Robert Farley

Eric Martin on the ongoing war in Somalia: As predicted by so many right-wing pundits, the Ethiopians were going to teach us how to win such a conflct through their potent mixture of unrestrained brutality, disregard for human rights and control of the media – all buttressed by a dearth of back-stabbing Ethiopian/Somali peaceniks. So, […]

Last month, Jack Hitt had a fabulous article on missile defense in Rolling Stone. The article pretty much reaffirmed what I already believed; missile defense probably won’t work, and if it does work (in a technical sense) it won’t accomplish any strategic or political objective. Hitt: Having abandoned its superpower mission, the shield has morphed […]

I’m all for closer monitoring of Blackwater, but this strikes me as somewhat awkward: Following the recommendations of a high-level review team sent to Baghdad last week, the State Department said yesterday that it will place its own diplomatic security agents in all Blackwater convoys, mount video cameras in Blackwater vehicles and record all radio […]

I’ve been reluctant to comment further on the Israeli strike on Syria, because I still don’t really understand what happened. As Kevin Drum notes, this appears to be a common affliction; even the White House can’t seem to decide what happened: This is really the damnedest thing. But one thing is sure: the Israeli evidence […]

The Turkish Army is laying the groundwork for a move into Kurdistan: Turkey took a step toward cross-border military action in Iraq today, as a council of the country’s top political and military leaders issued a statement today allowing troops to cross to eliminate separatist Kurdish rebel camps in the mountainous northern region. Turkey’s move […]

From Mark Krikorian, we find that Bill Kristol has suggested the use of military force against Burma. Kristol: As Sen. Joseph Lieberman has suggested, “The junta has tried to cut off the ability of peaceful demonstrators to communicate to the outside world through the Internet and cellphone networks; we should be examining how the junta’s […]

I find it staggering that we’re still talking about opium poppy eradication in Afghanistan. It is seriously being proposed that the way to win the war in Afghanistan is to … spray herbicide on the crops of Afghan farmers. I’d say that this is the kind of project that historians, with the perspective of a […]

I’ll second Yglesias‘ recommendation of Kerry Howley’s column on the Chinese connection to Burma. No one is arguing that the PRC has covered itself with glory through its relations with Burma. However, it is much more difficult for a large country to get a small country to do what it wants than commonly believed. The […]

P.W. Singer, author of Corporate Warriors, the definitive volume on the growth the military contractor industry, has a guest post on the Blackwater Hearings over at Danger Room. A taste: The hearing revealed a fascinating, but also disturbing, lack of awareness in Congress about the private military industry. Members on both sides repeatedly struggled with […]

Apropos of this NYT article on the Monaco yacht show (which focuses on how helicopters have become the new yachting accessory), I would like to note that the Eclipse, a 525′ yacht currently scheduled for 2008 delivery to Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich (the owner of Chelsea F.C.) is two feet shorter than the battleship […]