Couple Thoughts on Riots and Iraqis

It has been a busy few weeks. I moved from London to Washington DC, Father of Money debuted on kindle, London burned, and Baghdad blew up. A couple observations.

1. The fact that riots occur among a wide swath of London disprove everything ever written about COIN.  You will not find an environment where there is more social support, policing capacity, etc, than London, and yet the insurgents looters still held sway for the better part of three days.  I guess we should direct more aid dollars their way, or maybe we finally have an AfPak endstate: when Islamabad looks like London the fight will be over (insert joke here, about how London already looks like a South Asian capital)

2. The Iraq bombings prove, yet again, that Iraq is well on its way to a military dictatorship.  You heard from me first, in this 2004 interview, Iraqis will accept the yoke if it means they will stop dying in markets.  This Ramadan, the blood-letting is about keeping people on edge enough to be happy when the new leader comes to power (and strips them of any ideas of liberty).