Eurosatory 2008 the best so far: this year's Eurosatory land equipment exhibition near Paris was bristling with ground-up novelties, particularly in the field of armoured vehicles, reflecting the realisation that ad-hoc vehicles are what is needed today, as opposed to makeshift add-on protection kits for existing vehicles, against rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Although many observers suspected that certain projects had been on the stove here and there, some of the new vehicles must have been developed in total secrecy, like the Nexter Aravis (named after a famous pass in the French Alps). However, other projects like the...

An unnerving environment: <<urban areas provide sanctuary, shielding, recruitment for extremists and provide fertile ground for humanitarian crises,>> General William Wallace, the Commanding General of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, told delegates at the 2008 Armor Conference at Fort Knox, Kentucky an 5 May. If current trends continue almost 60% (five billion) of population will live in urban areas by 2030.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Marine Corps System Command (Marcorsyscom), briefing contenders bidding for the Combined Arms Military Operations in Urban Terrain (Camout) contracts, explained that extensive studies by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory have shown that units trained to operate an integrated combined arms team are more successful...

Taliban's Puzzling Popularity Rise Despite Its Atrocities.
Like al-Qaeda, the Taliban follow the most extreme ideology in Sunni Islam - Neo-Salafism - and have all along committed a number of atrocities. Yet their popularity in both Afghanistan and Pakistan has been on the rise in recent months. This is puzzling analysts across the Muslim world. ...

Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War.
doi: 10.1017/S0009640708001339 Mennonites, Amish, and the American Civil War. By James O. Lehman and Steven M. Nolt. Young Center Books in Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. xv + 361 pp. $39.95 cloth. At some point, the fascination with the...

Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence.
Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence. By John Ferling. (New York and other cities: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. [xiv], 679. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-19-518121-0.) John Ferling has been writing distinguished work on war in early America and the American Revolution for quite...

The Society of the Cincinnati: Conspiracy and Distrust in Early America.
The Society of the Cincinnati: Conspiracy and Distrust in Early America. By Markus Hunemorder. European Studies in American History. (New York and Oxford, Eng.: Berghahn Books, 2006. Pp. [viii], 212. $75.00, ISBN 1-84545-107-4.) Markus Hunemorder revisits a topic for which Minor Myers Jr.'s Liberty without Anarchy: A...

Beleaguered Winchester: A Virginia Community at War, 1861-1865.
Beleaguered Winchester: A Virginia Community at War, 1861-1865. By Richard R. Duncan. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. Pp. [xxii], 380. $40.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-3217-3.) Beleaguered Winchester, indeed. The Virginia town reportedly changed hands seventy-two times during the Civil War, more than once on some days. Winchester...

The Khyber Pass; a history of empire and invasion.
9781402756962 The Khyber Pass; a history of empire and invasion. Docherty, Paddy. Union Square 2008 261 pages $24.95 Hardcover DS374 The Khyber Pass is the mountain pass that links Pakistan and...

IRAQ - Aug 15 - Shi'ite Iraqi Theologian Asks His Followers To Sign A Blood Pledge Of Loyalty.
Muqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi Shi'ite theologian, called on his followers to sign in blood a pledge of loyalty to the Shi'ite saint after whom he named the Mahdi army, and to affirm their commitment to ridding Iraq of US troops. The blood pledge was announced during Aug 15 prayers...

Gunning for the gunrunners: the arrest of three men who are allegedly the world's most notorious arms dealers may shed some light on their murky demi-monde in the Middle East.
THREE MEN--an Israeli, a Russian and a Syrian--are behind bars in Moscow, Madrid and Bangkok. All are known as leading figures in the murky world of arms trafficking. All face judicial proceedings, including extradition, that could lift the veil on their deadly business and its links to the Middle...