solarbird | a bunch of things i thought were interesting

This is neat; West Point's translation of the al-Qaeda strategic studies book, The Management of Savagery. It also includes a link to an analysis paper on how to work against this strategy. Hopefully someone in the administration will be reading this material. It's just too bad they've cut back so much on the search for Osama Bin Laden. And while I think it's probably bullshit, I can't say the timing of this little pronouncement looks good, does it?

Meanwhile, in sad and wretched North Korea, StrategyPage reports that Chinese aid flows have stopped because the North Korean government has started commandeering the trains the aid comes in on. No, really. (Found by

st_rev.) And in case you've lost track, here's a Seymour Hersh story on what he thinks is going on in the Iranian situation.

Wednesday's miles: 12.1
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1039.9
Miles out of Rivendell: 581.9
Miles out of Lothlórien: 119.9
Miles to Rauros Falls: 289.1

In other news, Vice-President Dick Cheney appears to be betting on bad news, or, at least, his financial operatives are. And this is a hell of a thing, ain't it?