Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.
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This is a fairly interesting blog fight between Mark Steyn, conservative blog The Brothers Judd, and Peter Robinson.
What I find truly odd is that their saying nobody has presented an equivalent to George Keenan’s ‘Containment Theory’ put forth in the ‘X-Article’. I've heard the evils of not immediately going after the Soviets many, many, many times before and I don't find it that interesting anymore.
I can think of two such strategic visions put forward: that of TPM Barnett in his book The Pentagon’s New Map and his blog; and that of John Robb at his blogs and in his book Brave New War.
To me, Barnett’s theory corresponds to Containment talking about winning thru growth and support of the nation state structure. JRobb pushes for a microstate solution that does not correspond well to the alternative to Containment, Rollback, but it is an alternative vision of how to proceed to victory in this Long War we’re currently in. But, then again, Armorer pays me in stale cheetos (You’re late on this month’s payment too!) so give my opinion whatever merit you think it is worth.
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It looks like someone caught FuzzyB out on the town the other night.
--ry
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If you haven't read Hitchen's bit on his unease about unknowingly inspiring Lieutenant Mark Daily (KIA) to join the Army, you should. Not so much because of Hitch, but because of the picture gives us of Lieutenant Daily. Lieutenant Daily speaks to us from beyond the grave:
Anyone who knew me before I joined knows that I am quite aware and at times sympathetic to the arguments against the war in Iraq. If you think the only way a person could bring themselves to volunteer for this war is through sheer desperation or blind obedience then consider me the exception (though there are countless like me).… Consider that there are 19 year old soldiers from the Midwest who have never touched a college campus or a protest who have done more to uphold the universal legitimacy of representative government and individual rights by placing themselves between Iraqi voting lines and homicidal religious fanatics.
I was having a conversation with a Kurdish man in the city of Dahok (by myself and completely safe) discussing whether or not the insurgents could be viewed as "freedom fighters" or "misguided anti-capitalists." Shaking his head as I attempted to articulate what can only be described as pathetic apologetics, he cut me off and said "the difference between insurgents and American soldiers is that they get paid to take life—to murder, and you get paid to save lives." He looked at me in such a way that made me feel like he was looking through me, into all the moral insecurity that living in a free nation will instill in you. He "oversimplified" the issue, or at least that is what college professors would accuse him of doing.
And you should read it for what Hitch has to say:
...I became a trifle choked up after that, but everybody else also managed to speak, often reading poems of their own composition, and as the day ebbed in a blaze of glory over the ocean, I thought, Well, here we are to perform the last honors for a warrior and hero, and there are no hysterical ululations, no shrieks for revenge, no insults hurled at the enemy, no firing into the air or bogus hysterics. Instead, an honest, brave, modest family is doing its private best. I hope no fanatical fool could ever mistake this for weakness. It is, instead, a very particular kind of strength. If America can spontaneously produce young men like Mark, and occasions like this one, it has a real homeland security instead of a bureaucratic one. To borrow some words of George Orwell's when he first saw revolutionary Barcelona, "I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for."
Go. Read. Ponder.
Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam. -the Armorer
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CAPT H sends his this obit of an extraordinary man, Flight Lieutenant Bill Goldfinch.
Flight Lieutenant Bill Goldfinch, who died on October 2 aged 91, designed the glider built in the eaves of Colditz Castle, as part of the most audacious of all the projected escapes from the Second World War's most famous prison camp.
Indeed.
Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance, in Commonwealth style: In Memoriam. -the Armorer
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Canada is taking a "slow and steady wins the race" sort of approach to development in Afghanistan, focusing on capacity-building rather than quick-impact projects. I wonder if the balance we've struck is the right one, and whether we need to start putting out shiny reconstruction baubles for the masses to oooh and ahhh at, so that the populations of both Afghanistan and Canada are distracted enough to give the capacity-building effort the time it will require to succeed. - Damian
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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.
Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.
*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*
The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.
I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone"
