Why do people pay this man for his commentary?Dan’s favorite commentator is back again, this time with an op/ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hanson essentially lays out what he sees as the talking points the Bush administration should be using in an effort to deflate criticism of the handling of the War on Terror. What follows is a long, snarky discussion of Hanson's latest drivel.VDH’s first problem lies with questions regarding how to deal...

[UPDATED]I've been critical of the strategic wisdom of the IDF attacks in Lebanon, but some new developments suggest that it might work after all. Haagi at American Footprints:The Lebanese government appears to be throwing in its lot against Hezbollah, appealing for international help to change the dynamic in the south of the country:Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called Saturday for an immediate cease-fire with Israel, and asked for...

Courtesy of Coming Anarchy's Curzon. Someday we'll get around to implementing a nice design for the Duck.

My daughter's sick and I'm pretty tired - from writing and reading - so here's what's catching my eye...In the "Crisis in the Middle East" department, things seem to be getting worse with the death of eight Israeli civilians in Haifa. The IDF is also resuming strikes in Gaza. Mubarak claims he persuaded the Israelis not to launch a ground offensive against Beirut. Mossad's chief leaves for the US this week to discuss the Iranian nuclear...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah's chief pledged open war on Israel on Friday after it bombed his home, saying "look at it burn" when an Israeli warship that had earlier rocketed Lebanon was attacked and set ablaze."You wanted open war. We are going to (wage) open war," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a telephone message broadcast live on Hizbollah television after his house was hit as Israel ramped up the assault it launched after Hizbollah...

For an administration that likes to keep things secret they sure do pick some funny things to make public--like our military's operational weakness. This was accomplished in large part by partaking in a strategically questionable operation that begins with the letters I-R-A and ends in Q. This has long been a complaint of mine. Yours truly in January of '06:"...the Iraq War not only decreased the capability of the US to launch any kind of...

Given how the US reacted to the traumatic 9/11 attacks -- wars against Afghanistan and Iraq that are still ongoing and adoption of a dangerous public doctrine of "preemptive" action that openly embraces preventive war -- security scholars ought to be thinking seriously about India's possible reaction to this week's Mumbai commuter train bombings. Indeed, this should be a central concern to security strategists as well. Why? Though the Indian...

Foreign Affairs magazine has been running both a print and on-line forum on the future of US policy towards Iraq. If you haven't read it yet, get yourself over there and take a look.In my second experiment in videoblogging, I take issue with Chaim Kaufmann's contribution to the original forum. To be fair to Kaufmann, my response is oriented more towards his broader argument about ethnic partition as a solution to ethno-nationalist civil war...

Israel's graduated "massive retaliation" against the Lebanese government continues.Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut's airport in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. Four dozen civilians had died in the violence following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, officials said.After warplanes punched holes in the airport's runways just south of Beirut, Israel's army...

My commentary on the unfolding Israeli-Hezbollah crisis. This is a bit rough and a bit long.One of the problems with doing this without a script is that it can be easier to make factual errors. For example, I mention Israeli military capacity in the 1970s even though the invasion of southern Lebanon dates to 1982.UPDATE: my wife is already on my case about moving around too much and about speaking more slowly. I'll correct these problems in the...

I saw two movies recently: Superman Returns and An Inconvenient TruthSuperman was good, summer super-hero action fun, though probably just a bit too long. My favorite part-- the music. They were loyal to the original John Williams score, and really, nothing beats heroic John Williams music.Al Gore's movie was surprisingly good. To borrow from the line from John Stewart, the "film combines the mainstream appeal of climate science with the...

Breaking news (via Chirol), and it isn't good:"At least 20 people have been killed in at least seven blasts on trains in the Indian financial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), police say."If confirmed, these strikes are reminiscent of the Madrid and London bombings. But, as Chirol notes, the added danger of these attacks is that if any links are established between the bombs and Pakistan would likely spark an international crisis between the two...