"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Damn the torpedoes . . . full speed ahead!
My God, we started our Saturday morning bike ride at 6:30 and were toast by 8:00, with a few miles still to go. But we gutted it out to the end, then sat outdoors . . . albeit under patio umbrellas . . . at our local coffee shop. My one concession to the heat was drinking […]
Toward the end of my military career, US Air Force Chief of Staff General Merrill McPeak instituted a host of changes. He was one of those egomaniacs who, put into a position of great power, are compelled to change everything. He killed Strategic Air Command. He made us rewrite every USAF regulation because he didn’t like the word “regulation.” He […]
. . . or does anyone else see this coming? Even I, a peacenik from way back, have to admit: we can’t leave Iraq. Ever. No matter how bad it gets. So the Iraqis turn out to be unredeemably venal and corrupt, a nation of murderers bent on ethnically cleansing themselves out of existence. So […]
Ever since Ethiopian forces went into Somalia, and more so since this week’s US AC-130 gunship attack on what is said to have been a Somalian Al Qaeda encampment, news commentators and reporters have been talking about Black Hawk Down. As in: “US forces strike Somalia again, more than 13 years after Black Hawk Down.” When […]
So the British foil another terror plot, one similar to a previous terror operation planned by Al Qaeda. I’ve said this before: Israel’s war with Hezbollah and Hamas aside, for Europe, the UK, and the USA, there’s one clear target in the war on terror. His name is Osama bin Laden. When are we going […]
When I post entries here, I categorize them: culture, current events, politics, motorcycling, flying, war, etc. Usually it’s a no-brainer. But sometimes I drift into areas that are more difficult to pin down. Example: suppose I write about the terrorist bombings in Mumbai and the frightening events in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon. How do I […]
Oh dear God . . . from Lawrence Kaplan at The National Review: Even by the degraded standards of everyday life in Baghdad, this report from CNN’s Nic Robertson comes as a shock: One international official told me of reports among his staff that a 15-year-old girl had been beheaded and a dog’s head sewn […]
Yesterday I listened to an NPR report on sectarian violence in the Baghdad surburb of Amiriya. You can listen to it here, if you have the stomach for it. Among the incidents in the story, one stood out: a short interview with a Shiite resident of Amiriya named Al-Abadi, who said “I am scared all […]