Soob

Danger Room: On the comedy of America's nuclear bunkers:

Are bunkers good for combating terrorism? Probably not. As the nation learned on September 11, what you want in the event of a terrorist attack is information: immediate, accurate and unfiltered. Site R, where government workers are stripped of their personal cell phones and PDAs, is arguably the worst place to be. When you walk into a government office these days, the big board equivalent is not a classified feed, but a flat screen playing CNN.

Middle East Perspectives: Hamas and Israel - Truce or Consequences?

Gaza is not Lebanon, Hamas is not Hizballah, and the Israelis will not make the same mistakes they made in Lebanon in 2006. They will attack with a vengeance this time.

Israel's 2006 misadventure was, in my opinion, less about tenacity and much more about intra-political logistics. Heavy handed tactics on the northern border (from Israel) is one thing, pounding Tripoli and Beirut and effectively slicing off the Siniora regime's political legs empowered Hezbollah. When your enemy is picking up the pieces and providing relief in lieu of the state I'd render that a Pyrrhic victory at best. Israel got the Unifil troops and Uncle Naz got the further political empowerment of Hezbollah.

On Political Risk and Crossed Crocodiles (sorry, no permalink): on mercenaries in Africa:

And in Africa Dyncorp is already training the Liberian Army under US contracts, and as Isenberg points out:

A more serious concern was noted by the U.S. Army's Strategic Studies Institute. In a study released in March, the institute concluded that "the image of DynCorp creating an armed elite is disconcerting to many Liberians."

Skilluminati: Wars, on Drugs: Highlights from “Drug Intoxicated Irregular Fighters”; some more blowback:

U.S. troops in Vietnam preferred marijuana, but when subject to a sudden marijuana ban, they turned to heroin. Discipline problems quickly rose; as one commanding officer lamented 2 years after the marijuana crackdown, “If it would get them to give up the hard stuff, I would buy all the marijuana and hashish in the Delta as a present.”

Where the hell is Larry Dunbar?

Where the hell is Meatball1?

Good (and uncertain) stuff.