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April 21, 2006

Reading the Iraqi Insurgency

Just a quick post - having been distracted into spending most of my Friday night reading a report on the insurgency in Iraq, thought I may as well share this with anyone who's interested before heading out. The International Crisis Group released a report on IN THEIR OWN WORDS: READING THE IRAQI INSURGENCY a couple of months ago, and this is one of the best things I've read on the subject. By analysing the texts and tactics of the insurgency, they suggest that the insurgency is using networked warfare to challenge the US-lead Coalition in Iraq - and it seems to be winning. The report's worth reading both for an appraisal of the current situation, and for hints as to what might come next. It's a free download, and pretty concise as well :)

Posted by jon_mendel at 11:04 PM

April 10, 2006

nuclear strike on Iran "completely nuts"

Governments can often rather fudge what they say. However, responding to New Yorker reports of a possible US nuclear attack on Iran's weapons bunkers , UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that this suggestion was "completely nuts". I can only hope that he is right - I'd thought these speculations had rather been stopped by a Union of Concerned Scientists analysis which showed that the fallout from the use of nuclear bunker buster bombs against Iran would kill millions and spread to cause harm in Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.

So, hopefully the use of nuclear weapons against Iran really has been taken off the table. If not, I guess there might be some slight, pointless satisfaction to be taken from the fact that a UK government minister has nowdeclared international politics to be completely nuts.

Posted by jon_mendel at 08:02 PM