Why are these people so glum?

For Independence Day, Foreign Policy has published a rogue's gallery of the 21 least free places on earth, with the unhappy people of North Korea in the unenviable first place. The excellent series is based on the rankings by Freedom House.

The 21 are concentrated, no surprise, in Africa, Asia, and the former Soviet Union. China is included but not Russia--why is that? (Perhaps Freedom House is a lagging indicator?) However, all or part of five of the former Soviet 'republics' are there, as are Tibet and Cuba, just in case we should think that the awfulness of Marxism has been bleached away since 1991. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Irresistible force meets immovable object

Barack Obama is off to meet the Wicked Witch of the East. Pictured is the cocky American mounting the red carpet of Air Force One for his excellent adventure in Moscow, as seen by The Economist. I often used this magazine's excellent pieces in my essays for War in the Modern World, and now I've added it to my blogroll ('The Blogs of War', below and to the right). Okay, it's not a blog, but I check it regularly as I do the others on that list. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

An O for Maine

Les Otten transformed Sunday River ski area in western Maine from a local hill to one of New England’s great resorts. Then he transformed the Boston Red Sox from has-beens to the winners of two World Series. Then … well, you get the idea.

Now Les has another idea: he’s going to transform Maine! To do that, he must first be elected governor, which to the horror of the state Democratic party he plans to do in 2010. Here’s a screen shot from his website:


Maine Democratics have gone ballistic, accusing Otten of having stolen his O from another eminently successful young man. Indeed it seems so. Where will this end? If nominated in September '10, will he kick off his campaign in front of faux Greek pillars? If he wins in November, will he give speeches from a podium emblazed Office of the Governor Elect? Blue skies! – Dan Ford

New & improved for July

New at the Warbird's Forum: Here's an artist's sketch of the Flying Tiger Heritage Park near what used to be the Guilin airfield in southwestern China. (It's now evidently a housing development.) Claire Chennault's headquarters cave is about all that remains of the WW2 airfield, and that's what inspired the museum, which is a collaborative effort of an American foundation and the Chinese government.

'I've been a fan of the [Brewster] Buffalo for a few decades now,' writes Andy Reid, 'so when the X-box 360 game "Battlestations Midway" ... was found to have the Buffalo in it, I just have to go and buy the game.' Why would anyone choose to fly the Brewster fighter in combat--even simulated combat--if he didn't have to? Read Andy's article here.

Some heavy reading: Edward Luttwak's Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace is a brilliant book, though not an easy read. I like the fact that he channels John Boyd: 'With Rommel leading them in person, the Germans could act must faster than the British could, much as a better fighter pilot with a better machine can turn inside the circle of a more sluggish opponent ... while his opponent is still trying to react to the first turn.'

And for fans of the immortal Piper Cub, which ten years ago replaced the Buffalo as my all-time favorite aircraft: ‘We would love to invite you to attend our 25th West Coast Cub Fly-in,' writes Mina Mandibles of Lompoc CA. The dates are July 10-12.

Also in California, Channel 10 in San Diego reports that ‘A 35-year-old man led officers Tuesday on a high-speed chase that ended when the stolen car he was driving crashed through a fence and into a vintage airplane at Gillespie Field, ending up in a hangar, police said.’ The plane was a Piper Cub, whose left wing is now somewhat the worse for wear. It won’t be heading off to Lompoc any time soon.

The automobile jumped a 50-foot ditch in order the reach the fence, the hangar, and the Cub. Blue skies! – Dan Ford

Beating up on Tegucigalpa

'And there were calls by Venezuela and Nicaragua for the United States to impose tough economic sanctions', reports the NYT with respect to restoring the ousted would-be president-for-life of Honduras.

Well, that should settle it! If Danny Ortega and Hugo Chavez are calling for sanctions, what can poor Barack Obama do but comply? He wouldn't want to be accused of hubris, after all. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Peddling faster on the exercise bike

The ‘cultural conservative’ Bill Lind has another typically acerbic essay on Anti-war.com in which he fears that in Afghanistan, General McChrystal and the Obama administration are just ‘trying to get somewhere by riding faster on an exercise bicycle’. And that’s just one of his milder criticisms of the US military’s counter-insurgency strategy, as outlined in Field Manual 3-24and as advocated by the omnipresent John Nagl. ‘Hubristic nonsense’ is Mr Lind’s term for our effort to transform Afghanistan into a society on the model of, say, Sweden:

'Afghanistan is to be made into a liberal, democratic, secular country with rights for women as defined by American feminists. That is baying for the moon, and it can have no other outcome but failure. Setting unattainable objectives makes doctrine irrelevant, because it guarantees defeat.'

Read it, if only because it’s such fun to see the right and left having a meeting of the minds out of sight behind the barn. Blue skies! – Dan Ford