Dakota

Siberian Squill Me Not On Mother's Day

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Last year we embedded Anita Renfroe's now famous William Tell Overature to motherhood in our Mother's Day entry. Subsequently, by popular demand, the hilarious preacher's wife has produced yet another version, which mothers will appreciate almost as much.

Oh dear! You forgot it was Mother's Day? Well it's never too late right here in cyberspace, someecards has a variety of droll greetings that defy obnoxious Hallmark sentimentality and save trees, so get busy.

Photo note: Mother's Day is always a perfect excuse for a flower picture. We were hoping that these little fellows were forget me nots but they aren't, they're Siberian Squill, a less than romantic name.

Oh Goody, Field Manual 3-24 Has Arrived

You may have heard the term counterinsurgency doctrine tossed around , partly because General Petraeus is such a big fan. To elucidate : "The counterinsurgency doctrine emphasizes the use of minimal force, with the intent of winning the hearts and minds of a civilian population." Yesterday NPR interviewed Col. John Nagl one of the authors of the newly released Field Manual 3-24, the army's spanking new counterinsurgency handbook

Although there is much disagreement within the army over whether troops should be trained in more conventional methods as well, there is another issue that all of us here at Dakota found pretty chilling:

Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, whose research helped transform the Army's organizational structure in the 1990s, doesn't necessarily dispute that point [Nagl's that people will wage war from among their tribes and family units], but he says he disputes the idea that the Army's adoption of counterinsurgency has made it a better force.

He argues that this viewpoint encourages a more interventionist posture within the Army — a position that will make it easier for the Army to wage war in the future.

"I think it's downright dangerous because it suggests that we can repeat the folly of Iraq," Macgregor says. "That somehow or another, next time we can get it right without understanding that if the population is living within a social structure that doesn't want to change, if the population doesn't want you in the country, if there is no legitimate government to begin with, your intervention is doomed to inevitable failure."

But Macgregor and Gentile are swimming against a powerful current. Counterinsurgency doctrine is intimately tied to a new role the Army has formally carved out for itself.

Earlier this year, it added "stability operations" to its growing portfolio of jobs. So a mission once derided as "nation-building" and "peacekeeping" by powerful figures in the Bush administration is now a key part of how the Army sees its role around the world.

Oh. Oy.

Photo note: Bumper sticker on the back window of a Prius -- Obstructing an already obstructed view -- thus a metaphorophoto

A Pretty Picture, Or Is It?

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all of us
here at Dakota
are having
a bit of trouble
getting it up
so to speak

probably
because
Hillary
isn't

Photo note: Having trouble posting so just decided to put up a pretty picture and see what happened.

Addendum: she can throw back the shots with the boys