Monday Reading

Galhran sees some escalation towards North Korea as being possible.

Joshua Stanton at One Free Korea notes Not that we should care, but it’s still “illegal” to search North Korean ships on the high seas. I'm still confused about whether we are at war with North Korea since it unilaterally renounced the Armistice. In which case, Mr. Stanton may be wrong. I think the law of war allows you do board enemy ships. I'm sure, however, that I have the international political situation wrong. Just because someone says they are at war with us apparently doesn't mean we are at war with them. Or something. I look for enlightenment.

Blogger Mike Burleson at New Wars asks some questions about big deck carriers for the Royal Navy and gets some interesting comments, too here.

Worth Watching: As gCaptain noted here, last night was Somali Pirate Takedown - The Real Story on the Discovery Channel, soon to be moving over the Military Channel. It's a dramatization of the Maersk Alabama Somali pirate misadventure. The crew of the Alabama comes off well as desperate men caught in a bad situation and doing their best to fight back. Since one of the sponsors was the U.S. Navy, the Navy role is helping to conclude the at sea portion of the matter was highlighted, with some new footage of the frigate Halyburton shouldering the life boat containing the Alabama's captain and the pirates away from the Somali coast and a Navy helicopter doing the same thing using its rotor wash. For some the highlight will be the SEAL team. It'll be re-shown Tuesday at 9pm EDT (2100) and Wednesday at 12am (midnight) on the Military Channel.

CDR Salamander urges you to read about a Marine General who doesn't want the U.S. military to become too reliant on high tech gizmos to solve problems of war here. There are a lot of low tech fighters out there right now giving us fits.

Jane has some doubts about al Qaeda claims that it doesn't support a North- South bifurcation of Yemen here. Big doubts.