So, people are bombing Iraq again. You might remember this from several previous incidents. We're doing the whole thing again.

As usual, it's not going to work. Or rather it's better to say that all it's going to do is provide some minor assistance to the folks on the ground. For an example, I turn to the BBCTo summarize, two GR4 Tornado aircraft ( Read more... )

There are a lot of myths flying around about Syria, from both sides, which annoys me. Everyone seems to believe things that I find false. I’m not an expert, but even I get annoyed by some of the myths I’ve seen floating around. Here are some I find especially false:

( Myths and Confusions )

So, just something I’ve noticed over the years. When someone tells you that there’s no time to consider something, that we have to make a decision right now, chances are that what they’re asking you to make is a bad decision. Maybe it’s buying something you don’t need, or succumbing to some kind of peer pressure, but when someone wants you to make ( Read more... )

It wasn't exactly a peaceful 2012, and 2013 doesn't look a whole lot better. Oh, that Afghanistan thing is still going on, but in other parts of the world there's a whole lot of other civil conflict that looks like it could spill over across borders and into the international playing field at any moment ( Read more... )

In response to mounting tensions along the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey is moving more military forces to the border with Syria, including deploying fighters from an air base near Batman, capital of Turkey's Batman province ( Read more... )

So, Gaddafi is gone. One of the world's most flamboyant, strangest, and altogether craziest dictators is now not only out of office, he's finally departed this world for the next ( Read more... )

A lot has happened in Libya in the past few weeks, culminating with this weekend's push into Tripoli. A lot that seemed clear a month ago is no longer clear, and a lot that seemed impossible is no longer impossible ( Read more... )

Since this journal normally looks more like a news and politics blog then anything else, here are some updates from the last month for things I'm watching that could go boom just to prove that if I've been replaced by a doppelganger, he's at least consistent.

( The World Keeps Going Faster )

Despite NATO intervention (lead originally by an increasingly reluctant US, a militant France, and now some guy from Canada), the civil war for Libya continues to oscillate back and forth along the coastal regions of Libya. Every day the front line moves through a familiar collection of towns, like marks on a ruler, as the rebels alternatively ( Read more... )

More Libya, because that's what I'm watching these days ( Read more... )