tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91716092012-01-28T09:59:18.173-05:00An online journal of commentary, analysis, and dignified rants on national security issues. Other posts on home life, annoying things, and a vast 'other' formerly on The Dignified Rant: Home Edition, will be posted here and clearly marked.Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comBlogger98391100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-41318136761837352662012-01-28T09:59:00.001-05:002012-01-28T09:59:18.184-05:00

If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for Western sanctions that target Iran's oil exports, we will have to fight in the Persian Gulf. But we don't want to put our carriers in the Gulf since that is too close to Iranian shore-based assets. We need the maneuvering room of the Arabian Sea. But we will need to fight in the Gulf and we are outfitting a ship--Ponce--that can do that

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-88059762305806717682012-01-27T15:14:00.000-05:002012-01-27T15:14:00.721-05:00

This writer says that chaos in Honduras is the fault of America for not backing Zelaya in 2009. This is hogwash. If problems in Honduras are the fault of America, it lies not in the failure to back Zelaya who himself was trying to destroy the Honduran constitution, but in failing to fully back the Hondurans who successfully stopped Zelaya from carrying out a coup to join hands with his Leftist

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-48955724979650267492012-01-27T13:18:00.000-05:002012-01-27T13:18:15.329-05:00

Well, so far President Obama's campaign stop in my city hasn't disrupted my movements. That's good. But I wouldn't have complained if it did. As far as I'm concerned, our presidents are targets and they should have a security bubble around them as they travel. You just don't take chances with our presidents. The only bad thing I want to happen to this president is waking up after the election

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-45712371255899901002012-01-27T13:08:00.001-05:002012-01-27T13:08:51.717-05:00

Some scientists have penned an op-ed attacking the idea that climate change science is settled (tip to Instapundit): The lack of warming for more than a decade—indeed, the smaller-than-predicted warming over the 22 years since the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began issuing projections—suggests that computer models have greatly exaggerated how much warming additional

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-85022115020716965572012-01-27T11:26:00.002-05:002012-01-27T11:26:41.003-05:00

So President Obama is extolling military virtues that he thinks all Americans should show to support his programs? Perhaps now you can fully appreciate this quote. Gosh, I feel so honored that our President is in my home town today. Consider me a conscientious objector to his metaphorical wars.

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-28369929387675715292012-01-26T21:21:00.000-05:002012-01-26T21:21:00.049-05:00

I asked. Now I may receive: The Washington Post reported on Thursday that negotiations that would lead to a return of U.S. bases to the Philippines were in the early stages. Officials from both governments were quoted as saying they were favorably inclined toward a deal. It seems to me that we are more likely to be trying to get US forces to rotate into the Philippines to keep the bases warm

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-35653425800631152042012-01-26T19:40:00.000-05:002012-01-27T22:58:16.574-05:00

America's ground forces will take a hit in the budget: The Army would shrink by 80,000 soldiers, from 570,000 today to 490,000 by 2017. That is slightly larger than the Army on 9/11. The Marine Corps would drop from today's 202,000 to 182,000 — also above the level on 9/11. If memory serves me, we had about 470,000 (480,000-my memory did not fully serve me) pre-9/11 and that was insufficient

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-55304265631254660022012-01-26T17:19:00.000-05:002012-01-26T17:19:23.336-05:00

I read about an incident involving China's Tibetans, but didn't note it since it seemed small. Apparently the Chinese don't think it is a small thing: A Tibetan-inhabited region of China appeared to be under lockdown Thursday after it was rocked by deadly clashes, as exile groups gave grisly details of how the unrest unfolded. The west of Sichuan province, which has big populations of ethnic

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-12262319194092497262012-01-25T21:57:00.000-05:002012-01-25T21:57:00.443-05:00

Strategypage writes about the success of immigrant recruits in the American armed forces: In the last decade, the U.S. military has enlisted some 70,000 non-citizens, about five percent of all recruits. These foreigners made better soldiers than American citizens. The foreigners are tossed out during their first three months of service at half the rate of their citizen counterparts. After three

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-55152530884638859002012-01-25T15:57:00.000-05:002012-01-25T15:57:00.605-05:00

Israel screwed the pooch in 2006 when they fought on Hezbollah's terms in Lebanon and engaged in shallow, small-unit frontal attacks on small Hezbollah light infantry units that fought from prepared defenses to shield their missile launching sites. Sure, you can call it a tactical victory because Israel inflicted more casualties on Hezbollah than they endured, but that is no way to measure

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-28697514934970704812012-01-25T10:36:00.002-05:002012-01-25T10:36:44.744-05:00

Our ground force presence in Europe will be reduced to a parachute brigade and a Stryker brigade: Panetta is quoted in a press release on the Defense Department website as saying two of the four BCTs that are permanently stationed in Europe will be replaced with rotational units, similar to the way Marines and Special Forces units staff their European requirements. I'd guess that

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-51459169320988091602012-01-25T09:08:00.000-05:002012-01-25T09:28:11.909-05:00

I didn't listen to President Obama's State of the Union address. It would have just raised my blood pressure. Here are several reasons why (tip to Instapundit). The President has nothing to say to me. I don't trust him or anything he says. UPDATE: Also via Instapundit, his cabinet has nothing to say to me (OK, maybe Panetta does). Face it, the economy wasn't worse than the administration

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-69579071549884458122012-01-25T07:57:00.000-05:002012-01-25T07:57:41.895-05:00

American special forces rescued an American and a Dane held by Somalia pirates, suffering no losses in the mission: Military helicopters ferried elite troops to the pirate camp in scrubland close to Haradheere, a major pirate base in central Somalia, Washington's Germany-based Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement. "All nine captors were killed during the assault," it said. It's a good

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-38609618571233593892012-01-24T16:46:00.000-05:002012-01-24T16:46:00.079-05:00

This EU problem is interesting. Scotland might like to secede from Great Britain and the British might be fine with someone else paying for Scotland. But Spain doesn't want Scotland to get a free ride into the EU lest it encourage Spanish separatists (tip to Instapundit): For the Spanish government, the calculation is simple. Spain is full of restive regions that want to go their own way:

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-70556896424765797912012-01-24T08:42:00.000-05:002012-01-24T08:42:25.488-05:00

As the subject of a film, the scope of the problem may be grossly exaggerated. Few film makers are military-friendly. But if there is a problem with rapes in the military, we owe it to every female member of the military (and some male, apparently) who enlists to defend our nation to make sure that the threats to their lives and well being only come from enemies and not those who wear the same

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-91732043015602542932012-01-24T08:35:00.000-05:002012-01-24T08:35:00.668-05:00

The Twittering class did not win the actual elections in Egypt: Deputies in Egypt's first post-revolution parliament on Monday elected Saad al-Katatni, a leading member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, as speaker. Katatni won 399 votes out of 496 in the first session of the lower house of parliament since it was dissolved following a popular uprising that ousted veteran president Hosni

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-40628936830330390862012-01-24T07:06:00.000-05:002012-01-24T07:06:00.549-05:00

You know what happened in Haditha, Iraq, on November 19, 2005? War happened: A Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty on Monday, reaching a deal that will mean a maximum of three months confinement and end the largest and longest-running criminal case against U.S. troops to emerge from the Iraq War. ... Six squad members have had

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-9232536954243983452012-01-23T18:29:00.000-05:002012-01-23T18:29:00.056-05:00

The Year of the Dragon is beginning and many people think China is breathing fire down our neck as they prepare to pass us by. Not so fast, sport. Via Instapundit, Drezner disagrees. Anything that starts like this deserves to be read: Let's face it, there's a general anxiety about the future of America. There's Tom Friedman's column today, which my doctors have now forbade me from critiquing

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-58859255551642653212012-01-23T10:12:00.001-05:002012-01-25T08:12:04.060-05:00

Wow, one of the dimmer bulbs in the NYT writing pool thinks bombing Iran would create a nuclear Iran: The point of tough sanctions, of course, is to force Iranians to the bargaining table, where we can do a deal that removes the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran. (You can find some thoughts on what such a deal might entail on my blog.) But the mistrust is so deep, and the election-year pressure

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-67201380610552128522012-01-22T19:04:00.000-05:002012-01-23T09:35:04.523-05:00

Liberals can rejoice if it is true that the hated George W. Bush's democracy project in Iraq is failing: Iraq is falling back into authoritarianism and headed towards becoming a police state, despite US claims that it has helped establish democracy in the country, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday. Human Rights Watch could very well be stretching the facts to reach their conclusion. But events

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-46474862094680525692012-01-22T14:44:00.000-05:002012-01-23T15:13:00.635-05:00

Libyans are unhappy with their new government over an important issue: Protesters stormed the Benghazi headquarters of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) Saturday while its chairman was still in the building. People in Benghazi, birthplace of the revolt which forced out former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, have been protesting for weeks to demand the sacking of Gaddafi-era

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-42709744275534634012012-01-22T09:40:00.000-05:002012-01-22T09:40:23.456-05:00

I find it interesting that Iran's mullahs have adopted the Obama administration's reasoning on requiring Americans to purchase health insurance: A planned European oil embargo and other efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program, including new U.S. sanctions, are "economic war," a top Iranian official said. So the West must buy their oil? Or else? Yep, just like Obamacare. And there is no

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-67730427260234175032012-01-21T20:56:00.000-05:002012-01-21T20:56:00.503-05:00

The issue of Marines urinating on Taliban corpses is a real problem. Not because it shows American troops are awful. You really want to compare peeing on a corpse to beheading live prisoners? At our worst, our guys fight darned clean. The Marines should be punished but nothing that wrecks careers. But it isn't just about those particular Marines. One, if this is a sign of lack of unit

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-2366279714273426822012-01-21T14:55:00.000-05:002012-01-25T09:34:33.172-05:00

We have a perception problem in addition to our very real problems that we must face economically, diplomatically, culturally, and militarily. While I have no doubt that the Obama administration is doing its best to undermine our national security (even if they surely believe they are saving us), I would never argue that the Obama administration is setting us on a course of permanent decline.

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-86486292473785696382012-01-21T11:38:00.000-05:002012-01-23T09:41:16.491-05:00

France is looking for an excuse to run from Afghanistan before the mission is complete: France's threat Friday to withdraw early from Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four French troops and wounded 15 is a setback for the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to build a national army and allow foreign troops to go home. The deadly shooting — the second against French forces in a month — is

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-21159168256039759642012-01-21T08:19:00.000-05:002012-01-21T08:19:43.655-05:00

Pakistan will resume allowing supply shipments to NATO forces in Afghanistan. They halted them after a friendly-fire incident that left a couple dozen of their forces dead: Pakistan expects to re-open supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan, halted after a NATO cross-border air attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November, but will impose tariffs, a senior security official told Reuters

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-89704248551789419112012-01-21T08:06:00.000-05:002012-01-21T08:06:26.548-05:00

Some behind the scenes information on Libya is informative. One, British special forces were active in the Libya War. This was pretty much assumed during the war, but it shows a couple things: one, the goal was regime change despite the UN limitation that said we were only protecting civilians; and two, NATO needed a ground army that it could coordinate with to make air power effective. Few

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-2444737725216914032012-01-19T18:46:00.000-05:002012-01-19T18:46:00.678-05:00

Dutch Marines fought off Somali pirates: The Defense Ministry says the marines opened fire early Tuesday on pirates armed with weapons, including a rocket propelled grenade, as the crew of the ship Flintstone took shelter in a safe room. The vessel is used to lay rocks around undersea pipelines. The ship is called Flintstone? Really? What, was the sister ship Slate in dry dock for repair?

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-27349383139476795062012-01-19T16:13:00.000-05:002012-01-19T16:13:00.181-05:00

This is an interesting exercise. US and Filipino marines will practice their trade around an oil rig in the South China Sea: Sabban says the drills involve defending and retaking oil and gas rigs captured by enemies. I hope it occurs to people that we could help the Philippines better against such hypothetical "enemies" that if we had facilities like Clark Air Force Base and Subic Bay for our

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-39312697917088222442012-01-19T11:02:00.000-05:002012-01-19T11:02:35.452-05:00

A belated happy blogiversary to Mad Minerva on her fifth year.

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-37539868608009082632012-01-19T10:39:00.000-05:002012-01-19T10:39:00.019-05:00

I'd think that technology and a little prodding could move the crisis in Iraq forward. The political crisis in Iraq over whether Vice President Hashemi was involved in terrorism continues without our help to defuse the powder keg that democracy is sitting on: Iraq's political crisis shows no sign of easing a month after the Shi'ite-led government sought the arrest of a Sunni vice president,

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-61532555962841418442012-01-19T09:31:00.001-05:002012-01-19T10:24:28.859-05:00

President Obama as killed the Keystone XL pipeline to the United States, under the pretense that one more pipeline will be the one that destroys our pristine wilderness of the west. Canadians can be justifiably upset that we are playing politics with the decision (tip to Instapundit): For Obama, what matters is that the green left is making Keystone a litmus test. Obama fundraiser Wendy Abrams,

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-48167010217634430092012-01-19T00:05:00.000-05:002012-01-19T00:05:00.601-05:00

Secretary of State gave her Russian counter-part a "reset" button to symbolize a new era of Russian-American cooperation. Russia is surely pushing our buttons, but the "reset" button seems strangely inactive. Russia is defending Iran: A military attack on Iran would trigger a "chain reaction" that destabilizes the world, while new sanctions against Tehran over its disputed nuclear program

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-4803522519450398642012-01-17T16:40:00.000-05:002012-01-19T09:59:01.271-05:00

China watched Taiwan's elections very closely. Oh, not just the rulers looking for signs of dangerous splittism--ordinary Chinese fascinated by actual democracy: There was another winner in the election this weekend that handed President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan a second term in office -- the faint but unmistakable clamor for democracy in China. ... As the election played out on Saturday, a

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-69929932010267075392012-01-16T14:56:00.000-05:002012-01-16T14:56:00.101-05:00

I've noticed that in two naval debates, those who defend the exclusive use of big-deck carriers and nuclear submarines ignore the basic problem that those of us who would like to see smaller aviation assets and non-nuclear subs. On the carrier side, defenders point out the greater efficiency of bigger carriers, their greater sortie generation rate, and their utility for humanitarian relief and

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-29650856314468313602012-01-16T10:17:00.000-05:002012-01-16T10:17:00.407-05:00

This weekend, I caught up on a stack of journals piling up on my stairwell (some were from 2009 ... ). I found an interesting tidbit in the June 2011 Proceedings that talks about the Army's M-56 Coyote that can deliver three types of obscurants: visual, infrared (IR), and radio frequency (RF). The RF component covers the bands used by virtually all current and likely future anti-ship missiles,

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-57338177811688484462012-01-16T10:12:00.001-05:002012-01-16T10:12:46.354-05:00

Gosh, it seems like yesterday that the BDS-infected left claimed that Bush was "shredding" the Constitution. Yet he didn't keep Pelosi from handing the House gavel to the children nor did he fail to step down after two terms in office. But here we have President Obama shredding the Constitution to unilaterally declare that Congress is in recess in order to make a recess appointment: What

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-28844845754356928772012-01-16T09:30:00.000-05:002012-01-19T10:58:00.883-05:00

Assad is losing ground. Early in the Syrian uprising, loyalist forces were limited in number and so forced to move around the country putting down protests with force and then moving on elsewhere to repeat the mission. Assad had too few loyal troops, security forces, and irregulars to actually "clear and hold" everything. "Clear and move on" is no longer possible, it seems: The opposition

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-62978768869327158722012-01-15T21:37:00.000-05:002012-01-15T21:37:00.617-05:00

The political crisis in Pakistan could turn out good for us or bad: Pakistan is entering a slow-motion civil war, with its armed forces on one side, and its elected politicians and most Pakistanis on the other. The Pakistani military believes we are behind the civilian efforts to rein them in. If we are to get out of Afghanistan any time soon, we don't need an Afghan democratic state. My

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-14235110421093435882012-01-15T16:21:00.000-05:002012-01-15T16:21:00.085-05:00

The struggle between Iran and the Gulf Arab states continues: Iran warned Gulf Arab oil producers against boosting production to offset any potential drop in Tehran's crude exports in the event of an embargo affecting its oil sales, the latest salvo in the dispute between the West and the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. The Saudis want to avoid direct confrontation and deny any

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-76302944379725290272012-01-15T09:03:00.000-05:002012-01-15T09:03:33.120-05:00

The Obama administration is heaving a sigh of relief that Ma Ying-jeou won reelection in Taiwan (though with a smaller majority this time). They did not want the more independence minded candidate, Tsai Ing-wen, to win and spark a crisis with China over Taiwan's status. The Obama administration did not consider what it meant that China also supported Ma, the China-friendly candidate. Far from

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-2628224878037561882012-01-14T15:40:00.000-05:002012-01-14T15:40:00.811-05:00

I know Pentagon budget cuts are getting serious, but this is ridiculous: First we rented out a carrier for a basketball game and now one is working nights as a car ferry? Liberals always did say that they wanted our military to hold bake sales for weapons. Congratulations. Those are actually the vehicles of sailors being transported home as USS Reagan heads to Washington state for an

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-85179620907878087682012-01-14T11:21:00.000-05:002012-01-14T13:34:15.047-05:00

Why on Earth would we risk Europe becoming a theater of war or unrest again? But that seems to be the plan: The Obama administration has decided to remove two of the four U.S. Army brigades remaining in Europe as part of a broader effort to cut $487 billion from the Pentagon’s budget over the next decade, said senior U.S. officials. The reductions in Army forces, which have not been formally

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-88393651558895430622012-01-14T07:58:00.000-05:002012-01-15T08:34:47.752-05:00

I'm upset that some Marines urinated on the corpses of some Taliban: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday harshly condemned alleged behavior in a video that appears to show U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters. The Pentagon chief said he'd ordered a full investigation into the alleged incident, which comes amid sensitive diplomatic initiatives to try to advance

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-18813600012963554632012-01-13T21:04:00.000-05:002012-01-13T21:04:00.214-05:00

A Russian ship headed for Syria with an arms shipment despite saying that they'd go elsewhere: A Russian ship, allegedly carrying tons of weapons, made a dash for Syria after Cypriot officials allowed it to leave their waters, Turkish officials said Thursday. The ship had made an unscheduled stop in Cyprus Tuesday, technically violating an EU embargo on arms shipments to Syria, which has

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-2398913412675981942012-01-13T16:28:00.000-05:002012-01-13T16:28:00.469-05:00

Once again, reports are out there that Iran is as little as a year away from getting nuclear weapons material: Having switched production of higher-grade enriched uranium to a new, underground site, Iran is now just a year or so away from having enough such material for a nuclear bomb, a former head of U.N. nuclear inspections said. We've heard this before and Iran still isn't nuclear. It

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-89475801001157009952012-01-13T12:56:00.000-05:002012-01-13T12:56:00.205-05:00

Chinese tourists want to see Taiwan's democracy in action: "It seems so extreme here, this campaigning is something that would never be allowed in China," said Wang Liping, a 42-year-old from Chongqing in central China, at the cloud-shrouded observatory deck of Taipei 101. "China's way is better in that the new leaders are those selected for their experience, in a systematic manner ... I don't

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-13160257670409658972012-01-13T10:52:00.000-05:002012-01-13T10:52:00.545-05:00

While it is annoying that Iraq's government is refusing to back dissidents in Syria, I figured part of it was fear of Iran and part of it was worry that if Assad lost (or even if a civil war broke out in earnest), Iraqi Baathist refugees might stream back into Iraq and destabilize Iraq. But it is more than that. Iraq cut a deal with Iran: There is not much sympathy for Syrians, who prospered by

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-11471070526591714012012-01-13T08:44:00.000-05:002012-01-13T08:44:21.472-05:00

The stand-off in Iraq over Vice President Hashemi cannot continue. Prime Minister Maliki says Hashemi was involved in Sunni Arab terrorism and wants him to surrender. Hashemi says that while perhaps some of his staff was involved, his hands are clean. Hashemi is hiding in Iraq's Kurdish region where the Kurds are refusing to hand him over to the Iraqi central government. This can't continue. I

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-87270108894923297932012-01-12T15:35:00.000-05:002012-01-12T15:35:00.228-05:00

When we contemplate Iran's threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, we comfort ourselves that it makes no sense. The same goes for any North Korean threat to invade (or simply attack by bombarding Seoul if they understand how bad their mobile army is now) South Korea or whether it "makes sense" for China to invade Taiwan. But as I've often noted, what makes no sense to us can make a lot of sense

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-16492734412895532562012-01-12T10:14:00.001-05:002012-01-12T10:14:35.585-05:00

Gosh, I remember when our Guantanamo Bay detention facility was a war crime for our liberal side of the aisle that had to be closed. I remember all the stories about the poor poet-inmates who languished under the hot sun enduring the horrors of rice pilaf. Although prisoners gained weight in their stays, we were up to no good. One of the first things President Obama did was to sign an order to

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-26138822843565368482012-01-11T22:50:00.001-05:002012-01-12T11:10:18.817-05:00

The carriers Vinson, Stennis, and Lincoln could all be in the Arabian Sea at the same time: Military officials said the USS Carl Vinson arrived in the Arabian Sea on Monday to replace the outgoing USS John C. Stennis carrier strike group, which Iran last week warned not to return to the Gulf after departing in late December. The Stennis was due to return to its home port in San Diego but the

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-72818712019643416522012-01-11T21:27:00.000-05:002012-01-11T21:27:00.072-05:00

Britain lost their carrier aviation capability when they retired their Harrier force last year. Next decade, when they build a new larger carrier with a catapult to fly our new F-35s, they'll rebuild that capability. We will help them since it would be impossible for Britain to retain the skills needed in that gap of time to operate the carrier. Indeed, Britain lost the skills for

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-87803169790644782922012-01-11T16:16:00.000-05:002012-01-11T16:16:42.359-05:00

The Taliban are still fighting, but that doesn't mean they are winning in Afghanistan. Consider that many times they attack something  with a tiny force just to get a mention in the press for their daring reach--which they get even when the attack force is wiped out at the perimeter of some base or destroyed after a brief building take over. Now they are having trouble even with the TV

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-21937937713872804732012-01-11T14:28:00.000-05:002012-01-11T14:28:00.453-05:00

So we left Iraq "responsibly," according to President Obama. We are still in Korea, which still needs us. We are still in Japan, which still needs us. We are still in Europe, which still needs us. Heck, we are still in Kosovo, which still needs us: Today, some 5,500 troops from the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), provided by 30 countries (22 NATO and 8 non-NATO), are still deployed in Kosovo

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-76298718023505300222012-01-11T11:09:00.000-05:002012-01-11T11:09:14.072-05:00

If North Korea goes nuclear, it will be bad news for us. But it will be worse news for those closer to North Korea who aren't building missile defenses. It will also be bad for China down the line as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan potentially react to that development by going nuclear themselves. If a psycho regime can justify nukes by invoking the threat of invasion, why can't democracies? In

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-78830406972367251502012-01-11T10:06:00.001-05:002012-01-12T11:02:42.217-05:00

The Chinese government seems to be preparing their people for ... something (tip to Instapundit): "A recently implemented rule has effectively curbed the ‘excessive entertainment’ trend as two-thirds of the entertainment programs on China's 34 satellite channels have been cut, according to the country's top broadcasting watchdog. ‘The total number of entertainment shows airing during primetime

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-21164682922714442962012-01-10T15:54:00.000-05:002012-01-10T15:54:16.174-05:00

I didn't realize that the Philippines was hammered as badly as it was in December: Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared on Tuesday a state of national calamity after flash floods and land slides caused by a typhoon swept through a southern region late last week, killing about 1,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. Good grief, those poor people. Authorities must have

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-17016677964753667942012-01-10T15:48:00.001-05:002012-01-10T15:48:58.436-05:00

As Chinese power grows, I worry that our 7th Fleet could face the fate of our Asiatic Fleet after Pearl Harbor--it gets sunk in the opening months of war. Yet we can't be chased from the Western Pacific even as we don't want to risk our best Navy ships dangling that close to China. I've long wanted our presence in the western Pacific to routinely be composed of ships we can afford to lose rather

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-90482306047960734012012-01-09T12:08:00.000-05:002012-01-09T12:08:07.297-05:00

Iran wants nukes and is willing to kill an American to prove they won't budge: "The enrichment in Fordow has started," an Iranian official who asked not to be identified told Reuters. Two diplomats at the Vienna headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has inspected the site, confirmed it. ... "Amir Mirza Hekmati was sentenced to death ... for cooperating with the hostile

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-65683193277285388442012-01-09T11:27:00.000-05:002012-01-09T11:37:36.248-05:00

The Troglopundit celebrates their 5,000th post. We can celebrate posts? Congratulations! And here I only though we bloggers could celebrate anniversaries. This is my 9,779th post on Blogger over 7+ years. I estimate I'm at over 10,500 when you add in about two years on Geocities where working in HTML slowed me down. I worried that my pace, but The Troglopundit is clearly the obsessive blogger (

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-19666015940155092332012-01-08T10:18:00.000-05:002012-01-08T10:18:01.578-05:00

Do big government rulers never learn from the Dukakis tank fail? Apparently not: Kim Jong Un, who was named "supreme leader" of North Korea's people, ruling Workers' Party and military following the death last month of his father, Kim Jong Il, was shown maneuvering a tank, observing firing exercises and posing for photographs with soldiers in footage that was shot before his father's death

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-47433434321009617052012-01-08T09:32:00.000-05:002012-01-08T09:32:00.069-05:00

Russian rearmament is focusing on nuclear weapons: There's a growing debate in Russia over what to buy with the growing amount of cash available to rebuild the armed forces. So far, the government has directed most of the money at nuclear weapons (especially land and sea based ballistic missiles), nuclear submarines (with and without ballistic missiles), military satellites, air defense and

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-84526299105056866492012-01-08T09:01:00.000-05:002012-01-08T09:15:41.654-05:00

Lego is trying to attract girls. This reaction is just stupid: Enraged by what they see as gender stereotyping, pressure group SPARK started a petition on web site change.org asking Lego to stop "selling out girls." Thus far it's attracted nearly 3,000 signatures. "Raising healthy girls and boys is all about creating a wide range of possibilities and options for our children," says SPARK

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-24552816742407434922012-01-07T16:05:00.000-05:002012-01-07T16:05:02.076-05:00

As we prepare to reduce our ground war capabilities, the administration defends the decisions being made by assuring us that we won't need the Army (and Marine Corps, to a lesser extent) we built over the last decade. This new Army will be, Secretary Panetta assures us, "the force for the future." We won't need "the force of the present" because hope has become our strategic guidance: The

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-21392971581918532722012-01-07T11:50:00.000-05:002012-01-07T11:50:00.184-05:00

If Iran closes Hormuz to block oil exports, the West can buy a month of time to avoid economic panic: Western powers this week readied a contingency plan to tap a record volume from emergency stockpiles to replace nearly all the Gulf oil that would be lost if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, industry sources and diplomats told Reuters. They said senior executives of the International Energy

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-22009858148306905032012-01-07T07:37:00.000-05:002012-01-07T07:37:01.186-05:00

China won't help us on North Korea because President Obama is pivoting to the Pacific? Perhaps that could explain the last month of Chinese policy toward North Korea. But it is insufficient to explain the previous 60 years of propping up their psycho little attack dog. How Thomas P. M. Barnett is considered a deep thinker on strategy eludes me.

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-34911066295567139662012-01-06T21:06:00.000-05:002012-01-06T21:06:00.075-05:00

Jihadis enjoy thumping their chests and flinging poo, but most stay safely in their parents' basements online: Last year, several Islamic terror organizations make a major effort to recruit via the Internet. Apparently this was not very successful. This is partly because supporters of Islamic terrorism are more inclined to talk about it, than actually take action. That's partly because Islamic

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-36824508576205952552012-01-06T16:47:00.000-05:002012-01-06T16:47:00.285-05:00

In addition to the worrying impact on the Army, our recent budget-driven efforts that focus on the Pacific (which in fairness is the right thing to do) focus on the wrong things: Military experts familiar with Mr. Panetta’s thinking said that Mr. Obama had opposed reducing the American carrier fleet to 10 from 11 because of what he sees as the need to have enough force in the Pacific Ocean to

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-12863981668278162732012-01-06T13:17:00.001-05:002012-01-06T13:17:36.863-05:00

If this is legal, the entire system is corrupt: The untold story of the Obama Administration’s widely reported, $335 million discrimination settlement with Countrywide Financial Corporation is that, under a secret Justice Department program, a chunk of the money won’t go to the “victims” but rather leftist groups not connected to the lawsuit. The Department of Justice (DOJ) will determine

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-50625364547927701832012-01-06T11:05:00.000-05:002012-01-07T08:40:13.815-05:00

If we have to cut our military, we may well be doing it the right way. I've long held I'd rather have a smaller force that is equipped, maintained, and trained to fight than a larger force lacking working equipment and ill-trained to use them. The former worries us about not having enough while the latter allows leaders to believe we have more than we have. But keep in mind that our ground forces

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-4664467024802656312012-01-06T08:58:00.001-05:002012-01-06T08:58:49.673-05:00

The Pakistanis have tilted more to the Taliban side: Afghan Taliban have been negotiating with their Pakistani counterparts for the last two months, to achieve some kind of unified effort against "foreign (NATO) invaders" in Afghanistan. Now the Pakistan announced they have made a deal where the many feuding factions of the Pakistani Taliban will unite to enforce a truce in Pakistan (no more

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-46889916853374115532012-01-05T22:33:00.000-05:002012-01-05T22:33:00.049-05:00

This news about China's air force reorganization from Strategypage is interesting: They have a successful model to copy from in the U.S. Air Force. During the 1990s, the U.S. Air Force reorganized its combat units into Air Expeditionary Units, AEFs). Each was a miniature air force, with combat and support aircraft and the troops to maintain them. Several are trained and ready to quickly move

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-48436349000680044062012-01-05T18:06:00.000-05:002012-01-05T18:06:02.968-05:00

I don't use my blog to complain about my ex-wife. Why subject my kids to finding a blog post that says something mean about their mom? Besides, she could respond in kind, eh? But I have to draw the line somewhere. On Tuesday, when my ex had the kids, she invited me over to watch the Michigan bowl game. That was pretty nice of her. She'd provide snacks and asked if I had any Miller Genuine

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-9565393746960281492012-01-05T16:35:00.000-05:002012-01-05T16:35:38.281-05:00

There is an African Union force fighting jihadis in Somalia along with the new Kenyan mission and the renewed Ethiopian mission. Now the AU force is gearing up to attack and the Kenyans will join it: The African Union is preparing to intensify its military campaign against Somalia's al-Qaida inspired al-Shabab militants. The United Nations Security Council is being asked to upgrade the size and

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-36059392350050458162012-01-05T09:49:00.004-05:002012-01-05T14:07:09.216-05:00

I've updated a post from last week on the Hormuz situation a few times, if you are interested. UPDATE: Iran prepares to pretend they are acting legally: Iran’s parliament said Wednesday that it was preparing a bill that would prohibit all foreign warships from entering the Persian Gulf unless they received permission from the Iranian navy. Not that we'd want to put a carrier in the Persian

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-91803812646908184922012-01-05T09:22:00.000-05:002012-01-05T09:22:51.711-05:00

Just in the nick of too late, the EU acts to show resolve against Iran: European governments have agreed in principle to ban imports of Iranian oil, EU diplomats said on Wednesday, dealing a blow to Tehran that crowns new Western sanctions months before an Iranian election. If Iran is close to going nuclear, they'll endure whatever they need to endure to get nukes. If Iran was looking at a

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-53199948024102165072012-01-05T07:36:00.000-05:002012-01-05T07:36:00.128-05:00

This is madness. Will budget cuts force us from Europe? With massive budget cuts looming, the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from Iraq and a drawdown of U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan slated to be completed by 2014, military leaders are re-evaluating the scope and focus of the military, and that is raising questions about how large a force is needed in Europe and where it should be

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-58861187091215319572012-01-04T20:53:00.000-05:002012-01-04T20:53:00.548-05:00

So our budget cuts will reduce our military's ability to fight and win 2 wars? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is scheduled to roll out more than $260 billion in defense budget cuts later this week in what sources familiar with the Pentagon's strategy review say will show the U.S. will no longer be able to fight two ground wars simultaneously. I wish we had a two-war military right now. Unless

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-21426381151160408612012-01-04T15:06:00.000-05:002012-01-04T15:06:00.196-05:00

In an age when North Korea is teetering on the verge of collapse and there is danger that North Korea will try to whip up nationalistic frenzies in the north by provoking a military crisis with South Korea, the United States and South Korea have vowed to retaliate in a proportional manner against any North Korean attack: South Korea and the United States will soon sign a new plan on countering

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-76530776216818848322012-01-04T08:56:00.000-05:002012-01-04T13:50:05.316-05:00

Well, Pravda is defunct so naturally The Nation asks the question. The answer is "yes:" The current wars are basically uprisings against police states or feudal societies, which are seen as out-of-step with the modern world. Many are led by radicals preaching failed dogmas (Islamic conservatism, Maoism, and other forms of radical socialism), that still resonate among people who don't know

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-45140318952820720812012-01-03T22:16:00.000-05:002012-01-03T22:16:01.097-05:00

Iran's warning to our Navy must seem like a great idea: "Iran will not repeat its warning ... the enemy's carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill," Iran Army chief Ataollah Salehi said Tuesday, Reuters reported. "I advise, recommend and warn them over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once." Truth be told,

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-30684169121474240412012-01-03T17:12:00.000-05:002012-01-03T17:12:19.987-05:00

When you are the Middle Kingdom, I guess you can't quite suppress the worry that your position just means you are circling the drain (tip to Instapundit): President Hu Jintao of China has said that the West is trying to dominate China by spreading its culture and ideology and that China must strengthen its cultural production to defend against the assault, according to an essay in a Communist

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-20060476338949209322012-01-03T16:42:00.001-05:002012-01-03T16:42:45.986-05:00

The Climategate email leaker is still unknown: For two years, the mystery has endured: who set out to undercut climate scientists by publishing more than 1,000 of their private e-mails on the Internet? Oh, so close to journalism. Why did the leaked emails "undercut" climate scientists? Because it showed them behaving badly and completely unscientific. So how is challenging scientific

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-51673585914824842492012-01-02T14:37:00.000-05:002012-01-02T14:37:00.208-05:00

Strategypage looks at the past year of wars and unrest. Interesting that they say that Sunni Arab terrorism in Iraq is basically pro-Saddam die-hards. I assume that the Baathists still use jihadis for much of the dirty work.

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-84959799611232342232012-01-02T10:37:00.001-05:002012-01-02T10:37:29.859-05:00

Oh, and while we are judging victory in Iraq, I should have mentioned something so basic that I skipped right over it: crushing al Qaeda's attempt to destroy Iraq led to the collapse of Islamist terrorism's popularity in the Moslem world. The September 11 attacks were too satisfying for many Moslems who saw "their boys" finally sticking it to the huge United States. But as the Moslem world got

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-66044988959264330292012-01-02T07:26:00.000-05:002012-01-02T07:26:00.111-05:00

In 1989, Hungary breached the Berlin Wall  on their territory, leading to the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. Today, Hungary breached the Euro Wall by being the first to defy EU demands and attempt a national solution to their problems: Hungary defied international concern and adopted Friday central bank reforms and other controversial measures that threaten to leave the country isolated just as

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-53030114932466679582012-01-01T21:05:00.000-05:002012-01-01T21:05:00.161-05:00

India and Pakistan have problems with nuclear deterrence that America and the Soviets never faced. We had a whole 20 minutes of warning for an ICBM attack. Although Soviet SLBMs off our coast reduced our warning to much less, those missiles weren't a threat to our ICBMs and so did not threaten the survivability of our nukes. Plus, the point of direct contact with the Soviet Union was centered

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-65007354983142462922012-01-01T19:25:00.001-05:002012-01-01T19:25:12.926-05:00

So a couple days ago I hooked up my gas fireplace again. I've lived here over ten years and except for when I first moved in and checked to see if it worked, I've had my fireplace pilot light turned off. With a small mirror while lying on the floor, because whoever installed the gas fixture thought it was easier to place the knob pointing down to the ground rather than facing it outward, I got

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-37271481323234858022012-01-01T14:24:00.000-05:002012-01-04T08:36:20.102-05:00

Are we rigging the numbers in Afghanistan to pave the road for retreat? For years, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, we've defined enemy attacks as including the discovery of IEDs. That is, an IED that was fired or discovered equally counted as an "attack" for statistical purposes. I think we made this change in Iraq in spring 2004, where until then the only thing that counted as an attack was one

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-83383353116410574862012-01-01T08:20:00.000-05:002012-01-01T08:20:21.892-05:00

Ah, perhaps we were a bit too hasty in thinking Maliki is trashing democracy in Iraq: Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is charged with running a death squad, told AFP in an interview on Sunday he would not go to Baghdad to stand trial and raised the prospect of fleeing Iraq. Hashemi, holed up at an official guesthouse of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in the country's autonomous Kurdish

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-54600410177803917942012-01-01T07:30:00.000-05:002012-01-01T07:30:00.063-05:00

For all the sound and fury of the accusations that cruel Republicans are cutting so much federal spending that babes are withering in their mothers' arms, remember this chart (from the Wall Street Journal) that signifies that the shrill partisan accusations signify nothing: I'd worry about the dangers of cutting spending in bad economic times if I had any worry at all that maximum pressure to

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-9669825126002249052011-12-31T21:34:00.000-05:002011-12-31T21:34:00.978-05:00

Katy Perry will soon be single: British comic Russell Brand filed for divorce Friday to end his marriage to US pop star Katy Perry 14 months after the pair were wed in India. There will be no impact on me, of course, because I'm waiting for Summer Glau--or possibly Zooey Deschanel--to accept my standing offer for dinner at Olive Garden. Admittedly, my plans could be thrown into turmoil if

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-45530681583581545492011-12-31T15:11:00.000-05:002011-12-31T15:11:00.115-05:00

Iran is proposing talks on their nuclear program, counting on the continued ability of Westerners to pretend that Iran is willing to talk about more than wordsmithing to conceal Western acceptance of Iranian nuclear weapons plans: Saeed Jalili said he has formally called on the six powers — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — to return to the negotiating table with

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-52225224605804794632011-12-31T13:44:00.000-05:002012-01-02T13:28:04.854-05:00

... die by the peasant? China’s rural population is at the bottom of the global commodity chains of both Chinese and transnational corporations. Unhindered by regulations, these companies utilize China’s land and rural labor for the environmentally and socially unsustainable production of goods consumed the world over. While consumers everywhere benefit from inexpensive products and corporate

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-10447416696533546492011-12-31T11:04:00.000-05:002011-12-31T11:04:01.281-05:00

Syrians are doing their best to make sure Arab League monitors have no reason to leave Syria with the impression that Syrians love their Boy Assad and only al Qaeda malcontents are spoiling the party: In the largest protests Syria has seen in months, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets Friday in a display of defiance to show an Arab League observer mission the strength of the

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-24024620198247917272011-12-31T09:01:00.000-05:002011-12-31T09:01:59.478-05:00

The only good jihadi is a dead jihadi. So let's welcome some more our sincere best wishes for their journey to Hell: Israel killed the leader of an al Qaeda-inspired faction in the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing him of involvement in firing rockets and a planned attack on the Jewish state from the neighboring Egyptian Sinai. The deadly air strike was Israel's second against a Salafi Islamist

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-44800627198059878762011-12-30T20:45:00.000-05:002011-12-30T20:45:00.703-05:00

Lacey doubts that we need to turn our Army into a counter-insurgency force at the expense of conventional fighting: Last week, former Army chief of staff Gen. Gordon Sullivan editorialized that the Army is repeating the mistakes of the post-Vietnam era, when it turned away from a decade’s experience fighting a counterinsurgency war, in favor of building a more capable conventional force. This,

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-53013384894168565152011-12-30T14:38:00.000-05:002012-01-05T09:47:43.526-05:00

During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, both Iran and Iraq went after each others oil exports to deprive the other of income. Iraq's oil exports through the Persian Gulf were immediately cut. Iran's were eventually attacked as Iraq deployed planes and anti-ship missiles to go after Iranian tankers sailing from the northern Gulf Kharg Island facilities. Since the war went on for eight years, each

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9171609.post-34956848030996723132011-12-30T13:43:00.000-05:002011-12-31T08:56:55.392-05:00

I keep hoping that if we can nurture rule of law in Egypt, a victory my Islamists won't be a catastrophe as long as they have to defend their governance in a new, free election. This is a problem: The United States expressed deep concern on Thursday after Egyptian police raided 17 offices of pro-democracy and human rights groups, including several funded by the United States, and urged

Brian J. Dunnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03949518866034572156noreply@blogger.com