Michael Hodges’s new book on the history of the Kalashnikov assault rifle is clearly a work that fits in with this blog. And we can say that it’s also well worth reading; not just for the knockabout, although there are some good stories (the brothel in the Izhevsk arsenal; Mikhail Kalashnikov’s special elk soup). As…
Read More Review: “AK47: The Story of the People’s Gun”This is interesting; apparently one of the problems with Iraq’s electricity supply is that the original control centre was looted back in 2003, with the result that local switching stations were instead given instructions on the phone. Over time, however, these sites have come under the control of whoever has the most guns; and they…
Read More Taking over the systemThe clock is ticking ever faster on British withdrawal from Iraq. This is of course nothing but a good thing. However, as I’ve said before, this is also a reason to hold the Government’s feet to the fire; the more time passes, the harder it is going to be to get people out. Nobody wants…
Read More Ticking of the clockDisturbing Search Request of the decade: 213.42.21.150, searching Google for “who would handle a commercial shipment of arms and ammunitions from Sharjah to Baghdad”. That’ll be someone downstream of AS5384, or Etisalat (Emirates Telecom), the UAE’s fun-loving national telco monopoly, best known for blocking more websites than China. Ha. But there is some actual substance…
Read More War Profiteers Read My WeblogThe Government is trying to define down the Iraqi employees it is under pressure to accept as refugees after the forthcoming UK withdrawal from Basra. With the Murdoch press, it is signalling that some 91 interpreters might be accepted, but at the same time that there are as many as 20,000 people involved. That figure…
Read More We Still Can’t Turn Them AwayIt’s quite surprising literally no-one during the recent reopening of the missing Iraqi guns story has thought fit to mention the delicious kicker that the shipment travelled in an aircraft chartered by a company that had just been shut down for cocaine-smuggling. Except for various random forum users. Jet Line International, for it was they…
Read More 99 Tonnes of Guns, ReduxIraqi employees: suddenly they’re everywhere. On the front of the Times. In its leader. On the main news. On BBC Radio 5 Live. In Ming Campbell’s talking points. In Gordon Brown’s inbox. Even here. You might almost think there was some sort of campaign going on. Now, there’s more; video. There’s also a useful sidebar…
Read More Roll Bandwagons, Roll!This row over at Tim Lambert’s, also here, reminded me of something I’ve noticed around the blogosphere. There was this, too, and also this. They’re all arguments from meta-analysis of some sort, and they’re all wrong. They’re all wrong in the same way, too; the first, David Kane’s beef with the Lancet survey of mortality…
Read More Scienciness, againBritish withdrawal from southern Iraq is now in the foreseeable future, with the concentration at Basra Air Station, the impending closure of Basra Palace PJCC, and the departure of the first 500 troops. Therefore, it is high time to consider the fate of Iraqis who took our side during the occupation. Denmark, whose government originally…
Read More Resist the betrayalA commenter asks about non-fatal casualties in the British sector in Iraq, suggesting that the mass firefight in which Major Paul Harding was killed might be going on all the time. You ask, we answer. Here’s a chart showing UK wounded in action, by admissions to field hospitals, and killed, from June, 2006, to May,…
Read More Casualties