I swear this is the last time I'll gripe about Clinton's Syria comments today, mostly because I'm going to drink a fifth of NyQuil right after I finish writing this. But I couldn't let this one go (honestly, I tried!): “My view is that we shouldn’t over-learn the lessons of the past,” Clinton said. “I … Continue reading Obviously the model for Syria should be Afghanistan in the 1980s

Following on from my earlier post, let's talk about Bosnia and Kosovo, Clinton's shining examples of Intervention Done Right. I've written about Bosnia before, but it can't be repeated enough that NATO intervention had much less to do with the end of that conflict than the fact that the paramilitary groups who were fighting to … Continue reading Clinton and Syria, part 2: on Bosnia and Kosovo

Stumped? How about this one? Who's got two thumbs, used to be president, and has a thing for the ladies? Bill Clinton outed himself as part of the Do Something brigade this week, when, while at some event with President-for-blowing-up-brown-people John McCain, he opined that President Obama was making "a big mistake" if he continues … Continue reading What do Rwanda, the Congo, and Syria have in common?

Well, we've apparently determined that the Syrian government has gassed rebels and civilians, tripping over our president's red line. In response, America is going to directly involve itself in arming the rebels, presumably the "moderate" rebels because we'll pretend that there would still be a rebellion at all without its extremist jihadi elements, and we'll … Continue reading Biting off more than we can chew in Syria?

cross-posted, because my wife made me, from my wildly unpopular kinja blog A "sitting First Justice in the Pittsburg [sic] area" left this comment on a Gawker item earlier this morning, and while pointing out her error was a little petty on my part, since in all probability it was a typo just as she … Continue reading Pittsburgh and its “h”: a love story

"Privatization" is considered such an unalloyed blessing for society that we don't even have a good antonym for it. "Publicization," assuming that's really a word, would have to do with giving publicity to something, not with taking something that's been made private and bringing it back into the public sector. The word we use to … Continue reading Privatize Me (NSA and the Surveillance State)

Being tied for 26th place on Forbes' "World Billionaires List" seems like not such a bad thing to me. Maybe it's the "not knowing where my next paycheck is coming from" talking, but seems to me you could live pretty comfortably even being the guy who doesn't quite make the cut into the top 100 … Continue reading you get a cookie! part 8 of ???: prince al-waleed bin talal

Turkey: The Erdoğan government offered one of those "sorry, not sorry" kinds of apologies over police brutality against protesters this week, with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologizing for injuries to "legitimate protesters" (no weasel words there), which apparently excludes "rioters." Although it's unclear how Erdoğan's government is parsing the difference between "legitimate protesters" and … Continue reading this week in oppressive government violence: june 9, 2013

Late last week, Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy wrote an interesting piece about Yusuf al-Qaradhawi, a highly influential Sunni theologian/pundit from Egypt, and his open call for a Sunni jihad against Bashar al-Assad and Hizbullah (which he has cleverly renamed hizb al-shaytan, or "Party of Satan") in Syria. Qaradhawi has the backing of the Muslim … Continue reading Ratcheting up the rhetoric on Syria

This is how you get it done: In 2011, as Bryant’s career as a drone operator neared its end, he said his commander presented him with what amounted to a scorecard. It showed that he had participated in missions that contributed to the deaths of 1,626 people. “I would’ve been happy if they never even … Continue reading #winning hearts and minds