What I find odd is that two of my more substantive corrections to FM over the years apparently don’t make the cut. So I’ll offer them here:
Using sports as a metaphor for war is a dangerous exercise that will likely confuse you. Perhaps the American military didn’t do a good enough job learning from the failed intervention into Somalia, but comparing it to the NFL doesn’t qualify as analysis (unless you’re going to be a great deal more nuanced).
Regarding peak oil, FM didn’t understand my criticism of the Hubbert model in 2006, yet by 2008 he had come to agree with it. In 2006 I argued:
I also corrected FM when he was complaining that all Secretary Gates was doing was making speeches about change and not actually instituting change, but played out more in email than on the blog.
Also, while they aren’t on my site, an accurate cataloging of “smackdowns” would need to include a zinger like this one from Weeks and this concise bull’s eye response from the Small Wars Council.
Using sports as a metaphor for war is a dangerous exercise that will likely confuse you. Perhaps the American military didn’t do a good enough job learning from the failed intervention into Somalia, but comparing it to the NFL doesn’t qualify as analysis (unless you’re going to be a great deal more nuanced).
Regarding peak oil, FM didn’t understand my criticism of the Hubbert model in 2006, yet by 2008 he had come to agree with it. In 2006 I argued:
my criticisms concern the Hubbert model and its inability to account for the feedback effects between oil consumption, production, and price.Lo and behold, in 2008 FM was complaining that there wasn’t any econometric modeling of peak oil - with the implied desired to include price-demand feedback loops. [For the record, my conclusion is (and has been) that primarily due to this shortcoming, the peak oil model is insufficient and inappropriate to serve as the driving guide for policy decisions. Yes, oil is finite, but energy and national security policy must be informed by more nuanced models than geologically deterministic ones that hold oil demand as exogenous.]
I also corrected FM when he was complaining that all Secretary Gates was doing was making speeches about change and not actually instituting change, but played out more in email than on the blog.
Also, while they aren’t on my site, an accurate cataloging of “smackdowns” would need to include a zinger like this one from Weeks and this concise bull’s eye response from the Small Wars Council.
