30 JULY: A year ago on Ink Spots

Ok, so I'm a day late on this one, but I'm sure you won't have noticed. Just a quick one today; it's Saturday morning, blessedly un-humid and about 80 degrees here in DC, and I'm making ribs, so the blog is going to have to play second fiddle (as if it doesn't already)!

This time last year, we were just getting to know Starbuck (of Wings Over Iraq fame) and Schmedlap. Which was good timing, because they were both writing about PowerPoint, and who would've wanted to miss that? Especially hope you'll check out the link within that post to Schmedlap's PPT briefing on why PowerPoint sucks.

Gunslinger took a brief look at a confrontation between Iraqi security forces and American troops responding to an incident, worrying about the potentially dire portent of this kind of clash. In the intervening year, we've moved closer to the departure of the bulk of American troops (which reminds me: one month from tomorrow, on 01 SEP 10, OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM officially becomes OPERATION NEW DAWN. So mark your calendars), but there's still a chance for this kind of thing in the future. You guys heard about any similar incidents?

A year ago, former Liberian president Charles Taylor was on trial. He was saying some pretty nutty stuff. He's still on trial. On the bright side, I guess that's due process. Check out this excellent resource on the progress of the trial, courtesy of the Open Society Institute. (Lil linked to it last year but sort of buried the lede. If you're interested in the trial, read that website!)

So, uh, Exum was on TV last year and I live-blogged his appearance and busted his balls a whole bunch in the process. I think it would be a pretty egregious oversight if I left that out of the one-year-later just because we're buddies now, so here you go. One interesting note from that interview: Ex said that August of 2010 would be a good time to gauge progress in Afghanistan. So, uh, start in on that tomorrow, guys.

For just about a year now, Multi National Forces-Iraq has been Mono National Forces-Iraq (OK, it's actually been U.S. Forces-Iraq, but I made that joke a year ago and wanted to demonstrate continued faith in it).

Also, briefly: Cracks started appearing in the COIN approach in Afghanistan, Tom Ricks didn't know what he was talking about (but who cares?), and I found an awesome cartoon that seemed to capture what being a COINdinista is all about.

Have a good weekend, folks.

23 JULY: A year ago on Ink Spots

This time last year, the whole Iranian election saga was still shaking itself out. Mystifyingly, Ahmadinejad still hasn't "defeat[ed] the global arrogance" [that's us! And by "us" I mean America, not Ink Spots].

We did our second edition of "what we're reading," highlighted how badly Russia sucks, and lamented the governorship of Rick Perry.

Alma told you all about the first Small Wars Journal Writing Competition. (And how about an update on the winners (question 1, question 2) with links to the pdf version of SWJ in which their essays were published?)

The there was the Army's temporary end-strength increase, the Pakistani military's anti-Mehsud (remember him?) campaign, and al-Shabaab causing problems for Kenya.

And finally: the military-industrial complex pimps itself to unsuspecting Metro riders, and Gunslinger reminded us that veterans can still be dumb about national defense (not through his own example, obviously, but Tammy Duckworth's!). Oh yeah, and I took a little swim through my purportedly legitimate area of expertise -- the land of pierogis and potatoes -- with a little piece on Ukraine's energy dispute(s) with Russia.

16 JULY: A year ago on Ink Spots

A couple of weeks ago I suggested that I was going to inaugurate a new "Last year on Ink Spots" feature. Then I linked to one post and forgot about the whole thing for two weeks. But really, this is a better idea: seeing as we're pretty low traffic (read: basically no traffic) on the weekends, I figure I'll post a "last year" update every Friday to give folks some old stuff to hash over while we're playing golf and drinking beer and [whatever French people do on Saturdays]. So for this edition, I'll point you back to some things we wrote about in the first half of July last year.

This time last year, the Afghan presidential elections hadn't yet happened [/been stolen]. We told you about James Carville heading over to Kabul to advise Ashraf Ghani's campaign. I wonder if Carville had anything to say about the way the whole deal shook out (even though Ghani didn't end up being particularly competitive).

Gunslinger started a trend with a little piece metrics and assessments (through the lens of Robert McNamara's analytical obsession), a subject we'd return to later. Alma also chimed in on the former Defense Secretary in the week of his death. And I took a look at the LA Times' effort to reconceptualize Donald Rumsfeld as a latter-day McNamara.

Just as a reminder of how long people have been complaining about our Afghan confusion: last year Gunslinger gave kudos to Michael Cohen for his "Afghan Mission Creep Watch," a feature that continues to this day (if not under precisely the same title).

Lest you think this whole looking-back exercise is just a vehicle for me to say, in true Herschel Smith fashion, "look how right I've been all along!", here's an example of a position I took that has changed pretty significantly: I wrote a skeptical piece about the effectiveness of drone strikes as part of the broader strategy, coming down on the side of restraint. Not sure I feel the same on that subject these days.

But look, sometimes we have been right, like when I wrote about how stupid the F-22 program is. And Alma summarized Rory Stewart's pessimism about Afghanistan, concerns that have largely been borne out over the last year. Oh yeah, and in the midst of complaining about everybody wearing ACUs all the time, I used the occasion of GEN McKiernan's retirement to tell people criticizing him for "not getting it" to STFU.

And finally, two other noteworthy bits: comments on a pretty hilarious article about a fervent young American Baptist advising and mentoring a middle-aged Afghan Army mullah, and Gunslinger with a much-needed call for sanity in the COIN-versus-conventional-versus-hybrid-versus-whatever debate. (We'd be well advised to heed it today.)

Ok folks, no more complaints about not having anything to read this weekend!

A year ago on July 1

Ok, so I said no new, flashy features, but I was lying. Look at this new and flashy feature: Last Year on Ink Spots!

This isn't really going to work on an every-day basis, considering that we're a bunch of chumps and didn't come close to producing one high-content post per day. But some days we did, and some days we even got a pretty good discussion going, so every now and then I'm going to point you back to what we were writing about on this day a year ago.

And so: last year on July 1, we talked Andrew Krepinevich and China's "Assassin's Mace" area-denial concept.