Been tied up on something. A great post from John and some fun discussion under the banner. For me political legitimacy comes from two sources - a group having the sole ability to apply violence in a particular area and popular support when it does so. Afghanistan is a long way from that as a measure.

John, Congratulations. Sounds like a blast. As for self-publishing I'd tend to argue for it, once you have a name in a particular field. I know of some quite senior academics that make less than £500 a year from their published works (note the plural), and their publishers don't even bother to tell them when a new edition is published. OK, granted they are writing in the bowels of the academic world (dewey decimal code: politics, dull but worthy). That said other academics who have written a solid, basic textbook do quite well. Swings and roundabouts.

Just passing through and spotted this and an odd thought occurred. The desire and need to inoculate the US military (and by extension all of America) from the reality of empire is deeply ironic given that one of the reasons that Americans have to make vast military compounds is that their soldiers, raised in a pasteurised environment, find it difficult to stay healthy in the rather less clean 3rd world. In real terms they cannot drink the local water safely. And when something as basic as water is dangerous it makes the whole attempt to subjugate the local people an exercise in vast expense. In this case its now avoiding direct contact with dirty information. Like the water the local stuff is apparently dangerous to the state of the soldier, or at least their mental state. People with information ask awkward questions, or think dangerous thoughts. There is an argument that this fear of new thoughts is part of the Muscular Christianity that has largely infected the US military since the 1970s. As Norman Dixon argued as far back as the 1970s bad generals become generals through excessive obedience to authority figures and a marked fear of failure. Needless to say neither works well when dealing with the real world outside of the barracks.