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Would you mind explaining concretely--in terms of actual events and actions taken--what and what doesn't qualify as "brute force with ignorance?"



The Taliban government folded? When?

The difference being "don't call us...we'll call you..."

How would anyone know? It took a year or two for the Coalitions to take anything approaching a full measure of the enemy's irregular strength in pre-insurgent Iraq. The Arab "republics" in generally...

Let's skip the dubious redefinition of the word "calculate" for now. People generally weigh the risk of a train derailing against some other bad outcome; said train hurtling over the edge of an...

Probably because balancing ends with means and costs has nothing to do with an arbitrarily instigated and calibrated reaction "in this particular country...in this particular moment."



This is...

It would be an interesting thread in its own right, probably best in "The Coalition Speaks." For what it's worth, I imagine Germany's last two military crescendos means she gets as much a pass where...

Still recent enough to be relevant now:

The canonical case is the mutual defense treaty, the principle feature of which is quid pro quo. Precisely what take do Americans expect from their partners in exchange for "participating?" Why...

Since when do you need a lot to be cohesive to have a mere couple of things in common?



They'd have to stand up to wobble in the first place. To date, the only hard commitment is upwards six...

I've yet to see a statement from an Arab capital criticizing Moussa's remarks. The West was more than eager to do the heavy lifting; now that she's committed, what does it cost the Arabs to play the...

Well, that didn't take long.

Academically, the paucity of cover should cripple movement of the enemy's heavy weapons. But Gaddafhi's Gaddafhi, and absent evidence to the contrary his people we should assume he's got a whole...

If "positioning" the country as a "reluctant, non-hegemonic intervenor"--if that's even possible or even relevant--is a precondition for action, then why did the White House call for the regime's...

Forgive me. "Impossible" was Rex's point.



Would it have mattered?



And the capability of the US + the UK and France suddenly sum to "enough?" More to the point, if the interests at...

They can't know their own objectives? That's new.



How is not planning at all even remotely better than planning to achieve a risky objective?

I do know that short of the EU and other UNSC members deploying mind control laser satellites over Washington, the notion that it was "impossible" for the US, the UK and/or France to act in absence...

"Impossible" is certainly too strong a word. Precisely what diplomatic groundwork did Reagan require before committing the Navy to duke it out with Libya over navigation in the Gulf of Sidra. Or for...

Isn't picking the rosier of a set of scenarios based nothing more than "trusting yourself" the very definition of whistling in the dark? It's presently impossible to estimate the contribution of...

The secular assumption smacks of whistling in the dark due to the absence of polling data to the contrary--or whatosever, for that matter.

Three brigade equivalents would be just north of a third of the whole army prior to the unrest. I doubt Qaddafi can manage the capital and holding onto the West and have enough strength left over to...