From The Road

After a 12 day stay on Tanegashima Island, I have emerged from the IT Blackhole that has kept me from posting up these pictures.

I really have to knuckle down and sort through some photos and tell the tale of how I came to see Japan's HII-A Flight 9 launched into space. In the mean time, please enjoy these official pickies from JAXA.

By the way, here's a video clip I took.

REVISIONS IN NEED OF REVISING: WHAT WENT WRONG IN THE IRAQ WAR

This is a report from the Strategic Studies Institute. I've only started reading it and already it has won me over:

...critics also have neglected the larger lesson thatthere are certain limits to
what military power can accomplish. Forcertain purposes, like the creation
of a
liberal democratic societythat will be a model for others, military
power is a
blunt instrument,destined by its very nature to give rise to
unintended and
unwelcomeconsequences. Rather than “do it better next time,”
a better lesson
is“don’t do it at all.”

The full report is here.