MILITARY LESSONS from the Ethiopians.

Plus, more thoughts from Austin Bay.

UPDATE: A reader emails:

I’m a Major serving in a combat battalion in Iraq right now. I’m a believer in the overall mission, etc, etc, which I presume Cliff May is if he writes for National Review. Having said that, I think his comment is asinine. It’s like saying, “The New York Mets blew out the Atlanta Braves, how come the Knicks can’t beat the Hawks by the same margin?” Completely different sports, completely different conflicts.

It’s true that they’re different conflicts. It’s also true, though, that the tactics of insurgency work mostly against Western armies with lots of press coverage and antiwar agitation at home, and not so much against armies that are unconcerned with looking bad when they kill the enemy. I think that was part of May’s point.