March 27, 2007

Letter from Iraq

It has been a rather quiet month in Habbaniyah.  The big gun goes off now and then and we hear small arms fire coming from some directions and helicopters fly over at tree top level sometimes.  But we are used to all that.  It has...

February 26, 2007

Letter from Iraq

A few days ago someone drove a dump truck loaded with a bomb into Habbinniyah and exploded it near the town's police station, killing thirty-four people and injuring about sixty, most of them women and children.  Initial news repo...

November 25, 2006

Playing Chicken with China

A few weeks ago a Chinese diesel submarine surfaced about five miles from a US carrier battle group.  Even in peacetime conditions such a provocation entitles a defender to open fire and sink the intruder, but the commander of the US carrier gro...

November 5, 2006

Default Settings and the Smartest People in the Room

People, like computers, have natural default settings or positions.  Creatures of habit, we all do this to save ourselves literally from the figurative beast of having to think things through thoroughly.  When we don't need to consciously i...