Good morning. I am one of the two Matt’s that Judah has asked to pinch hit for him this week while he vacations here in the States. He asked me to do this even if I at one point insulted his age by not knowing who Warren Zevon was. But since Judah is one of my favorite bloggers, it is an honor to be part of the team steering the ship this week in his absence. Thanks to him and Hampton for organizing this and allowing Matt and me to run wild and hang our hats here for a few days. What will be posted here will also be cross-posted to the site where I usually blog, Foreign Policy Watch.
There are a few things I won’t be discussing this week: defense spending and the recently unveiled budget presented by SECDEF Gates, the European Union, the international economic recession, and Israel/Palestine. In each of these areas, I’m some combination of unprepared, uneducated, or uninterested in wading into potentially uncomfortable waters. Apologies go to any regular WPR readers who were hoping for commentary on the above topics. My colleague, Matt, however, will probably have something to add on any of those fronts. All opinions presented here will be my own and not very well formed.
I’m still waking up, but I will return later today with some meatier content. In the meantime, I want to leave you with a story that is as American as apple pie: three Navy SEALS snipers taking out lawless pirates threatening to kill an innocent man who earlier offered himself as a hostage to save his crew and the hijacking of their cargo ship. Andrew Exum, who knows more about this sort of stuff than the Good Lord intended, has more.