David Raikow

Home | My Neighbour Totoro Book your tickets for the RSC and Joe Hisaishi’s acclaimed production of Studio Ghibli's My Neighbour Totoro. Now playing at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London.

If you’re ever in London and get the chance, go see the RSC stage production of My Neighbor Totoro. I cried more than once.

totoroshow.com

Absolutely. Before he came to work for the UN, he’d been head of the Afghan security team for a US FOB. The Taliban are well aware of him.

Happy dog autogood

I just wanted to say I’m always happy to hear about SIVs who got out.

One of my former direct reports is still there because the US had employed him through a contractor that then ceased to exist, leaving him without the required documentation.

An important element of this: when I was in Afghanistan we watched new US troops come and go every 6 or 9 months. I know people in Kabul who just stopped trying to explain things to them.

In UN field ops, the saying was, “For the first 6 months you’re still figuring out where the bathrooms are.”

Urdu is popular along parts of the Durand line, but Tajik is common throughout the north.

I genuinely don’t expect non-experts to know everything! There’s too much to know.

Actually Tajik, not Urdu. Urdu’s big along the Durand line, but Tajik is common throughout the north.

Actually the 4th is Tajik. English got a boost during the war, but that was mostly a Kabul and elite thing.

My personal top 5:

Malacca
Hormuz
Taiwan
Gibraltar
Golden Gate (used to see it every day)

Honorable mentions:

Korea
Bosporus
Mandeb
Kerch
Bocas del Dragón (just for the name, really)

This is not just a military thing, btw. I know sought-after American “Afghanistan policy experts” who couldn’t name the 4 languages commonly spoken in Afghanistan. Some can’t name both official languages.

Unironically this but sailing ships.

Ambiguity around tariffs has put my plans to become a smuggler on hold, but I’d rather sail a clipper anyway.

Belated tangent:

@katmabu.bsky.social I assume you’re busy with other things right now, but if you decide any time soon that you need an international policy advisor with lots of field experience, we should talk. I could probably even be convinced to throw in a free position paper or two.

Aye.

I can't compete with this.

Gotta admit, this is pretty funny.

bsky.app/profile/fint...

bsky.app/profile/davi...

My aversion to making predictions rarely steers me wrong.

bsky.app/profile/fint...

I’m even less comfortable making predictions in this case than usual. The Iranian regime seems functional, but we have no idea what its practical decision making processes look like right now. We barely know who the remaining key players are, never mind their incentives and leverage.

That could be right, but the refineries are a different kind of problem from the pumping infrastructure. I know that in some places shutting that down creates huge problems, and that it depends on the quality of the crude.

It’s a self-reinforcing system rather than something intentional or planned. I doubt many recognize the impact of their hiring assumptions.

Submarines do not get a blanket pass on the rule. Given the particular circumstances in this case, would a rescue have actually exposed the US submarine involved to significant risk?

I’m not a submariner and really don’t know, but I suspect a court would want to see evidence before deciding.

/end

“All possible measures” has generally been interpreted to exclude rescue efforts that would put the rescuing ship itself at significant risk. Historically, most combatants agreed that that any time spent on the surface put a submarine at risk, which ruled out rescue attempts.

*However*

2/

The sinking itself was pretty clearly legal, but there is a potentially interesting question about the failure to rescue the crew.

Geneva II requires all combatants to take “all possible measures” to rescue shipwrecked sailors, including those of opposing combatants.

*However*

1/

It me! I’m that! 👆

I’d have to dig it out, but way back when I took a pic of a Libyan pickup truck mounting a scavenged Mi-25 rocket pod.

This hardens the “DC bubble” and extends the blob’s dominance to the Hill. And the blob really only listens to itself, with little or no reference to reality outside DC.

I’m a bit biased on this point so take it with a grain of salt, but:

Hiring managers on the Hill are really only interested in a candidate’s DC experience. There’s some leeway for State Dept. FSO experience, but as a general rule extensive overseas work is more of a liability than an asset.

Paging @artwells.com