December 19, 2006
Al-Qaeda for the Good Guys: The Road to Anti-Qaeda
I've written a two-part series on stateless warfighting for TCSDaily. The first part is here.
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December 12, 2006
Counternarratives and the Grunt
My column this week at TCSDaily discusses the ways that changes in military strategy will inadvertently make it increasingly difficult for the press to use the traditional narrative of US war deployments.
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December 5, 2006
Why Newt Is Right
My latest TCSDaily creation is now available. I argue that Newt Gingrich is correct to wonder about restrictions on speech to stop terrorists. I also link his recent thoughts to those of Philip Bobbitt and Fred Ikle.
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November 29, 2006
Followup to Going Native
My article at TCSDaily, "Go Native" has received a little bit of commentary. I posted a link over at Windsofchange.net, and it received about 20 comments, with a generally supportive take. Several folks here have given positive comments too. Belmont Club just started a thread on it, and I'm sure the Belmont crowd will have a lot to say, as they always do. At TCS itself, there are over 140 comments to the article, many more than any other work I've done.
Some of them have been critical. TCS draws a crowd from far and wide. I think that's good. None of the critical comments have gotten under my skin. I wouldn't be a very good blogger if they did. But one in particular I thought deserved a note. One commenter writes this:
You won't risk your own life to "win the war" will you Josh? No, and I'll bet you anything you have no children over there dead and dieing do you? No, of course not, armchair racists don't join the military do they Josh? No, and don't give me that crap about being "too old"; you could get a job feeding the troops or driving a truck for Haliburton, but you're too afraid to even do that, aren't you? C'mon Mr. Brave NeoCon (NOT!!)admit the truth, you like this racist war just like the NeoCons of the day liked the racist war they sent me and few other dumb and naive racist Americans to fight in Vietnam. This is a war of liberation from occupiers that the local Iraqi's are fighting. We will lose, we've already lost. And all you coward NeoCons clamoring for the blood of 655,000 innocent Iraqi people are just full of sickness and dis-ease. That's what racism is, and you all are racists.I'm not sure how my article implies that I'm a racist. For that I'll have to have some more instruction from this commenter.
But I'd like to say once and for all that I think it's a very poor point to argue that only those who serve are allowed to voice an opinion on the war. Are doctors the only ones allowed an opinion on healthcare? Or to take another tack, are those with military service always correct? Were the US generals correct in the Cuban missile crisis in arguing for an attack, or was Kennedy? Perhaps all political issues should only be discussed by politicians. The problem then becomes where to draw the line at what is political and what is not. Most regimes that choose such a path usually end up deciding that everything is political. I think we can all come up with examples of such regimes.
It's an interesting argument that the Left likes to make: on the one hand, only those too stupid to get good jobs join the service. On the other, when it comes to military affairs, we should only listen to those who have served, whose pronouncements are received gospel, second only to their mothers, whose opinions have "absolute moral authority."
How strange.
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November 28, 2006
Go Native
My column at TCSDaily this week rejects the three choices for Iraq recently leaked from the Pentagon: go big, go long, or go home. Instead, it offers "go native" as an alternative.
Sadly, I'm quite sure it's about as useful as whispering in a hurricane, but one does what one can.
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November 16, 2006
What a Strange Way to Wage a War
It's another two-fer this week at TCSDaily. My new article makes as strong a case as possible for staying in Iraq.
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November 13, 2006
Why Intellectuals Love Defeat
My TCSDaily column from last week was delayed a couple of days to make room for my reaction piece to Rummy's resignation. So here's the column.
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November 8, 2006
"Like Rumsfeld, Only Smaller"
TCSDaily is carrying a reaction piece I wrote after Rumsfeld's resignation today. Read it here.
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November 6, 2006
TCS on Election 2006
Over at TCSDaily:
Every year the President gives his State of the Union address. And every two years, Americans get to deliver their sense of the state of the union by voting. So what will it be in '06? We asked several TCS contributors to predict what will happen on Tuesday; and then we asked them to say what should happen. Consider this the state of TCS thinking about American politics at the end of 2006.I tossed my own thoughts into the brew. You can read it here.
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November 3, 2006
Government in Time of War
This week's column is up over at TCSDaily. It wonders if, in a time of long-term war, the non-war functions of government won't reduce to some diminished capability. See for yourself.
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October 27, 2006
The Most Dangerous Game
Are you a hunter or the hunted?
It's another two-fer this week at TCSDaily. My latest article examines the "virtual levee en masse" of radical Muslims that is taking place on the internet, and wonders if it's not behind some of our more recent headlines. If so, then those of us that write about the war are much more directly involved than our journalistic and editorial brethren were in past conflicts and more involved than we might realize.
I submit that the only thing keeping us from getting at the other side in cyberspace is the language barrier. Well, I don't say that in the article, but it occurs to me now.
Written by Chester at 12:06 AM | Link | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0) | Print Article
October 22, 2006
The Wisdom of Survivalist Crowds
My latest effort is now available at TCSDaily. It's a reaction to Glenn Reynolds' piece last week, which discussed the mainstreaming of survivalism.
What do you think?
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October 11, 2006
Sic Semper Tyrannis
My latest effort at TCSDaily is now available! It takes issue with the constant characterization of Kim Jong Il as a "madman" or "nutjob."
I mean, no doubt he's not normal, but . . . well, go read and see.
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October 6, 2006
Stalking the Hermit
It's a two-fer this week at TCSDaily! I've got a new article there that addresses the North Korean regime's planned nuclear tests. Go check it out!
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October 4, 2006
War Continuation Insurance?
My latest TCSDaily article, War Continuation Insurance? is now available. It ponders what sorts of innovations the private security market might soon develop.
I should say that I have no connections whatsoever to private security firms, other than an intense interest in their development and future.
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September 28, 2006
From Checklist to Checkmate
My TCSDaily article is up! It discusses the problems with airport security -- specifically an over-reliance upon checklists.
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August 30, 2006
America's Schizophrenic View of Warfare
I've written an article for TCSDaily entitled Bipolar Disorder: America's Schizophrenic View of Warfare. It argues that Americans tend to view total war as positive, and counterinsurgencies as negative, rather than merely seeing them as different kinds of conflict. Go see for yourself!
Written by Chester at 6:43 AM | Link | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0) | Print Article
August 15, 2006
TCSDaily Article: Unfrozen Caveman Voter
I've written another piece for TCSDaily entitled, "Unfrozen Caveman Voter." Go check it out and ask yourself: are you part of the caveman demographic?
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August 9, 2006
Interview with Alan Furst
I've conducted a brief interview with Alan Furst, who has written several superb spy novels set in pre-WWII Europe. The interview is now up over at TCSDaily.
Furst's own site is www.alanfurst.net.
I have to tell the story of how this came about, cause it's pretty neat.
Mrs. Chester dragged me shopping one day and I ducked into a Borders in need of a reprieve. Browsing around, I moseyed over to the Mystery/Suspense section to look for Furst's new book, The Foreign Correspondent.
I couldn't find it, so I went to the help desk. There, I saw a stack of copies, along with the entire inventory of everything else they had in stock by Furst. "Are these all on hold?" I asked the staff. "No, we've set them aside because he's supposed to come in today and sign them. He's supposed to be here any minute."
Well, this was cool! So soon enough Mr. Furst did arrive and signed a copy for me. I went and sat down in the cafe. Then a thought occurred to me: why not a blog interview? I asked him and he agreed immediately, saying he loves reading blogs.
Anyway, I thought that was very kind of him and a pretty cool little backstory.
Furst's novels are truly fascinating. You feel as though you are really in Europe right before all hell breaks loose. And in some cases after it's broken loose too.
My favorite is Night Soldiers, probably because it's a bit longer than the others, which means all the more intrigue:
I've also read The World at Night and Dark Voyage:
Those were both excellent as well. When reading these works, the scope and depth of the changes that were afoot in Europe really begins to dawn on the reader. Most interestingly perhaps is that everyone seems to know that war is coming . . .
Loyal Readers here at Adventures will probably enjoy any of Furst's novels. Go check out the interview too.
UPDATE: Here's a previous post that references his work as well: Through The Looking Glass.
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July 20, 2006
Shaken and Stirred
I've written a TCSDaily article arguing that the invasion of Iraq is serving the US well in terms of its effects on the current Israeli-Hezbollah War. You can read it here.
UPDATE: 7/22: The New York Post has adapted my TCSDaily article and published it in today's print edition on page 15, with the title, "The Difference Iraq Makes." Loyal Readers in New York might want to take a look.
Written by Chester at 11:39 PM | Link | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0) | Print Article
