" as a geopolitical doctrine is a simple impossibility. At some point, in some places, prevention will always fail or break down. What then?

This leads us to Max Boot's point re: defense expenditures. Singapore, which rightly distrusts its neighbours, spends about 5-6% of GDP on defense as a matter of policy, and uses a total mobilization concept as the core of its defense organization. So, too, do the Israelis. Switzerland spends less on defense these days, but keeps the total mobilization concept. Finland employed a similar model when it bloodied the Soviet Union so badly in the early days of World War 2 that the Russians decided to settle for a lot less (vid. the term "Finlandization"), declare victory, and leave.

No Guarantees

There are, of course, no guarantees here. It takes only one to start a fight, and war is a chancy business. Conventional wars are won in part by smart planning, acquisition, and training, but they also frequently turn on chance and unforseen circumstances.

Those include personalities, which can vary in ruthlessness and determination. Joe Stalin takes a back seat to no-one in that area, but a million or so Russian casualties in Finland gave even Stalin pause. Not that he really cared about a million lives; he killed 20-30 times that many. But he did have all those other countries he had seized during the war. Finland could not be allowed to become a potential problem that would tie up so many Russian troops in perpetuity, and perhaps serve as an example to others. The Finns had raised the stakes high enough to give themselves more options.

On the flip side, Poland had tried the same thing, from a weaker position. Soviet treachery during the Warsaw Uprising, and massacres of Poles in the Katyn Forest, left the country with little will to resist, and no successes to hang on to. As a result, it was treated like the other East Bloc acquisitions. It would be almost 30 years before Lech Walesa's Solidarnosc organization and a Polish Pope could fan those flames again, under more fortunate external circumstances.

On the asymmetric side, guerilla insurgencies often fail, despite the romanticism and myth associated with them - unless strongly backed by a capable outside power. And even that offers no guarantees.

Despite the best co-belligerent efforts of Islamists and the Left on various fronts of the war, for instance, America is now close to victory in Iraq. In large part, this is thanks to its Islamist opponents' essential barbarism. It also stems from the American military's growing understanding that the real terrain it was fighting on was social networks in a pervasively armed society. America also won in the Philippines, the British won in Malaysia and Oman, et cetera. Despite American efforts, the Sandinistas weren't really losing their grip in Nicaragua until their backer the Soviet Union collapsed. Et cetera.

Russia's victory in Chechnya, in contrast, stemmed from a extremely brutal approach of scorched earth tactics and assassination squads. Russia has used these tactics before, during the Basmachi revolts in Central Asia in the 1920. They worked then, and the just worked again. In between, Stinger anti-aircraft missiles probably did more than anything else to derail a similar campaign that was succeeding in Afghanistan. As part of a more strictly internal campaign, Guatemala has won with the same kinds of tactics during the 1970s and 1980s. Nor are they alone in doing so successfully.

As I say, insurgencies can fail. Sometimes, they fail for internal reasons. Sometimes, the other side is simply ruthless and determined enough to crush them.

I keep hammering on this, because so few people understand it. There are no guarantees in the field of human conflict. Only a set of fuzzy "Schrodinger's percentages" that live within broad limits, and truly coalesce only when put to a test.

Defense and the Economy

Not that plans for guerilla warfare are useless. Pre-planning for a total mobilization concept can indeed raise the stakes. Max Boot's suggestion re: having lots of anti-tank rockets and portable anti-air missiles in Russia's neighbors would indeed increase the danger factor for Putin, by creating a pool of sophisticated weapons that could be taken and used in a crisis. Stocking them is also relatively cheap, so it's possible to increase a country's deterrent capability with a quick jump.

Boot is not wrong, therefore; but he isn't wholly right, either.

Shoulder-fired rockets and missiles are not sufficient on their own. For instance, Russian armies have always put a lot of emphasis on artillery, and it isn't the modern American approach of "GMLRS rocket fired from 50 miles away takes out an al-Qaeda safe house, while leaving its next-door neighbours standing." It's more like the rolling carpet/ corridor clearance approach used in Grozny, and by the Americans themselves during urban fighting in World War 2. Unlike Afghanistan, many of Russia's neighbours have terrain that's well suited to this approach.

Solutions to that kind of problem tend to involve alliances, necessarily backed by more conventional forms of local military power. Buying that backup requires money.

This was a problem for Finland in 1939, whose troops referred to their obsolete equipment as "Model Cajander" after the idiot Prime Mister who cut military funding in the 1930s. Fortunately, they could all ski cross-country, and had the option of sucking in their enemy and attacking during the winter snows. But their "Winter War" was a full conventional army battle with a lot of commando-style operations, not an insurgency.

Right now, Boot points out that Bulgaria is one of just 4 NATO states with GDP% defense expenditures over 2% (USA near 4%, Britain and France near 2.5%, Bulgaria just above 2%). Most of western Europe is near or below 1%, actually, while Eastern Europe is usually in the 1.5-2% region.

Clearly, that won't build a deterrent. Problem is, if you're Bulgaria, even 4% would be limited in terms of what it buys. Would it help? Yes. 10 years from now? Well, it depends. To create credible deterrents for the long term, these countries need money in their economies, as well as a higher budgetary priority for defense.

That's true now. It will become more true later.

The Future Threat

Russia under Putin is and will be a predator state. Period. The bad news is, its combination of resources and successful leverage in its own geographic back-yard means it's going to have lots more money to spend on weapons and other tools of predation.

The good news is that it has a whole arms industry to rebuild first, because it lost almost all of its engineers in the 1990s collapse. Once orders go away, people find new jobs, and you rarely get them back later. Especially since oil & gas are more attractive careers for Russian engineers these days. But Czar Putin I intends to rebuild that industry over the next decade, in a country where his intention is effectively law. He will do so, and the budgets to catalyze and take advantage of that rebuilding are beginning already.

For Eastern Europe, therefore, and for larger Central Asian neighbours like Kazakhstan, growing their economies must also be a long term priority, so that they'll still be able to keep pace a decade from now.

Personally, I thought that given their history with Russia, the Ukranians were crazy to give up the nuclear weapons on their territory after the USSR collapsed. That would have been the complete equalizer, right there. But they did it, and it's water under the bridge. Mr. Yushchenko will have to do this the hard way instead. If he can.

If I was the Ukraine, I'd definitely be looking at boosting the defense budget right now, especially around the anti-tank and anti-air missiles their Soviet legacy industries already make. I'd also diversify my foreign suppliers with a particular focus on finding some Turkish firms and partnerships to deal with, and make separate deals that would add modern diesel-electric submarines with ship-killing missiles as an asymmetric conventional threat.

Longer term, however, Ukraine's prosperity requires integration into Europe's industrial and agricultural markets. If you've ever seen pictures, you'll understand why the Ukraine has been Europe's bread basket for centuries - and also how hard Stalin must have worked to starve 6-7 million Ukranians, while the NY Times covered it up. That trade income will be needed to keep pace with a resource-rich Russia, and ensure Ukranian independence over the long haul.

So, yes, spend some more on defense, as Max Boot suggests, and make the case to your people as to why. After all, "Model Cajander" stuff won't cut it when push comes to shove, just as the UN and lies about a mythical "international community" will provide zero protection against Russia.

Even so, Viktor Yuschenko's most important initiative for the Ukraine may not be NATO membership (which looks very doubtful) - but EU membership. In his case, it's also (to quote James Carville) "the economy, stupid".

Which is why American policies that recognize this element via bilateral free trade agreements with countries like Poland, the Ukraine, et. al. are just as important as any military aid or equipment we may choose to send.

I'd Rather Fight...

→ Winds of Change.NET | 4 Sep 2008 | 10:06 pm MDT

Commenter metrico suggests that I'm setting up for a public switch from Obama to McCain in the hopes of an Instalanche (dude, I'm not nearly that cheap...). I kind of liked my reply, so thought I'd promote it:

hey, metrico - bite me. That's all the answer your insult deserves.

It's kinda funny - I get about a dozen emails a week from R's who push me to come over to their side - they make arguments, suggestions, and at worst gently mock me. I get about as many from the D side - who want me to get the hell out of their party and make that desire really really clear.

I'm kind of reminded of the line from 'High Fidelity':

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was classified information. I mean, I know we don't have any customers, but I thought that was a bad thing, not like, a business strategy."

I always thought the goal was to grow the party and win elections by big margins, not purify it in the cleansing fire of our righteousness.

Obviously, metrico, we ought to belong to different parties. I suggest you leave.

A.L.

Things You Can See And Things You Can't

→ Winds of Change.NET | 4 Sep 2008 | 9:42 pm MDT

Josh Marshall, approvingly quoting the Boston Globe:

One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.

The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers' subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.

The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one's opponents to Hitler.

Josh Marshall, 2004...

Now, I have a degree of ambivalence about this question of media coverage of the fallen soldiers coming back to Dover. For many opponents of the war there is an unmistakable interest in getting these photographs before the public in order to weaken support for the war. There's no getting around that. I don't mean to imply that most who want these pictures out believe that, or even that that's an illegitimate goal. And there's a long record of governments managing bad news during wartime to keep up civilian morale.

But one needn't oppose the war to find something morally unseemly about the strict enforcement of the regulations barring any images of the reality behind these numbers we keep hearing on TV. There is some problem of accountability here, of putting on airs of national sacrifice and not having the courage to risk the real thing, some dark echo of the Rumsfeldian penchant for 4th generation, high-tech warfare where data transfers and throw weights replace bodies at every level.

I've never understood how one thing could be OK and the other not...but maybe I'm dense that way.

Republicans and War

→ Mudville Gazette | 4 Sep 2008 | 8:27 pm MDT

Democrat Response to Palin Speech

→ Mudville Gazette | 4 Sep 2008 | 5:58 pm MDT

In the UK - "Soldiers and Dogs - Stay off the Grass!"

→ BLACKFIVE | 4 Sep 2008 | 2:54 pm MDT

MND-B Soldiers seize munitions caches in Baghdad

→ Stryker Brigade News | 4 Sep 2008 | 8:13 am MDT

Two Warriors Achieve New Levels of Responsibility in Careers

→ Stryker Brigade News | 4 Sep 2008 | 8:07 am MDT

Warrior Transforms Minds, Bodies Into Steel

→ Stryker Brigade News | 4 Sep 2008 | 8:04 am MDT

Surge of Ignorance

→ Mudville Gazette | 3 Sep 2008 | 6:11 pm MDT

Fred Thompson's Speech at RNC

→ Mudville Gazette | 3 Sep 2008 | 6:10 pm MDT

Soldier-skateboarder Grinds in Iraq

→ Stryker Brigade News | 2 Sep 2008 | 11:39 am MDT

Wolfhound Pup Fights Terrorist Activity

→ Stryker Brigade News | 2 Sep 2008 | 11:35 am MDT

America Should Pick Georgia Over Russia

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 23 Aug 2008 | 11:35 am MDT

Up the Ante Diplomacy: US and Poland go for Euro-Anti-Missile

→ Austin Bay Blog | 14 Aug 2008 | 3:35 pm MDT

UPDATED: Texas Hold’em versus Russian Roulette = The New Eastern Front? Let’s explore an alternative military option

→ Austin Bay Blog | 13 Aug 2008 | 4:59 pm MDT

UPDATED: More on the Russo-Georgia Aftermath

→ Austin Bay Blog | 13 Aug 2008 | 7:36 am MDT

More on the dire diplomatic aftermath of Russo-Georgia War

→ Austin Bay Blog | 12 Aug 2008 | 3:54 pm MDT

And a nice review from Michael Barone

→ Austin Bay Blog | 12 Aug 2008 | 3:25 pm MDT

Two Short Book Reviews: Winkler’s “Nexus”, Nichols “Eve of Destruction”

→ Austin Bay Blog | 10 Aug 2008 | 3:29 pm MDT

UPDATED: Russia’s Invasion of South Ossetia: The Kosovo Precedent In Play?

→ Austin Bay Blog | 9 Aug 2008 | 7:51 pm MDT

British Deal With al-Sadr Betrayed Iraqi People

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 8 Aug 2008 | 2:57 pm MDT

Terror Connects to Crime In Iraq: Analysis by General David Petraeus

→ Austin Bay Blog | 6 Aug 2008 | 9:27 pm MDT

Turkey’s Constitutional Court Fines AKP

→ Austin Bay Blog | 6 Aug 2008 | 9:09 pm MDT

UPDATE 2: An Interview With General David Petraeus

→ Austin Bay Blog | 5 Aug 2008 | 8:35 pm MDT

Iraq Requests to Buy $11 Billion Worth of American Arms

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 1 Aug 2008 | 4:20 pm MDT

Talabani Rejects the Provincial Election Law

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:04 pm MDT

Obama's Fact-Fudging Mission in Iraq

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 22 Jul 2008 | 10:24 am MDT

In the Midle East, Diplomacy = Weakness

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 21 Jul 2008 | 10:07 am MDT

Najaf tribes to compete against religious parties in provincial elections

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 19 Jul 2008 | 3:53 pm MDT

IAF using Iraqi airspace?

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 11 Jul 2008 | 6:36 pm MDT

Anbar tribes to enter politics

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 11 Jul 2008 | 1:14 pm MDT

Iran sends "sticky IEDs" to terorists in Iraq

→ IRAQ THE MODEL | 11 Jul 2008 | 11:47 am MDT