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War on Terror

The Long View 2007-09-11: September 11; Real Intelligence; True Fanatics; The Other Public; The Subterranean Reactionaries of Manhattan

John opines here that chant ought to be slow, but the priest who used to celebrate the old Mass for us always got annoyed if the choir was too slow. He liked a brisk pace. September 11; Real Intelligence; True Fanatics; The Other Public; The Subterranean Reactionaries of Manhattan Another

The Long View: Bounding Power: Republican Theory from the Polis to the Global Village By Daniel H. Deudney

It is fascinating to return to this book review, written in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. At the time, it seemed more plausible that non-state entities might permanently destabilize the security environment, but in 2020 this has just become the new normal. And while I do find some value

Iron Wolves: Order of the Centurion Book 2 Review

In Iron Wolves, we get to see a part of the Legion inhabited by men less high-minded than Cohen Chhun or Subs, the Dark Ops legionnaire from Order of the Centurion. Men on the borderline of control. Men interested in chasing skirts. Men who might have trouble adjusting to civilian

The Long View 2006-12-20: Space Marines; Dissimulation; The Fall of Civilization

John Reilly links to Orson Scott Card’s Ornery American website in this post, which I hadn’t thought about in a very long time. When I see Card mentioned on Twitter, usually it is in combination with an adjective like “deplorable”, but in today’s context that mostly means

The Long View 2006-10-10: Remove Barriers; Shoot the Hostage; Breed Like Rabbits

Here is something to ponder. New York City took down its post-9/11 vehicle barriers, intended to prevent truck bombings and the like, in 2006. Ten years after that, European cities have added them. Of course, the state of the art changed quite a bit. Truck bombings take hard work

The Long View 2006-03-19: Iraq after Three Years; Life's Solution; Reading Habits

Three years later, John was honest enough to find a rather embarrassing prediction he had made about the course of the Iraq war. With the benefit of hindsight, I've found a few more, but the point of that exercise here is to remind us how easily we can

The Long View 2006-02-24: Future Teeth; The Golden Mosque; The Two Wicked Cities

John Reilly mentions William S. Lind in this post, because Lind repeatedly predicted defeat for the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. John predicted victory, and some kind of friendly democratic government in both countries. What actually happened is somewhere in-between. Lind's predictions of defeat were too dire,