From the NYT: U.S. Adviser’s Blunt Memo on Iraq – Time ‘to Go Home’
Prepared by Col. Timothy R. Reese, an adviser to the Iraqi military’s Baghdad command, the memorandum details Iraqi military weaknesses in scathing language, including corruption, poor management and the inability to resist Shiite political pressure. Extending the American military presence beyond August [...]

There is a frustrating tendency in media coverage of the defense budget, that is the assumption that if Congress adds anything to a the Department of Defense’s budget request it is an example of political pork (Pork-Laden Defense Bill Weighed). Often it is, but sometimes it isn’t. In the current defense appropriation bill, [...]

An editorial in yesterday’s Washington Post states:
“We reject the distorted interpretations that underpin the OLC memos and that serve as legal justification for harsh interrogation techniques that either border on or constitute torture. But those who relied on the memos and shaped their behavior in the good-faith belief that they were following the law should [...]

This one is worth reading.  In our almost-singleminded focus on Afghanistan-Pakistan, we in the United States barely stopped to consider the July bombings in Indonesia.  But what is most interesting is what we might learn from whether they are connected to Al Qaeda and individuals outside of Indonesia, and what the bombers did as a reflection [...]

I’m a big fan of Tom Ricks the reporter. I am much less enamored with Tom Ricks the blogger/pundit. So, on one hand, he’s writing this endless series of posts on Iraq, the unraveling, he’s up to entry 19 on this topic.  So, you’d think that implies that he has a very skeptical perspective on [...]

The British newspaper The Guardian reported on Sunday, July 26, 2009, that the Bush administration had classified 1-meter resolution satellite images that demonstrated the loss of summer sea ice in the arctic.  The Obama administration, according to the Guardian, declassified the images last week.
Here are the images of Barrow, Alaska–taken in July 2006 and July 2007.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The [...]

Many are already familiar with the catastrophic decline of the Aral Sea the past forty years. Once the world’s fourth-largest saltwater lake, pollution and the Soviet Union’s redirection of rivers that once fed it have shrunk the Aral Sea to less than 10% of its original size.
The Aral Sea disaster – and the complete [...]

Admiral Gunn’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as submitted to the record, is posted here.

Chairman Kerry asked if climate change will affect the force structure of the U.S. Military.
Admiral Gunn observed that the U.S. military is already well-suited for those kinds of operations. Admiral McGinn observed that there is a role for the U.S. to play before the worst happens.
Senator Shaheen asked if we have the capacity, given [...]

Chairman Kerry asked if climate change will take lives.
Senator Warner, Admiral Gunn and Admiral McGinn all answered in the affirmative that climate change will take human lives.
Senator Lugar raised the spectre of trade penalties being used to enforce climate change objectives and how that will affect the politics of climate change.
Sharon Burke responded that the [...]