Robert Farley

MORE ON ISRAELI BOMBS… While we’re on the subject of Israel bombing stuff, Whitney Raas and Austin Long of MIT have a working paper on the prospects for an Israel-only strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. They’re more optimistic (so to speak) than I, but they’ve done a lot more work on the subject that I […]

AIR DEFENSE. This is an interesting enough analysis of Hezbollah’s efforts to contest Israeli control of the airspace over Lebanon. It’s made the rounds a bit in right blogistan for its Syria/Iran connection content, and I certainly wouldn’t vouch for the specific intelligence. Nevertheless, it makes sense that Hezbollah would try to expand its anti-air […]

CLASSIC REAGAN. The Ethical Werewolf discusses how the memory of Ronald Reagan as small-government conservative doesn’t match the reality of his policies. As others have noted, this myopia also extends to foreign policy. The classic Kristol and Kagan piece Towards a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy was notable mainly for its description of a foreign policy that […]

ANBAR. This article about Anbar province has received a lot of attention, especially in the wingnuttier parts of the blogosphere. Attacks do seem to have mildly decreased in Anbar, and local tribal elites appear to have turned against Al Qaeda. Captain Ed thinks that this is proof that victory is still possible, the Occupation is […]

SURREAL. This is a very odd debate that we’re witnessing between Condi Rice and Vladimir Putin. Condi is correct to say that the ABM sites pose no meaningful threat to the Russian strategic nuclear force. She doesn’t mention that the interceptors pose no meaningful threat to anyone else’s strategic nuclear force, either, or that they […]

MURDERER GOES FREE. In one of my first posts at TAPPED, I discussed the case of Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Castro terrorist connected with the CIA who, in 1976, murdered 73 Cubans by blowing up their airliner. The aircraft included such threats to freedom as the twenty-four members of the Cuban Youth Fencing team. Posada […]

SPITBALL, OR HIGH FASTBALL? Interesting; I’ve always thought of Bernie Shaw’s death penalty question to Mike Dukakis as more of a high fastball than a spitball. Dukakis could (and did) strike out on the question, but he also could have hit it out of the park, all while staying true to his anti-death penalty principles. […]

BORIS. Boris Yeltsin has shuffled off his mortal coil. In addition to providing some outstanding drunken buffoon stories, Yeltsin deserves mild credit for being the most liberal leader that Russia has had since, well, ever. He took real risks in an effort to liberalize both Russia’s economy and political system, and while he might have […]

OOH, PRIVATIZATION! The Coast Guard has lost eight patrol boats. Eight expensive patrol boats. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen announced this morning that the boats would be decommissioned because of hull cracks and other problems. The boats are part of the Deepwater program, which was intended to substantially modernize the entire Coast Guard fleet. As […]

IRAN IN AFGHANISTAN. Setting aside the question of whether reports of Iranian assistance to the Taliban can be taken seriously (it’s possible that some private or government elements in Iran could see some advantage in cooperating with the Taliban, in spite of past hostility), the important thing to remember is that Iran was of great […]