Military
I recorded a podcast last week with David Tucker who has been visiting Ashland for most of the past six months or so. We discussed many things, but primarily his new book, Illuminating the Dark Arts of War: Terrorism, Sabotage, and Subversion in Homeland Security and the New Conflict.
David also discussed these issues with the Ashbrook Scholars on Friday at a colloquium. They, too, had a good conversation which you can listen to here.
Presidency
Steve Knott, who teaches at the Naval War College, has just published Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics, which offers a vigorous defense of President Bush's national security policies. Knott (who teaches in the MAHG program) argues that the assessment of any presidency requires a "decent interval" before judgment can be pronounced.
I've read all of Steve's books (though not the Don Knotts book in the link) and respect his scholarship and judgment greatly. He certainly picks his books' subjects well: Reagan, Hamilton, and covert actions. This is the defense Bush and his team should have been giving when they had the power (and the duty) to do so. Their failure to do so has led to cynicism in the public, the Obama election, the rise of Ron Paul, and decline in support for the vigorous foreign policy our country requires today. May Knott's work reverse these trends and advance prudence in politics.
Military
Foreign Affairs
Herewith my annual plea that Roberta Wohlstetter's 1962 classic study, Pearl Harbor, be read by anyone interested in strategy, intelligence, and the post-9/11 world. (Here's a link to the googlebooks version.) As in 9/11, as Wohlstetter shows, U.S. leaders and military knew something was up, but the different "signals" were misinterpreted or not shared with other parts of the government. And unanticipated Japanese technological progress (combined with boldness) made possible a stunning attack. Try to track down her study of the Cuban missile crisis as well.
As I write this, I recall that the book was first called to my attention by the late Claremont professor Bill Rood. It would be fitting if this and Roberta Wohlstetter's other work were recalled at the 2012 APSA at the Claremont Institute panels.
History
My name is Tim McDonald, I'm a native of the Isle,I was born among old Erin's bogs and left when but a child.My granddad fought in '98 for Liberty so dear;He fought and fell on Vinegar Hill as an Irish Volunteer.Then raise the harp of Erin, boys, the flag we all revere--We'll fight and fall beneath its folds like Irish Volunteers!When I was driven from my home by an oppressor's hand,I cut my sticks and greased my brogues and come o'er to this land.I found a home and many friends, and some that I love dear,Be jeebus I'll stick to them like bricks, an Irish volunteer.Then fill your glasses up, my boys, and drink a hearty cheer,To the land of our adoption and the Irish volunteer.Now when the traitors in the South commenced a warlike raid,I quickly then threw down my hod, to the Devil went my spade!To our recruiting office then I went, that happened to be near,And joined the good old Sixty-ninth like an Irish volunteer.Then fill the ranks and march away, no traitors do we fear;We'll drive them all to blazes, says the Irish volunteer!When the Prince of Wales came over here and made a hubbaboo,Oh, everyone turned out, you know, in gold and tinsel too;But the good old Sixty-ninth, they didn't like these lords or peers;They wouldn't give a damn for kings, the Irish volunteers!We love the land of Liberty, its laws we do hold dear,But the Devil take nobility, says the Irish volunteer!Now if the traitors in the South should ever cross our roads,We'll drive them to the Devil as Saint Patrick did the toads.We'll give them all short nooses that come just below the ears,Made good and strong from Irish hemp by Irish volunteers.And here's to brave McClellan, whom the army now reveres!He'll lead us on to victory, the Irish volunteers.Now fill your glasses up, my boys, a toast come drink with me:May Erin's Harp and the Starry Flag united ever be;May traitors quake, and rebels shake, and tremble in their fears,When next they meet the Yankee boys and the Irish volunteers!God bless the name of Washington! that name this land reveres;Success to Meagher, Nugent, and their Irish Volunteers!
Military
Military
History
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;For he to-day that sheds his blood with meShall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,This day shall gentle his condition:And gentlemen in England now a-bedShall think themselves accursed they were not here,And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaksThat fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Foreign Affairs