The Economist.  A new type of war in Iraq.  The upshot:

1. This war may not (or should not if the Iraq learned anything from the last war) be fought in the open.  It will likely be fought in urban environments.
2. Second, strong controls on civilian casualties will make it difficult for US soldiers to prosecute the war. 
3. Third, most of our high tech weaponry is useless in urban battlefields.

Here is a very interesting article on the lessons learned by the Russians in Grozny.   Some interesting snippets:

The psychological impact of high intensity urban combat is so intense that you should maintain a large reserve that will allow you to rotate units in and out of combat. If you do this, you can preserve a unit for a fairly long time. If you don't, once it gets used up, it can't be rebuilt.  According to a survey of over 1300 (Russian) troops, about 72% had some sort of psychological disorder (as a result of the fighting around Grozny). Almost 75% had an exaggerated startle response. About 28% had what was described as neurotic reactions, and almost 10% had acute emotional reactions.

Russian wounded and dead were hung upside down in windows of defended Chechen positions. Russians had to shoot at the bodies to engage the Chechens.

The Russians were surprised and embarrassed at the degree to which the Chechens exploited the use of cell phones, Motorola radios, improvised TV stations, light video cameras, and the Internet to win the information war.  

Chechens weren't afraid of tanks and BMPs. They assigned groups of RPG gunners to fire volleys at the lead and trail vehicles. Once they were destroyed, the others were picked off one-by-one.

Russians were not surprised by the ferocity and brutality of the Chechens, but they were surprised by the sophistication of the Chechen use of booby traps and mines. Chechens mined and boobytrapped everything, showing excellent insight into the actions and reactions of the average Russian soldier. Mine and boobytrap awareness was hard to maintain.

Let us hope that Saddam and his commanders have not given up pretensions of fighting this war as a conventional army. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
11:58:02 PM    

What consumer electronics markets could a hand-held hard drive gut (when thinking about this, it is important to think of 2010 when you will likely have a TB in a hand-held package)?  A fully realized system would radically impact the following:

1. Digital still cameras.
2. Digital video cameras.
3. Portable radios.
4. Portable CD players.
5. TiVo (if shipped in combo with a base station that contains a hard drive).
6. Digital audio recorders.
7. Car DVD and tape players (with FM transmission add-ons for the Archos or iPod).

In all of those cases, the core element is the portable hard drive.  The recording and/or playback feature functionality is merely a dumb peripheral (directly connected or connected via wireless).  Add wireless and server capabilities and it can power your PC, your TV, and your stereo.  It allows you to take your library of media on the road with you.  It allows you to share your media library with friends and family.  If application software was designed with this device in mind, you could take your favorite applications, and their data, with you and run them on any computer you choose to run them on.  There are even some interesting things that could be done with wireless phones such as providing synchronization to provide bottomless voicemail storage and more. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]

this is a GREAT idea!
11:56:01 PM    

Safire.  Surprising Germany.  Hmmm.

That split confirms a more profound surprise: the notion that Paris and Berlin could take charge of a "common foreign policy" for all of Europe turns out to be pipe-dreaming by presumptuous bureaucrats.

Also, this article mentions the new look at the redeployment of US troops from Germany to another locale (although it mentions eastern European settings, I think that we will eventually end up with most of those troops in Iraq on a permanent basis).

This increasingly shaky German government is due for yet another surprise: a briefing in Brussels Friday of a U.S. Congressional delegation led by McCain and Lieberman by the new NATO supreme commander, U.S. Marine Gen. James Jones, revealed a developing U.S. strategy. It holds that the 70,000 U.S. troops garrisoned in Germany, accompanied by their 70,000 dependents, make up too many forces with too outdated a mission stationed too far from potential trouble at too high a cost.

[John Robb's Radio Weblog]
11:55:00 PM    

Scientists of Very Small Draw Disciplines Together. Nanotechnology, biotechnology, electronics and brain research are converging into a field of science vital to the nation's security. By Barnaby J. Feder. [New York Times: Technology]

Note the "We don't have Departments organized for this"...key concept!
11:52:06 PM