Military Affairs

Talking Tough

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The following is the first paragraph from this Telegraph UK op-ed.

“No apologies for posting consecutively on Barack Obama: the Looney Tunes President’s sell-out of US and Western interests is proceeding at such a speed that it is difficult to keep pace. Well said, Nile Gardiner, for asking if Barack Obama is the most naïve president in American history. The answer is undoubtedly yes – unless he has a secret agenda to cut America down to size.”

And then the author gets kind of harsh.

(Hat tip to The Cryptic Subterranean, and this essay is cross-posted over at Hell in a Handbasket.)

Fix Military Health-Care First

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Megan McArdle asks,  if politically-managed health care is so great, why isn’t military health care a shining example to be emulated? [h/t Instapundit]

It’s an important question to ask and answer because the military health-care system is a completely socialized system. If we can politically manage health care in the real world then the military system should be a shining example of medical care in America. Yet care for both for service  personnel  and their dependents sucks.  

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David Kilcullen at the Pritzker Military Library

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I saw Dr. David Kilcullen speak last night at the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.

The full presentation is available as a video, here.

He talked about his new book, The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One. I think it is the best book I have read so far about the current wars the USA is engaged in, why they went wrong, and what to do about it. The phrase “must read” is over-used. I try not to over-use it. “Accidental Guerilla” is a must read.

It is very much worth listening to, and I won’t summarize the talk here, which is itself a summary of the book.

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A Strategic Clarion Call: Part I

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Looking at my own intellectual journey, I find that creativity usually comes in short bursts that punctuate long periods of reading, reflection, and hard work. About two weeks ago the National Security Blogosphere saw a great burst of creativity by the mind of Zenpundit. In this post (read every word!), Zenpundit identified several issues that the last couple of years of operations in Iraq have brought to the fore:

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Happy Birthday to the United States Army

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Gen. Odierno remembers the day in Iraq.

Those of us in safer places — safe because of our Army over more than two centuries — recall the work and sacrifice and victories of our soldiers with gratitude.