Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Alexandre Debs and Nuno P. Monteiro, both of Yale University. In it, they discuss the causes of the Iraq War, a subject of some recent discussion at The Duck of Minerva. This post discusses their...
 I have already posted at the Duck and also at my blog on the spat between Tom Ricks and Peter Feaver. Today, Feaver responded to Ricks. I don't want to get into the he said/he said debate. I...
On CNN this Saturday morning, the day after the United Nations Security Council voted for Resolution 1973 (2011) to authorize a "no-fly zone" in Libya, the debate has centered around whether or not...
Back in 2003, the name Ricardo Sanchez appeared in several posts on my personal blog. At the time, the now-retired General was "the top U.S. military official in Iraq." Over the years, Sanchez...
Earlier I wrote that:We're still waiting on the actual document, but if we believe preliminary reports then we shouldn't hold our collective breath.The report is now available (PDF) for experts, reporters, and bloggers to parse. Whatever else, I expect that the fact that we'll be talking about it for a while demonstrates the agenda-setting power of the ISG.I'm reading the report right now and I don't see a great many surprises. But there are some striking passages. For one, the ISG report contends that:The United States cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it deals directly...
As previously mentioned. It seems this line of reasoning knows no partisan bounds.Today's Washington Post: As Iraq Deteriorates, Iraqis Get More Blame
Last week, we were treated to a stunning admission from the head General in Iraq. What he said was not all that stunning--anyone who has been paying attention could see that things in Iraq were getting bad-- but stunning in that he actually said it. As reported in the WaPo:A two-month U.S.-Iraqi military operation to stem sectarian bloodshed and insurgent attacks in Baghdad has failed to reduce the violence, which has surged 22 percent in the capital in the last three weeks, much of it in areas where the military has focused its efforts, a senior U.S. military spokesman said Thursday.The...