It's hard to wrap your head around the magnitude of the refugee crisis brought on by the Syrian Civil War; there are currently something like 2 million Syrians who had fled the country into difficult and uncertain exile, and estimates suggest that well over 4 million Syrians are internally displaced, uprooted from their homes and … Continue reading The budding refugee crisis you may not have heard about

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, on homosexuality: "The question at the core of the debate on homosexuality is what do we do with an abnormal person? Do we kill him/her? Do we imprison him/her? Or we do contain him/her?" the president was quoted as writing in a letter to parliament. He said that homosexuality was caused … Continue reading With friends like these…

A man was shot and killed yesterday in a movie theater in Tampa. Apparently he'd been texting on his cell phone, with his 3 year old daughter no less, when the previews started. Another patron complained to him about texting during the previews, they argued, and the other patron availed himself of his Second Amendment … Continue reading How the New York Times reports on a shooting

I. The US Senate prepares for (sending other people off to fight its) war Iran and the P5+1 finally reached an agreement on the implementation of the 6 month interim agreement they reached in November (ah, diplomacy, as always the model of peak efficiency). But if you're a fan of American wars in the Middle … Continue reading Profiles in stupidity and mendacity, Iran sanctions edition

It's presumably impossible for Bashar Assad to "win" the civil war at this point, if "win" means "regain control over the entire country in relative peace and stability, and reestablish diplomatic relations with the rest of the world." The rebellion has gone on too long, the sides have become too entrenched, and Assad has been … Continue reading What is Geneva II supposed to accomplish?

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is dead after spending the past 8 years in a coma. I'm not going to write a long obituary here, because for one thing I'm supremely bad at writing obituaries, for another thing there are about a billion of them all over the web that you can go check … Continue reading Ariel Sharon’s Unit 101 legacy

Robert Gates makes a funny: So: It's the fall of 2010, and Gates is meeting with the president and top brass. "Biden, Mullen, Jones, Donilon, Brennan, and Tony Blinken, the vice president’s national security adviser, were there." The subject: How to be ready if a conflict between Iran and Israel ignites. Gates worries that the … Continue reading “I was offended at his suggestion that there might be gambling going on in this casino”

Just to sum up, in his new memoirs Robert Gates is harshly critical of President Obama because Obama: was insufficiently committed to a war effort that we now know has failed; lacked trust in two of his military commanders, the one who was openly insubordinate to him and the one who ran his military command … Continue reading A harsh critique?