Christian Science Monitor August 18, 2014 Mark Steyn, who was writing about the militarization of police long before the Ferguson tragedy, makes a key point: A soldier wears green camo in Vietnam to blend in. A policeman wears green camo in Ferguson to stand out – to let you guys know: We’re here, we’re severe,…
Author: James Joyner
The Hill August 13, 2014 The Hill has a report titled “Obama seeks Iraq regime change.” The Daily Beast has a similar report titled, “Exclusive: Inside Obama’s Push for Regime Change in Iraq.” Other outlets are using similar language. But the headlines are belied by the stories they herald. Essentially, the United States government has grown frustrated with the incompetence of…
A graduate school colleague pointed me to a piece by Daniel Altman headlined “Why I Hope to Vote Republican in 2024” and with the subhed, “Face it: Hillary Clinton will be a two-term president, and I’ll vote for her. But a Democratic stranglehold on the White House is bad for America.” While I was intrigued…
RealClearDefense July 26, 2014 Not unreasonably, Tufts University professor and Washington Post columnist Dan Drezner has some things to say about Montana Senator John Walsh’s plagiarized masters paper at the Army War College. As his headline puts it, “On what academic planet does a 14 page paper merit John Walsh an M.A.?” Actually, it’s a bit complicated.…
War on the Rocks July 25, 2014 Many of us have experienced occasions where we’ve read about an event in which we were a participant — either as a direct actor or merely an observer — and found ourselves perplexed by the written account. Whether because of an ideological agenda, an inadequate understanding of the…
The Hill July 13, 2014 As the quadrennial World Cup kicked off, syndicated columnist Ann Coulter did what she does best, drawing attention to herself with world-class trolling, declaring, “Any growing interest in soccer can only be a sign of the nation’s moral decay.” If so, we’re going to hell. Sports historian Curt Smith quips,…
The Hill July 2, 2014 A decade ago, everyone was talking about blogs. Bloggers claimed they were going to make the mainstream media obsolete. The mainstream media dismissed bloggers as losers writing in their mom’s basement in their pajamas — while simultaneously starting their own blogs and hiring some of the best bloggers. Now, the…
The National Interest July 13, 2014 In the run-up to September’s NATO summit in Wales, the Obama administration is sending decidedly mixed signals to its European allies, simultaneously demanding that they contribute more to their own security and signaling that they needn’t bother. In a joint press conference in Warsaw with his Polish counterpart last…
Butch Bracknell and James Joyner The National Interest July 7, 2014 The September 11, 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya were, according to U.S. law enforcement and intelligence sources, designed and led by Ahmed Abu Khattala, a Libyan jihadist. Recently, Khattala was captured by U.S. special-operations forces and transported to a U.S. Navy…
James Joyner The Hill, July 2, 2014 A decade ago, everyone was talking about blogs. Bloggers claimed they were going to make the mainstream media obsolete. The mainstream media dismissed bloggers as losers writing in their mom’s basement in their pajamas — while simultaneously starting their own blogs and hiring some of the best bloggers.…