Bin Laden hated Saddam and Saddam hated jihadis, but it is amazing that a shared hatred of America made them more cozy than many would want to admit today.
The Iraq War did not distract us from fighting al Qaeda. Indeed, we broke their back in Iraq.
An online journal of commentary, analysis, and dignified rants on national security issues. Other posts on home life, annoying things, and a vast 'other' are clearly marked.
About Me
- Brian J. Dunn
- I live and write in Ann Arbor, Michigan. University of Michigan AB and MA from Eastern Michigan University. One term in the Michigan Army National Guard. Former American history instructor and retired nonpartisan research analyst. I write on Blogger and Substack. Various military and private journals have published my occasional articles on military subjects. See "My Published Works" on the TDR web version or under the mobile version drop-down menu for citations and links.
bjdunn-at-umich.edu
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The Undead Archives
I have finally salvaged my pre-Blogger TDR archives and added them into Blogger. They are almost totally in the form of one giant post for each month. And the formatting strayed from the originals. Sorry.
But historians everywhere can rejoice that this treasure trove of my thoughts is restored to the world.
And for your own safety, don't click on any old Geocities links or any of their similar variations in my posts. Those sites have been taken over by bad and/or dangerous sites. Hover over links first!
Search This Blog
Copyright: 2002-2024
I've stopped looking at my statistics because they make no sense since 2023, or so. In April 2024, for example, I'm credited with over 160,000 hits. And since Blogger started keeping statistics, I am credited with about 2-1/2 million hits. I simply don't trust Blogger stats.
My old statistics package, Site Meter, seemed to miss a lot and even disappeared visits after they've appeared.
I added a new StatCounter late in 2016. So far it shows far fewer hits than Blogger and is more in line with the old Site Meter. But it too seems to be missing what appear to be Facebook links that Blogger picks up. And oddly, the total in the counter has dropped a lot after I went over 100K. That's odd. So I'm not sure what my audience size is. It is puzzling to me.
Of course, it is quite possible that the basic problem is my failure to use Facebook and Twitter for keeping and expanding an audience. I noticed that my audience size fell by over 75% by the old statistics as Facebook and Twitter took off. I may be a blogosaur! So be it. On the bright side, traffic picked up significantly during 2021 and 2022. I don't know why. It dropped last year but has picked up some of the losses so far this year. Again, don't know why.
I've stopped looking at my statistics because they make no sense since 2023, or so. In April 2024, for example, I'm credited with over 160,000 hits. And since Blogger started keeping statistics, I am credited with about 2-1/2 million hits. I simply don't trust Blogger stats.
My old statistics package, Site Meter, seemed to miss a lot and even disappeared visits after they've appeared.
I added a new StatCounter late in 2016. So far it shows far fewer hits than Blogger and is more in line with the old Site Meter. But it too seems to be missing what appear to be Facebook links that Blogger picks up. And oddly, the total in the counter has dropped a lot after I went over 100K. That's odd. So I'm not sure what my audience size is. It is puzzling to me.
Of course, it is quite possible that the basic problem is my failure to use Facebook and Twitter for keeping and expanding an audience. I noticed that my audience size fell by over 75% by the old statistics as Facebook and Twitter took off. I may be a blogosaur! So be it. On the bright side, traffic picked up significantly during 2021 and 2022. I don't know why. It dropped last year but has picked up some of the losses so far this year. Again, don't know why.
