Writing that piece about Libya put me in mind of a piece I flagged months ago but never did anything with. "First, Do No Harm" is the title of the second piece I thought of on Friday, a 2010 essay from analyst David Reiff in The New Republic. Reiff also went from being a liberal/humanitarian … Continue reading Starting from Basic Principles
Month: August 2015
Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1526)
Today’s anniversary commemorates the first of two battles fought near the Hungarian town of Mohács a little over a century and a half apart, and so we should be careful not to confuse today’s engagement with the 1687 Battle of Mohács. While both of these battles involved the Ottoman Empire, the circumstances surrounding them could not … Continue reading Today in European history: the Battle of Mohács (1526)
Libya: the Good War
Atrios reminisces about the days when Libya was the war everybody liked instead of the war nobody wants to talk about: I was talking about this with a friend who knows a bit about such things (I mostly don't) yesterday. There was a time when we had to do something in Libya, and doing something … Continue reading Libya: the Good War
Brownie’s still doing a heckuva job
Remember how when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the head of FEMA was some disgraced (really) Arabian horse judge who turned out to be pretty incompetent at running a disaster relief agency? And then everybody wondered why he was so bad at his job? Was he just in over his head? Completely unqualified? Or was … Continue reading Brownie’s still doing a heckuva job
Europe’s handling of its migrant situation is ugly, and probably illegal
Refugees are coming to Europe in huge numbers, fleeing horrific conditions in Syria, Eritrea, and Afghanistan. These are not migrants looking for welfare, or to "take" somebody's "job," or whatever other racially-charged stereotype that frequently gets attached to migrants. They're refugees fleeing war and persecution, and as such they are specifically entitled to legal protections … Continue reading Europe’s handling of its migrant situation is ugly, and probably illegal
The AP Parchin story’s post-mortem
At "War on the Rocks," Cheryl Rofer, a former chemist at Los Alamos, offers another thorough debunking of that shady AP Parchin story from last week. She argues that the premise of AP reporter George Jahn's piece, that IAEA inspectors won't be allowed on site and this is Bad because Iranian technicians will inevitably cheat … Continue reading The AP Parchin story’s post-mortem
ISIS has “fun” with chemistry
The Guardian published a report yesterday on the mounting evidence that ISIS used mustard gas in an attack on the Syrian town of Marea, near Aleppo: Doctors said the patients, who come from the town of Marea, suffered from skin lesions, respiratory problems and redness in the eyes following a barrage of attacks on Friday. … Continue reading ISIS has “fun” with chemistry
Reaping the whirlwind
I'd be offended at Iowa audiences calling Bobby Jindal an "anchor baby" (he's not) if the whole "anchor baby" phenomenon weren't a product of the dankest parts of the right-wing conspiracy fever swamp that Jindal and his fellow Republicans have been cultivating for the past four decades plus. But as it is, I can't feel … Continue reading Reaping the whirlwind
What to talk about when you can’t talk about anything
We can't talk about gun control today (or any other day), because it's not (ever) the time to politicize things, at least not in that particular way. Also because a flawed document written by flawed men over 200 years ago must be treated as though it were literal Truth at all times or else Scary … Continue reading What to talk about when you can’t talk about anything
Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Manzikert (1071)
For some reason the end of August/beginning of September is a busy season for major battles in Middle Eastern history, like Yarmouk, Chaldiran, and Marj Dabiq. There’s another one coming in a couple of days and another a few days after that, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. You could argue that of all of these major battles, … Continue reading Today in Middle Eastern history: the Battle of Manzikert (1071)
The Foreign Exchanges Companion 