[Please see this post on forgetting Pearl Harbor.] We’ve all learned about Pearl Harbor, but here are some details that I found especially interesting in light of 9/11. Despite having a lot of information that a Japanese attack was coming … Continue reading →
Sixty-five years ago today Pearl Harbor was attacked. That’s long enough ago that only the elderly remember the day and its aftermath with any clarity. Several generations–including my own tiresome one, the baby boomers–have come up since then, and the … Continue reading →
Varifrank has written about our modern way of warfare and our attempt to wage it with greater respect for human life. Please take a look. Respect for human life is a good thing, right? I would be the first to … Continue reading →
[Part I here] Whatever your opinion of President Nixon’s politics and policies, I think most of us can agree he was a strange and duplicitous man. I was not a fan, to say the least. I watched many of his … Continue reading →
Wars tend to be hard on Presidents as well as on nations. Lincoln barely survived the Civil War before he was assassinated. Wilson’s health permanently deteriorated in the immediate aftermath of WWI, when he undertook a grueling speaking tour in … Continue reading →
Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to hanging. Nothing is likely to save him, not even the antics of lawyer Ramsey Clark, who was thrown out of the courtroom yesterday for disrespect. But despite all the charges against him, no one’s … Continue reading →
During the Vietnam years, it wasn’t unusual for fathers and sons to stop talking to each other over issues connected with the war and military service. Most often the father, usually a veteran who’d served in World War II, couldn’t … Continue reading →
The Thirty Years War of 1618-1648 was the last major religious war in Europe, and it was a lulu. I challenge anyone who’s not already a student of European history to wade through that Wikipedia article linked above–it’s dense with … Continue reading →
We in the modern west have grown unused to the concept of religious war. In fact, the very term seems un-PC, like the word “crusade.” Wars of religion have come to be regarded as mere screens for other motivators: socioeconomic … Continue reading →
The thread on Iraqi federalism inspired a debate in the comments section about whether Iraq is facing a civil war or a religious war, or neither, or both. Perhaps it’s just a question of semantics. We could (and no doubt … Continue reading →
I’m going to talk about Iran and regime change. But first I’m going to take a detour for some news of the day. The latter may seem totally unrelated to the former, but please bear with me: though this be … Continue reading →
Commenter “Sergey” has contributed a wonderful piece of folk wisdom about international law and its enforceability: In old Russia there was a proverbial Yiddish saying on usefulness of formalities of law in dealing with those who do not respect law: … Continue reading →