Man, I bet this guy was pissed when Randy Lerner bought the club

Birmingham ain’t that nice, but it’s got to be better than Helmland. From today’s London Times:

There are even reports of British Muslims on the battlefield, with one dead Taleban fighter in Helmland found recently sporting an Aston Villa football club tattoo.

There is some kinda crazy-ass irony to the fact that one of Villa’s managing directors is Chuck Krulak. How wild is that coincidence?

Oh yeah, and the article is worthwhile even without this little tidbit, so check it out.

Response to Westbrook Sullivan at Weekend Economist

This piece is a bit different to what I usually post on the blog: more formal, somewhat less analytical, more big-picture. Ryan directed me to the geopolitics blog at Weekend Economist, co-edited by one of his Waseda classmates, and suggested that I submit something as a guest contributor. I took a brief look through some of the recent posts and chose one that (though it’s nearly a month old) seemed to demand response, as you’ll see below. I’m submitting it to WE, and if they decide they want to run it and/or any other associated material on their site, I’ll be sure to link back here.

UPDATE: The WE gents have been gracious enough to re-run this entry on their site.

I should note beforehand that I’ve met West, and he’s a very intelligent, well-spoken, and generally pleasant sort of fellow. It’s entirely possible that his original blog was written as a sort of Devil’s Advocate angle, but I feel like someone needed to tell the other side of the story. I hope he won’t find my piece particularly aggressive or otherwise offensive.

EDIT: For some reason I keep trying to call him “Westwood,” God knows why.

Hostages and the diplomatic response

Saturday’s IHT contains a very interesting piece by Ian Fisher about the way that governments deal with kidnappings and ransom demands. The article was no doubt conceived as a commentary on the recent prisoner exchange between the Taliban and Romano Prodi’s government, where 5 militants were released from Afghan jails in exchange for the return of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo. Though not mentioned in the piece, Friday’s capture of 15 British sailors and marines by the Iranian navy presents a similar challenge to a Western government; while the IRI doesn’t seem likely to execute the Britons, Jimmy Carter learned that even live hostages are a political nightmare.