Brooks and Ricks on the US Army

David Brooks is laudatory today.  He believes the Army has been converted to a counterinsurgency doctrine through the leadership of Gen. Petraeus.  Tom Ricks likes the Brooks narrative,

I must say I'm more skeptical.  There was an earlier post on The Best Defense in which a guest poster ended by saying:

 I would argue, though, that the truth is closer to this being a business as usual concept regarding something perceived as a fad: General Petraeus and COIN are the flavor of the month now, but once Iraq winds down for us and explodes for the Iraqis after our drawdown and Afghanistan drags on and gets more of a mess, will it still be an appetizing taste? Past history shows that it won't be. That leaves the real question as: how much can GEN Petraeus' influence change the dynamic?

There are a  bunch of comments on that post, most of which I've not read.  Personally I'm a bit cynical about the Army, the whole military actually. Supposedly after Vietnam they changed their culture. But either they forgot the change, and the lessons of the war, or the change was oversold.  Or maybe the sheer inertia of the Army is underestimated.  After all, you've got people who've invested their lives in armor or artillery who have every incentive to look for flaws in a COIN Army.  They're backed up by the military-industrial-Congressional complex.  Drinking tea with tribal leaders may be effective, but it doesn't create jobs in a Congressional district.

So my bottom line is Mr. Brooks may be over impressed. Petraeus may have done everything right, and everything it could, but it doesn't mean COIN is embedded in the Army's DNA yet.

No One Trusts Their Bureaucrats

This Politico article argues that the publics in all industrial democracies have lost their trust in bureaucrats and hierarchical organizations. Why? Because people are richer and more educated.

I'm not sure of the argument, but it is a useful reminder that America is not as unique as we'd like to think.

The Layers and Layers of Duplicity in the New Yorker

Malcolm Gladwell has a piece in the New Yorker elaborating on the layers of duplicity in intelligence, and counter-intelligence, and counter-counter-intelligence, and....   Matt Yglesias links to it.

Meanwhile, via Best Defense, Steve Coll comments on the possible attitude of Pakistani terrorists to the NY car bomber.

Update from Herndon

Back before the failed attempt at immigration reform before the last election, Herndon, VA gained some fame.  The town board had approved the establishment of a labor center, rather than having day laborers stand around a 7/11 waiting for employers.  The town board and mayor were then ousted from office (must have been in 2006) by opponents who said the center was encouraging illegal immigration and wanted the town to crack down.

Well, time passes and there was another election in Herndon yesterday. The Restonian blog picks up the story:

Mayor Steve DeBenedittis survived a last-minute write-in campaign, but the four challengers more or less ran on what we'll politely call an "anti-Arizona" platform and will have a majority on the council, which suggests that we'll have to go back to poking fun at the town's recreational activities instead of its AZ on the W&OD policies.

Because of the housing crash, and resulting recession, immigration has been less of a hot issue in the area. I suspect this result will not receive the attention that the 2006 election had, however.

No More "Leatherstocking Region"

Margaret Soltan reports the decision to rename the region formerly know as "Leatherstocking Region".  Seems the name, which honors James Fenimore Cooper's hero of 5 novels, doesn't do anything for tourists. 

Professor Soltan doesn't mourn the name change; indeed she adds insult to injury by quoting Mark Twain on the excellence of Cooper's literary talents. Twain was obviously jealous of Cooper.  After all, has Daniel Day Lewis ever played one of Twain's heroes?

Glenn Beck More Enlightened Than Lindsay Graham!

Politico reports Sen. Graham wants to bypass Miranda rights for American citizens suspected of terrorist acts.

Meanwhile, with my very ears, I heard Glenn Beck last night we shouldn't Mirandize aliens, but we should protect the rights of American citizens.

I guess I need to get my hearing checked, and if that's okay, head for the head doctors.

The Proposal and Chris Blattman

We recently watched The Proposal from Netflix.  For those who don't recall, it is a romantic comedy where the Sandy Bullock character needs to marry to stay in country and the INS heavy is going to question them both (forget the male lead's name) to see if the marriage is real.  The movie was good.

Now comes real life.  Chris Blattman is a Harvard prof from Canada who's going for his green card interview with his wife.  He's getting nervous:

"Now, normally you’d think a Canadian professor with a job and a work visa wouldn’t be a big worry to the INS. Plus I’m interviewing in Connecticut and not Arizona. But Jeannie quizzed me the other day, and it turns out (1) I have no idea what color her toothbrush is, (2) I overestimated how long we have been married, and (3) we live in different cities and  have different last names
Also, if you squint, you could mistake us for Gérard Depardieu and Andie MacDowell. This bodes ill. I could be blogging from Canada on Wednesday.

Blattman's international development blog is good.

The Fascinating World of Politics

Today is a red-letter day for those who enjoy the twists and turns of politics.

Ruth Marcus in the Post describes the background to the passage of the Arizona immigration law.  Seems they went to a "clean election" concept, which enabled people with no deep-pockets backers to win elections to the state legislature.  Without the vetting of the establishment, the legislators became more populist.

The Times describes a surge of African-American candidates encouraged by Obama's success, except these are Republican candidates. The idea black candidates can be elected in majority-white constituencies is empowering.


And the Times describes Britain's own shut-the-door politics, people who fear the impact of allowing all those Polish immigrants into the country, destroying Britain's way of life.  The O Henry twist here is the writer finds some of these fearful people at a mosque in Luton.

Don't you love human beings?

Followup to Lazy Students

From an interesting article on a Duke professor who tried having her students do a crowd-source assessment of their work:

She said that the students each ended up writing about 1,000 words a week, much more than is required for a course to be considered "writing intensive" at Duke (even though her course didn't have that designation). She also said that the writing (she read every word, even while not assigning grades) was better than the norm.

 This is incidental information, but 1,000 words is about 4 pages, which doesn't sound like all that much for a writing intensive course.  Of course, my memory is raising the bar, but seems to me that was roughly the standard for my freshman English class many years ago.

As for the main subject, the professor and students claim is the process worked very well.

Robot Bureaucrats

Thanks a bunch, Ann Althouse:

Also, for some reason, I don't find robotic voices intimidating. If I'm interacting with a bureaucrat, I prefer a robot.