Monday, October 22, 2012

A few notes

(1) The foreign policy (supposedly, at any rate) debate: The less said the better about this rather unilluminating exchange. The highlight for me was Obama's "horses and bayonets" and "we're not playing Battleship" riposte to Romney on the size of the navy.

(2) Dan Nexon has asked IR bloggers to help publicize this.

(3) Gary Hart on the NewsHour earlier this evening spoke warmly and sensibly about the legacy of George McGovern.

(4) If you're an IR type, stay tuned for my post on borders and conflict later this week.

[added later] (5) Greg Weeks on Romney's paternalism toward Latin America.
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3 comments:

hank_F_M said...




Has anyone told him that the M-16 rifle and M-4 carbine both have bayonet studs.

Also horse mounted soldiers seldom used bayonets especially if fighting mounted.

Special forces units in Afghanistan created an ad hoc mounted unit.

I knows it is nit picking, I but I had a good laugh when heard it.




Hank’s Eclectic Meanderings




October 23, 2012 at 9:40 PM
LFC said...

Point one: I'll take your word on that.

Point three (Special Forces in Afghanistan on horses): true.

Point two: I didn't take the remark to imply that cavalry used bayonets. Rather, it was a case of giving two exs. of rather outmoded -- generally speaking -- technologies.

The basic pt Obama was making -- that capabilities matter more than just #s of ships -- is, I think, right.

October 24, 2012 at 1:03 AM
LFC said...

P.s. I think most people, incl. the Pres., have at least some vague awareness that sabers, swords or lances of some kind -- not bayonets -- were what cavalry used.

(A while ago, when I had a [barely] working DVD player, I saw Spielberg's 'War Horse' [not a great movie by any means]. There is a depiction of a WW1 cavalry charge w swords, directed against an encampment w tents, which starts out by having the advantage of surprise but ends badly. Have no idea what the historical accuracy of that is, but by WW1 cavalry as a major arm is clearly on the way out, if not already finished.)

October 24, 2012 at 1:15 AM

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