Robert Farley

This backs up something I heard at the recent International Studies Association meeting: A statement from the Russian foreign ministry said that “a bridgehead is being prepared for the start of military operations against Abkhazia”. Russia accuses Georgia of amassing 1,500 soldiers and police near the rebel areas of the upper Kodori Gorge. Russia is […]

Somebody broke the rules: Vice President Cheney pinned [Monica] Brown, of Lake Jackson, Tex., with a Silver Star in March for repeatedly risking her life on April 25, 2007, to shield and treat her wounded comrades, displaying bravery and grit. She is the second woman since World War II to receive the nation’s third-highest combat […]

Dana on the predictive ability of the writing portion of the SAT: I’m a bit surprised the SAT essay section has proven to be so predictive. The topics students are asked to write about on the exam do not at all reflect the typical college assignment. The SAT prompts personal essays on broad, amorphous topics, […]

Kate linked to this Ryan Avent post on why the McCain “gas tax” proposal is so idiotic; long story short, it doesn’t help consumers and it actively hurts the environment. Apparently, however, Senator Clinton didn’t get the memo: Sen. McCain last week called for Congress to suspend the 18.4-cent federal gas tax and 24.4-cent diesel […]

SecDef Gates at the Air Force Air University: Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are “stuck in old ways of doing business.” Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that […]

Galrahn at Information Dissemination details two more pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia. In one, a group of pirates seized a Spanish fishing boat and its crew of twenty-six. In the second, pirates attacked an empty 150000 ton (about 1.5 times the size of a US supercarrier) oil tanker with machine guns and rocket […]

There was some excitement last week about the release of a report by Joe Collins, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Bush administration, suggesting the Iraq War was a debacle and that Donald Rumsfeld was largely responsible. Since the release, Collins and a host of right-wing bloggers have assailed the McClatchy’s characterization of […]

This article by Major Niel Smith and Colonel Seth MacFarland on the foundations of the “Anbar Awakening” strategy is a must read. Smith and MacFarland detail how they helped bring a new set of methods to Ramadi in 2006, methods which played a key role in the larger Sunni Awakening strategy and which helped to […]

The situation in Zimbabwe remains immensely complicated, not so much because of the moral and ethical issues involved (Mugabe has far outstayed his welcome, and an opposition victory should be welcomed by everyone), but rather because of the political choices that face the major players. The leader of the opposition has called for South African […]

It’s great that David Frum recognizes that the true threat presented by Iranian nuclear weapons isn’t an attack on Israel. Iran hasn’t yet indicated an impulse for national suicide, and it’s unlikely to do so in the future. I also think, however, that this threat is overblown: The short answer: The world oil market. In […]