D&S gets some linky love

Election Guide Digest links to the CDACS page and the newest volume of Democracy and Society, which includes papers from CDACS’ Dec. 10, 2009 conference “Demonstrators and Dictators: Sharing Strategies on Repression and Reform.”  The full issue is currently available at CDACS and the D&S.com Journal page, individual articles will be coming soon.

Facts are annoying if they get in the way

Bing West raises good points about pop-centric COIN:

• There was no state-building or pop-centric coin in Anbar Province where the Sunni Awakening began.
• The Sunnis came to the US for help; the US military did nothing to win their hearts and minds.
• “If NATO so alienates the population by accidentally killing civilians that many more join the Taliban, then why do the Taliban deliberately kill three times as many ordinary Afghans without causing three times the backlash, leading to their defeat?”

See Captain’s Journal for an excellent and detailed analysis, as opposed to my mediocre and short one.

How to talk about elections in Swahili

Three cheers for the Mikocheni Report for starting an election lexicon for Tanzania. Her explanation of “fisadi” made me laugh out loud. Best definition of corruption ever. Can’t wait for the next installment.

Rep. Nita Lowey (Hypocrite-NY)

Yeah, what she said:

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), chair of the State & Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, announced that she would cut $4 billion requested for State Department and USAID funding for Afghanistan due to concerns about corruption…While the $4 billion in the fiscal year 2011 budget that Lowey wants to cut is no small amount of money, the 2011 Defense budget includes $138 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…It’s taking the easy way out to use the money as a vehicle for criticizing the war, playing on misperceptions about the efficacy of foreign assistance, while not facing any pushback from scary Republicans who will tell them they don’t support our troops.

What does July 2011 mean for Afghanistan?

Whatever you want it to mean.