A lousy book review (or "Why did I even buy this?")

Just added to my library Japan's Blitzkrieg: The Allied Collapse in the East 1941-42, by Bernard Edwards. Now, just based on the title, you'd think that this book is right up my World War II alley and fits perfectly with my ongoing interest in the activities of the slender American, British, Dutch and Australian forces trapped in the western Pacific in the days after Pearl Harbor to face Imperial Japan basically by themselves. And you'd be right.

So, when I got this book, I immediately went to the section on the Battle of the Java Sea, February 27-28, 1942. And was aghast at what I read:
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Sellout to Russia

Just when you thought Obama's defense and foreign policy couldn't get any worse:

At the tail end of his 90 minute meeting with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev Monday, President Obama said that he would have “more flexibility” to deal with controversial issues such as missile defense, but incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to give him “space.”
The exchange was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room for remarks by the two leaders.
The exchange:
President Obama: On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.
President Medvedev: Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…
President Obama: This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.
President Medvedev: I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

To be fair, discussions about needing space or room to maneuver in foreign affairs for domestic political reasons are held all the time. It's practical and not treasonous (layman sense, not legal sense).

But in terms of the substance here ... well, let's just say there is a reason why the Democrats are perceived as being very, very weak on national security. It's crap like this: effectively promising to give away our missile defense for nothing.
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New additions to the library

Shiloh, 1862, by Winston Groom.
The Civil War in the West: Victory and Defeat from the Appalachians to the Mississippi, by Earl J. Hess.

I've always found the western theater in the Civil War to be more interesting than the eastern one. Much more maneuver, covered a much larger area. And whereas in the eastern theater the incompetence was almost entirely on the side of the Union (i.e. the "good guys") with such idiots as Irvin McDowell, George McClellan, John Pope and Ambrose Burnside, in the western theater it was largely Confederate, featuring John Pemberton, Braxton Bragg and John Bell Hood.

Was there an attempted coup in China?

Foreign Policy seems to think it's a possibility:

Last week, controversial politician Bo Xilai, whose relatively open campaigning for a seat on China's top ruling council shocked China watchers (and possibly his elite peers, as well), was removed from his post as Chongqing's party secretary. He hasn't been seen since. Rumors of a coup, possibly coordinated by Bo's apparent ally Zhou Yongkang, are in the air.
Western media has extensively covered the political turmoil: Bloomberg reported on how coup rumors helped spark a jump in credit-default swaps for Chinese government bonds; the Wall Street Journal opinion page called Chinese leadership transitions an "invitation, sooner or later, for tanks in the streets." The Financial Times saw the removal of Bo, combined with Premier Wen Jiabao's strident remarks at a press conference hours before Bo's removal as a sign the party was moving to liberalize its stance on the Tiananmen square protests of 1989. That Bo staged a coup is extremely unlikely, but until more information comes to light, we can only speculate on what happened.

Reading official Chinese media response about Bo makes it easy to forget how much Chinese care about politics. The one sentence mention in Xinhua, China's official news agency, merely says that Bo is gone and another official, Zhang Dejiang, is replacing him.  But the Chinese-language Internet is aflame with debate over what happened to Bo and what it means for Chinese political stability.

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A new Sino-Japanese war in the offing?

A little too early to seriously worry about that, but this bears watching:

Japan's prime minister issued a new warning about Beijing's military build-up Sunday, two days after his government made a fresh protest over a Chinese ship's entering waters near a chain of islands claimed by both countries.

In an address to graduating cadets of the Self Defense Forces, Prime Minister Yoshiko (sic) Noda cited China and North Korea as the main military challenges Japan faces in Asia.

"Circumstances in our surrounding regions are increasingly severe, complicated, and remain uncertain, as depicted in moves by North Korea including nuclear and missile issues, and China, which is reinforcing its military capabilities and continuing activities in surrounding waters," Mr. Noda said in his speech at the National Defense Academy in the Tokyo suburb of Yokosuka.

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Almost ...

I just (finally) turned in Adrianople. It should be posted in the next few weeks.

The Ides of March

I hope everyone wore black today, because we must mourn the anniversary of the murder of Caius Julius Caesar by idiots in the Roman Senate.


Statue of Roman dictator Caius Julius Caesar, outside the Roman Forum (Forum Romanum; il Foro Romano) and the Forum of Caesar (Forum Iulium; il Foro Giulio) on the Via dei Fori Imperali in Rome. (My own photograph.)


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