Four the Hard Way
No one reads blogs on the weekends, but if you check out anything today I hope it’s four pieces by a quartet of previous contributors here.
The ghost of SWJ past, Mike Few, continues to haunt the COIN Scrooge with a very fine interview he did with the great scholar of the American Civil War, Mark Grimsley.
A lot of people don’t know this, but two keen voices of military scholarship, Grimsley and David Betz from Kings College, both served as NCOs in their respective armies (David is a Canadian now living in Britain). I’ve always thought that their earlier careers inform their perspectives on war, but none of that would matter without their refined scholarship.
Please check it out. Although I worry that if Michael gets good at the Q&A thing, people like me will be out of a job.
Our favorite Marine pilot-blogger Peter “Munson Doctrine” Munson (he hates that!) has a new piece up on FP, “Small Wars, Big Prices.”
I think he’s wrong about Vietnam – the U.S. entered into the conflict realizing full well that we would be fighting a counterinsurgency, just not for as long or as hard for the results that we achieved.
Sure, he caricatures my position (what, I never talk about strategy here? Really? REALLY? I think C.E. Callwell’s estate sends me royalties and the great-great-great-grandson of Clausewitz tweets my more provocative posts), but we can overlook that because he’s trying to make a rhetorical point.
Still, good articles are those you find yourself arguing with, so read it.
Our favorite Army pilot-blogger Crispin “Starbuck” Burke’s “Like it or not, small wars will always be around” is noteworthy as much for its even-handed approach to what often can be a tricky topic but also to see how his own thoughts have evolved over the years. I think he’s wrong about some matters, but he’s not wrong to push the debate along.
The other contributor is, in the Liddell-Hart sense, one who attacks LoD indirectly. “Madhu” likes to hit with her comments and run, but she has a blog, “On Park Street,” a subsidiary of the Chicago Boyz, and she plucked an intriguing want ad from the local media: “Some private security firms around Chicago are looking to beef up their ranks with Iraq and Afghanistan war vets ahead of two world summits that are expected to bring multitudes of protesters to the city this spring.”
Now, I can’t prove that “Dr Madhu” isn’t a neo-con performance art collective in Chickamagua, Ga., but she has an acerbic humor and an eye for detail.
Check her – or him, or them, or whatever – out! Especially if you’re her family. I think she would appreciate that.
And call more often!
Tags: Crispin Burke, Madhu, Mark Grimsley, Michael Few, Peter Munson
