SWJ Small Wars Survey 2012

[MikeF]

Revolutionary conflict is a byproduct of the relentless advance of globalizing capital, which erodes traditional political and cultural boundaries. This is driven by the raw and limitless desire for "prosperity", which translates directly into unending resource consumption. Dorronsoro's analysis of the Afghan conflict in Revolution Unending implies that interventions to support globalist-compliant regimes will be a mainstay of future policies. Afghanistan has at least $1 trillion in raw materials and transit access to the Caspian basin's energy resources for resource hungry Pakistan and India, bypassing, China, Iran, and Russia. The Taliban government was an anomaly in the international system; isolated from the modernizing force of globalism due in part to ideology, regional political circumstances, and Afghanistan's civil war. As global consumption increases, the competition will only become more bitter.

You don't wrestle with a pig in the mud b/c the pig likes to get dirty

There are better ways

[Stan]

On the other hand, Mike...

If you accept the fact that you will wrestle with a pig and know you are going to get dirty, you are less likely to be surprised.

But, because we naively think we can go to the wrestling match with our rules we are doomed to fail and get really dirty.

Jungle rules apply

You don't wrestle with a pig in the mud b/c the pig likes to get dirty

There are better ways

[MikeF]

On the other hand, Mike...

If you accept the fact that you will wrestle with a pig and know you are going to get dirty, you are less likely to be surprised.

But, because we naively think we can go to the wrestling match with our rules we are doomed to fail and get really dirty.

Jungle rules apply

I think a wise old man quotes this one,

There are very few problems, which cannot be solved by the suitable application of High Explosives

[MikeF]

A preview to my forthcoming contribution to Foreign Policy Magazine next month, 17. True or false: Americans are safer today than when Obama took office.

True, but this is a false choice. Worrying about being safe is simply fear and insecurity. It is time to stop pondering safety and security and start dreaming about living again. When my daughter goes to sleep at night, I don’t ask her what she fears most. I ask her to imagine what she will be doing in twenty years. Will she be the first woman to land on Mars? Will she travel deep into the heart of the Congo researching some undiscovered plant that will provide a cure for cancer? Will she write the next great American novel? This is the type of thinking that we desperately need. These are the type of questions that we must ask our children. It is time for us to overcome the fear and the hurt and the pain from 9/11 and move on with life.

[Fuchs]

It takes posts such as yours to remind me again that people re still under the after-effects of an event which happened a decade ago and killed 1/100,000th of the population. That is, less than all annual flu waves!