Recommended Reading

Shooting for an eclectic mix today:

Top Billing! Bruce Kesler -“Some Praise For The NYT & Criticism of Right”

Setting aside the deconstruction of the popular culture’s “Deer Hunter” Myth about Vietnam Veterans, the section in Bruce’s post on America’s treatment of the Hmong and Montagnard tribesmen is highly instructive. Nations are judged by how they treat their allies and their enemies; the history of our reponse to the plight of the peoples who once stood shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers and CIA officers in combat and who even threw themselves in the way of bullets and grenades aimed at Americans, is little short of a disgrace.

Food for thought when policy makers consider the cases of Iraqis and Afghans helping us today. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Outside the Beltway – “Is It Time to Invade Burma?”

Nice piece by James Joyner. The horror in Burma gives the lie to much of the “Post-American multipolarity” triumphalism of late. The world is multipolar when the world no longer has to rely on the U.S. to do 85 % of the military and logistical heavy lifting in proposed interventions while everyone else sends good wishes (most), checks ( some) or token contingents ( Australia and a few NATO allies send more than “token” but they are the exceptions). Let’s start being able to realize a genuinely international Sys Admin force built around an American military core before we start going off about “multipolarity”.

SWJ Blog – “Human Terrain Team Member Killed in Afghanistan”

As with embedded journalism, academic field work in war zones does  not come without substantial risks. My condolences to the family and friends of Dr. Michael Bhatia.

Irony Department: The greedy hand of the state of “taxachusetts” is trying to put the touch on Harvard University, bastion of left-wing socioeconomic views, by taxing it’s endowment. Wonder how that’s going over with the faculty?

Evidently Chicago is the capital of bombastic behavior.

Interesting discussion at Tom Barnett’s over globalization and religion in his post -“What I think I learn at the company retreat”

A festival of mostly dead physicists at The Reference Frame. Plethora of Feynman links.

WIRED – “Dungeon Master: The Life and Legacy of Gary Gygax” ( Hat tip to Sean ” Jack Bauer” Meade)

An article that rolls a natural 20!

Are you a hub or spoke? In any event, Valdis Krebs understands John Boyd.

That’s it!