Image Source. On year ago President Obama declared “We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” Chemical weapons have been used. Some suggest that America will […]
British have invaded nine out of ten countries – so look out Luxembourg Jasper Copping. The Telegraph. 2 November 2012. A new study has found that at various times the British have invaded almost 90 per cent of the countries around the globe. The analysis of the histories of the almost 200 countries in the […]
In “Notes on the Dynamics of Human Civilization: the Growth Revolution” and “A Flawed Comparison: Inequality, Ancient and Modern” I contended that the process through which premodern societies and individuals acquired their riches is fundamentally different from the way fortunes are created and acquired today. An interesting example is provided by the Song Dynasty and […]
“The primary objective of any COIN operation is to foster development of effective governance by a legitimate government. Counterinsurgents achieve this objective by the balanced application of both military and nonmilitary means…. Governments described as “legitimate” rule primarily with the consent of the governed; those described as “illegitimate” tend to rely mainly or entirely on […]
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” I ask my readers to pause for a moment and ponder this statement. It was penned by James Madison in […]
Last month Zenpundit brought to my attention an interesting debate between military historian Lt. Col. Robert Bateman and classicist Victor Davis Hanson. The topic up for debate was Carnage and Culture, the magnum opus of Mr. Hanson’s career. For those unfamiliar with the work, the thesis of Carnage and Culture is stated eloquently on its […]
Last week I brought to the attention of my readers the alarming tale of Ciudad Mier, the border town whose entire populace fled their homes as refugees. Narco refugees being one of the most disturbing developments in Mexico’s war against the cartels, I thought it best to investigate the events leading up to Ciudad Mier’s […]
Via security analyst Sylvia Longmire’s excellent blog Mexico’s Drug War: Border Violence Analysis comes one of the most unsettling news stories of 2010: Ciudad Mier evacuates after Zetas threaten to kill residents The Monitor. 9 November 2010. CIUDAD MIER, Tamps. — Hundreds of families have fled this Pueblo Magico amid reported death threats from drug […]
It is one of James Madison’s best known sayings: “Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.” As these words get dragged into the public discourse fairly often it is useful to know the context in which they […]
Boz (of Blogging by Boz) is perhaps my favorite Latin American hand publishing on the internet. This week he turned my attention to the violence that is wracking Venezuela. Writes Boz: Censurado 2 “Boz”. Bloggings by Boz. 20 August 2010. El Nacional reports that a government report from the National Institute for Statistics shows 19,133 […]
