"Basques," according to Stephen Oppenheimer in the October issue of Prospect.Yet there is no agreement among historians or archaeologists on the meaning of the words "Celtic" or "Anglo-Saxon." What is more, new evidence from genetic analysis (see note below) indicates that the Anglo-Saxons and Celts, to the extent that they can be defined genetically, were both small immigrant minorities. Neither group had much more impact on the British Isles gene pool than the Vikings, the Normans or, indeed, immigrants of the past 50 years.The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors...

I know book endorsements, even from respected figures, have become the equivalent of "chilling... exciting... suspenseful", but there's got to be a limit.Paul Kennedy on Max Boot's new book:“While much has been in written in recent years about the so-called ‘Revolution in Military Affairs,’ Max Boot is the first scholar to place it within the broad sweep of history, and in the context of the rise of the West in world affairs since 1500. In so doing, he not only tells a remarkable tale, but he compels us all, even those obsessed solely with contemporary military affairs, to ask the right...

Yes, the war in Iraq is tied to the problem of transnational terrorism that America experienced on 9/11. The Iraq war has increased the threat of transnational terror -- and this is the "consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services" in the US. From the NY Times, to be published September 24:A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.The classified National Intelligence...

This week: Michelle Malkin and her distaste for those who violate the due process rights of accused terrorists. No, I'm not kidding.It is remarkable that some simply can't see the parallel between the case that has Malkin up in arms and the debate over detainees in Cuba. For Malkin, the former is an example of a principled human rights case while the latter an example of anti-American-liberals who want to free terrorists. Guess the identity of the accused is the elephant in the room.Via Crooks and Liars.Filed as: Due Process

Question of the day: are we winning?Answer:Asked point-blank whether the United States is winning in Iraq, Abizaid replied: "Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we're winning the war."In other words--no. We don't have unlimited time, and its rather clear that the Administration hasn't offered unlimited resources to its Commanders in Iraq. We've never been close to 200,000 troops in-country. Though....The general's comments effectively ended hopes for a big troop withdrawal from Iraq this year, which had long been the military's target for reducing forces. As violence has intensified...

William Dobson has a piece in the current issue of Foreign Policy (subscription required, but I'll bet if you google around you can find a copy of the text someplace) provocatively titled "The Day Nothing Much Changed." In brief, Dobson argues that the terrorist attacks didn't change much about world politics, and that the really important change happened fifteen years earlier when the Soviet Union broke up -- the system went from bipolar to unipolar, with all of the attendant instability of a unipolar world simply waiting for an opportune moment to manifest itself. It just so happened that...

...or the lenders that prey on them?Conservative Congressman Blocking Crackdown on Predatory Lenders Targeting U.S. TroopsGlad he has a link on his website so that vistors can send a message of support to our troops. Guess that makes the mugging he is facilitating behind their backs okie dokie. Filed as: Geoff Davis

The recent flap about Pope Benedict XVI's remarks in a lecture at the University of Regensburg has been fascinating (in a somewhat macabre way) to watch. As Abu Aardvark has noted, the popular reaction to the remarks looks like a speeded-up film of the reaction to the Danish cartoons of the Prophet last year: various populist Islamist groups have seized parts of the lecture, pulled them out of context, and slotted them into a general narrative of Islamic persecution by 'the West.' Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has even explicitly declared that the Pope's remarks are part of a new "crusade"...