All I know about defense.

Since I brought up women doing awesome things below, I should also post this article from Spencer Ackerman about the prominence of women in counterinsurgency studies. It is the last in a very good series and Spencer's band is playing on Saturday up in Baltimore, which I am trying to talk people into attending just so they can make me jealous.

Also, everybody who cares about counterinsurgency at all needs to be reading abu muqawama. It is an excellent blog, I need to link to them more, but their posting is normally so informative and above my knowledge level that I have nothing to add. I learn something almost everytime I read it, which is a rare and wonderful thing.

If you want to read about defense and be utterly depressed, there is a report about the way Congressman Curt Weldon's defense company fleeced everyone by setting up a system (which would have been illegal in the US) for supposedly sprucing up very old tanks from Hungary for use in Iraq. It was set up with a contract that allowed the company to make money no matter what they actually provided, but at least it is distracting me from FISA. Speaking of FISA, Balkinization has been consistently going very in-depth on the legal ramifications of the bill.