Jay Manifold

Review of “Annihilation from Within”

by

Annihilation from Within is Fred Charles Iklé‘s attempt to draw attention toward, and thereby inspire management of, the true geopolitical risks of the 21st century risks ultimately deriving from a great decoupling of science from the cultural constraints of politics and religion, a quarter of a millennium ago risks portended by, but utterly eclipsing, the events of 9/11/2001 risks almost entirely unrecognized by our current risk-management institutions, foremost among them the nation-state.

AfW is eminently worth reading and relatively likely to do some actual good in the world. But you haven’t grazed in here to read a blanket endorsement, and I’d be no blogger if I didn’t contend (with all-but-nonexistent credibility) with some portion of Iklé’s thesis; so for a thoroughgoingly unqualified critique, complete with annoyingly personal speculation and fuzzy intuition-laden commentary, read on!

(~2,700 words; approximate reading time 7-14 minutes, not counting lots of links.)

Read more

KHANNNNN! (A Continuing Series)

by

Thanks to Glenn for pointing to Genghis Khan: Law and order, an LATimes piece by none other than Jack Weatherford, whose Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World was reviewed by me in, uh, KHANNNNN!

Total Planetary Domination (A Continuing Series)

by

Thanks to Glenn for pointing to Hypersonic Cruise Missile: America’s New Global Strike Weapon, in which we read that “[i]n 2001, Defense Department planners began searching for something that could hit a foe almost instantly without risking a nuclear holocaust.”

Exactly.

Add conventional SLBMs and X-51s to our arsenal. Heh.

Seriousness, Indeed

by

Regarding Ginny’s timely post just below: it doesn’t get more serious than this.
And it keeps going and going and going …
So on this 64th anniversary — precisely at 3:36 PM CST (9:36 PM UT), if possible — raise a glass to the first pile, to the Italian navigator, to the world he helped save, and to the Coalition to Preserve Civilization.

(Related posts: 61 Years Ago Today; Chicago Anniversary.)

Discuss this post at the Chicago Boyz Forum.