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War of the Babies--When Modern Warfare and Demography Square Off, Demography Wins
What was the most important battle of the late 20th century? You could argue it was the one that took place on the southern border of Morocco on November 6, 1975. Of course, we're not talking about another Stalingrad here. In fact, what happened that day isn't usually called a battle at all. Its official name is "The Green March." On one side were 350,000 unarmed Moroccan civilians carrying green (Islamic) flags, and on the other—miles inside the border, because they were hoping not to have to confront any of the marchers—was a shaky, demoralized token force of Spanish troops pretending to defend a former Spanish colony, the Spanish Sahara. The Moroccans had to think outside the traditional military-conquest box. [Read More]
The Surge--Is It Soup Yet?
Is the Surge working—really? Sure, it’s working fine, just like my sister’s car. I had to drop her off at the garage where they were looking over her Ford Probe. It’d been overheating since she bought it, and there was something wrong with the alternator, too. But she didn’t have the money to fix it so she asked the mechanic, “Can’t I just keep leaving the heater on and adding water and using my battery charger?” The mechanic blinked a couple times and said, “Yeah, you could do that….” Meaning, “You could, if you want to drive around sweating, wait for the charger to power up when you’re late for work, and generally ruin your life for the sake of a hopeless junker." That’s the best answer I can give on the Surge: if you’re willing to go on throwing away men and money to prop up a lost cause, then yeah, it’s working great! Just like my sister’s dumb techniques; they kept the car on the road all right, but she'd have been way better off just junking it, which she ended up doing anyway. [Read More]
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