Recently cadets at the U.S. Military Academy decided to honor Dr. Robert Neville, a fictional character played by Will Smith in the big-budget thriller I Am Legend. Cadets chose Dr. Neville as the character best representing "value-based leadership" in the first ever Cadet Choice Movie Award. Neville beat out such impressive runners-up as King Leonidas of 300 and the oft-wounded John McClane of Live Free or Die Hard. One must wonder, however, if the cadets have forgotten that leadership is a relational activity, i.e. a leader needs followers. Dr. Neville, by contrast, spends the the majority of the film alone (an early adaption of this story was entitled The Last Man on Earth), except for his faithful dog and of course the hordes of enraged vampiric zombies that emerge at night. In any event, does this selection presage an end to effective leadership from the hallowed halls of West Point or is this a shameless attempt to turn nothing into something?

Today products from China are literally everywhere. It was not always so, however. In 1973 trade between the U.S. and China was negligible. But perhaps China had something to offer. During discussions with then US National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, Mao Zedong, leader of communist China, offered (in jest) to send 10 million Chinese women to America, complaining that Chinese ladies were too fertile and threatened the country with demographic disaster. He also lamented that Chinese women were not ready to fight the Russians. At the end of the meeting, deciding Mao’s comments would anger the public, both men agreed to censor the comments from the official record. Mao’s comments about women are only now made available from recently released U.S. state department documents. Interestingly, though Mao never did send his bevy of Chinese women to America, U.S. families adopt thousands of Chinese children every year, 95% of whom are girls. In 1979 China instituted the one-child policy. Though undertaken to ease the strain of overpopulation, the practical effect of China’s birth control plan has been to create a situation in which China by 2020 will have 30 million more men than women, an issue of potential social instability.

Pakistan, the land of thousand worries, has added one more to the list. Coming on the same day which saw Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan kidnapped, two staff members of Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission have reportedly been kidnapped while out surveying the troublesome northwest provinces. The two technicians were conducting a geological survey when their vehicle was stopped by a masked gunmen. It is yet unknown who took the men, but the northwest region of Pakistan is rife with Taliban militants, many of whom it is believed use Pakistan as a base from which to conduct operations in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan, of course, remains in a delicate position following the recent assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. It’s stability is of paramount interest to many outsiders as Pakistan is seen as a crucial arena in the fight against al Qaeda. It’s stability and status are also all the more important because of it’s substantial nuclear arsenal.

They seem to hit the news in some way every week. Most recently the Archbishop of Canterbury said British Muslims should be able to live under Sharia Law. Now there is a new buzz about Britain’s Muslim population – inbreeding. The UK’s environmental minister, with the support of medical experts, has said the Muslim culture of inbreeding, i.e. consistent marrying of first cousins, is leading to a huge jump in birth defects. The claim, which many believe will cause controversy, says that British Pakistanis, while only accounting for 3% of all births, are responsible for a third of those children born with genetic defects. Ann Cryer, an MP who has also addressed this thorny issue, has said the British Pakistani community is "in denial at the moment" over the problems of inbreeding.

It was bound to happen and certain science fiction enthusiasts around the world are probably chomping at the bit. What are we talking about? Sex with robots, of course. Scottish chess master David Levy is the latest to tout this potential aspect of our future world in his new book Love and Sex with Robots. Levy views future carnal knowledge of robots optimistically, saying the development of artificial-intelligence will mean "[g]reat sex on tap for everyone, 24/7." When will this all happen? According to Levy, if you’re currently under 35, you will, in all likelihood, live to see robot love.

The talks have largely stalled and Kosovo’s future hangs in the balance. Though plans have been in the work for some time to transition Kosovo to independent rule, Serbia, who holds official sovereignty over the province, has thus far refused to brook any such recommendations. Russia, Serbia’s chief backer, however, has called for a new "road map; for the Albanian province. Russia maintains that were Kosovo to leave Serbia, the result would be an "uncontrollable crisis." To that end, Russia has proposed extending talks on Kosovo.

In 1870 the French Army of Châlons, nominally commanded by the Emperor Napoleon III, found itself surrounded at Sedan by the seemingly invincible Prussians. Unable to break out, the French surrendered on September 2, effectively ending the Second Empire. Following his capture the emperor himself was permitted to seek exile in England where he lived out the remainder of his days with his wife and son. The Imperial family now lies in St. Michael’s Abbey in Farnborough. The French government, however, would like Napoleon back. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Nice becoming a part of France (1860-2010), the government would like to return the former president and emperor to the continent. Nice was ceded to France during the reign of Napoleon III. Though France claims a right over the remains, the monks have thus far refused to part with the notable family.

Their placards read "Live free or die" and "No war, no fascism." They burned a copy of the clerical Kayhan newspaper. They shouted protests against the government, saying Iran "will not become Chile; The latest in a series of student protests in Tehran, Sunday’s activities drew 1,500 people, according to a member of the reformist Office to Foster Unity. The flash-point for the protests has been the detention of three students accused of printing anti-Islamic images in student publications. Calls by reformist leaders to repeal the incarceration have thus far gone unheeded. Despite the presence of riot police, students at Sunday’s gathering managed to break Tehran University’s main gate, allowing others outside to enter the campus. Some commentators see the student protests as a movement that is gaining momentum and therefore will likely come under increasing government scrutiny.

The topic of immigration is not just big news in the U.S. It seethes across Europe as well, and in Italy the rhetoric, at least in one area, has become particularly controversial. In Veneto, a rich region of northern Italy, Giorgia Bettio has got himself into some trouble. A city councilor for the city of Treviso, Bettio is none too fond of immigrants, especially after one reportedly threatened his mother. Bettio’s response at a recent council meeting: "With immigrants, we should use the same system the SS used, punish 10 of them for every slight against one of our citizens."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, isn’t too impressed with the United States. Impugning the notion that the U.S. is a "chosen nation," Williams said that the U.S. is a worse imperial power than Britain. The Archbishop insisted that while America eschews territorial acquisitions, the cornerstone of British imperialism, America drives after "influence and control." Calling on the U.S. to demilitarize its presence in the world, Williams offered up Britain’s management of colonial India as a better example of imperial administration, arguing that Britain "pour[ed] energy and resources into administering it and normalising it." Describing Iraq, the Archbishop attacked what he sees as the American imperial modus operandi: "go in on the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and that you can move on and other people will put it back together." Williams’ remarks were part of an interview he gave to Emel, a U.K. Muslim lifestyle magazine.

This need is actually recognized, at least in some quarters, and there are people doing something about it. This summer I’ve been doing research work the Institute for the Study of War and the director there understands well that "the American democratic system requires an electorate and leadership well versed in military matters." The mission of this institution is therefore "to educate current and future decision makers and thereby enhance the quality of policy debates now and for future generations." Hopefully the effort will start paying dividends as the institute expands and can help more civilian leaders cogently grasp military affairs.

Sorry I didn’t respond more quickly. I’ve been busy and out of town.

In any event – I think the new Counterinsurgency Manual (3-24) is probably one of the Army’s better publications, though I must admit I have only recently read it (skimmed parts of it) and it was a draft version at that.

To be brief the manual, in my estimation, provides a good conceptual framework in which to think about insurgencies and how to deal with them. It is surprisingly well-written for an Army field manual and does an admirable job of breaking down an insurgency into what we might call its component parts. Overall, I’d say its one of the Army’s better efforts in the realm of field manuals. I especially like the section that speaks of the "paradoxes of counterinsurgency." Several of the ideas in that section are really vital, but probably engender a visceral cry of anathema from many military leaders. Some examples – "Sometimes Doing Nothing is the Best Reaction;" "The More Force Used, the Less Effective It is;" "Most of the Important Decisions are Not Made By Generals" etc. The section about Leadership and Ethics during a Counterinsurgency is also good and very important.

I would agree that the real nature of Iraq’s sovereignty is fairly circumspect right now, but our international system doesn’t really have a classification to cover an intermediary state of affairs.
As for your frustration with the U.S. military’s seeming inability to "crush the Middle East," I would conjecture that the U.S. could, in fact, "crush" the Middle East with amazing celerity, were that the object. However, as military matters are usually (and preferably) subsumed under political goals/constraints, we face a situation in which the brunt of the U.S. military’s training and weaponry is largely useless. That is not to say that the military has not adapted. In fact, despite my earlier pessimism about the U.S. military’s ability to adjust, I do think the Army and Marine Corps in Iraq have made remarkable strides in the realm of tactical adaptation.

Good point and one that we have taken stock of previously, but clearly not remedied. In our next O-Nerd version we may have this fixed, but, for now, just tune your brain so that donkey and elephant equates to politics in general, not American politics in particular. Also, if you have a suggestion as to a better pictorial representation for this category, please let us know. Oftentimes our category icons were selected as the 70% solution because we needed something, rather than being the optimum possibility.

I think I’ll come in here and say that there is certainly a high measure of credibility, at least theoretically, in the criticism Occams has leveled against my little Islamic history. Since a written history can never recount every event within even the narrowest venue, the historian is left to decide what to include and what to leave by the wayside. Because of this, it is very important to recognize, as Occams has done, that in history as much is said by what is included as by what the author has chosen to leave out.

I’m not actually a communist, far from it, though I have been known to enjoy the film Red Heat on occasion.

As for real matters, the whole democratic aspect to O-Nerd seems most vexing to me. On the one hand, it seems that we would want to keep people’s Nerdlogs away from moderation, but would people want the ability to vote up a particularly good log and have it appear as a link on the main page?