I recommend the Dunnett series, and unreservedly recommend the 20 books that Patrick O'Brian wrote about the Napoleonic War at sea.

For Modern Brits I'd say the Flashman series by GMF and especially Mr. American. Gerald Seymour has done some very good thrillers that are as fresh as the latest hot spot.

Philip Kerr has done a wonderful job with a series about a German detective who's anti-Nazi but stuck in the system from 1933-195o.  Berlin Noir, a trilogy, is the place to start.

A decent view of the world, unlike le Carre, is the ouvre of  Alan Furst, who writes of the world of WWII and finds enemies in both Hitler and 
Stalin.  I'd start with Night Soldiers. 

Loved the remark on the cruise that the United States was the Brit's second best invention after high tea.

Perhaps there is a time and tide in the affairs of nations too.  But ours is not here and ours is not now.  Arise men of the West!

James,

Different topic: Whatever happened to Coward in the Woods?

Loved the first two but amazon sez none of these available.

C. Northcote Parkinson, of "Parkinson's Law fame, has written 5 or 6 novels in the Hornblower style about one Steven DeLancey, which are very good.  Then there are lots of others who have written more or less successfully, but none that come close to the kind of literature that O'Brian has written.

I was fortunate enough to discover POB in the mid-80', correspond with him(I have the letters in his elegant hand framed), and have read the series three times, going back to it like to visit with an old friend.  Tradition in the martial sense is so important in an Aristotelian sense.  We become virtuous by doing virtuous things; the RN became good by practicing right things and extolling its heroes; our military and the Brits do the same.  The other countries may have some of the hardware, but we have the best operating system ever devised, and that's the difference.  That's the wisdom of  VDHanson.

As for other traditions, this group is composed of mostly Burkeans, as am I.  My one major caveat to 'Your Grandmother Knows Best" is the fact that for millennia the world practiced chattel slavery and the West, for several centuries, enslaved black Africans.  We also kept women in some of the same circumstances we deride in Islam now.  One must know when change is necessary, and most conservatives came too late to the civil rights and women's rights movement, though we're better than the other side now

Mr. McGurn,

This was a touching story and I have nothing but respect for George Bush and family.  One slight cavil:  Subs were named after fish, not cities.  I suspect that Bush had been flying off a 'jeep carrier' CVE named the San Jacinto.

A friend of mine, USNA '69, a former Marine fighter pilot and F-4 squadron cdr, has a website with a bunch of defense types (he was Asst Secy of Vet's Affairs in Bush I)  From him and his site, http://www.sldforum.com/ I have learned that the original problem is that though the T-6 is flying as a trainer, it has never been tested and OK'd for use as a COIN aircraft.  The RFP specified that the plane submitted must by already certified for COIN work, so the T-6 was not even qualified to bid.  The Tucano has been in operation as a COIN aircraft, with lots of experience.  Hawker tried to jimmy the bid system and to the AF's credit they called foul  However, Hawker called in political chits and played the "US company" card, even tho the Tucano will be built in Florida.  Lots of screwing around.  Read it on Ed's site.  Check him out on Google  Ed Timperlake.

READ THIS FIRST

I'm a Marine trained 737 Captain retired from one of the majors.  We had Boeing and Airbus.  My mates and I have been following this and things came out of this that caused the accident.

1.  PIC, Pilot In Command or the Captain, was out of the seat for the whole evolution and tried to manage it without getting into the seat and taking over.  Bad plan.  

2.  This was exacerbated by the fact that he didn't know what control inputs were being made, nor did the pilot not flying, as the side sticks are not connected.  In the Boeings when you turn or push back/forward both do it and can be seen to do it. Makes a huge difference.

3.  The most complicated thing you can do in an Airbus is fly it by hand.  It's very hard to turn off all the automation.  In the Boeing  you just say, "Screw it", push two buttons, and you're hand flying it. Then you can set a thrust setting and pitch attitude and know you will fly, no matter what the instruments say.

4.  They were in moderate to severe WX.  

 Cont'd.  Turbulence makes it very hard to judge pitch attitudes as well as increasing the pucker factor.

Last:  Pilots today are not thoroughly trained in VFR or visual, seat of the pants flying.  Therefore, they are insufficiently experienced when they have to do it as they have developed an over-reliance on automation.  You can better believe that training departments all over the industry are working to figure out how  to train and test for this.

Claire,

Walter Russell Mead's blog  periodically has a letter from Turkey.  I wondered if you are his interlocutor.  If not, do you know who it is.

The late Herbert Stein, father of Ben promulgated Stein's Law:  If something can't continue it won't.  What you have predicted is that Europe will be following his law, and so will we, sooner than we think.  Just remember what happened to Cassandra.  But we'll protect you.

My son and 4 others just started up a company called Zoko.com, which is a service to facilitate people trying to put together dinner parties.  They're trying to get the internet to help people connect physically, to use it to transcend it.  I think they are on to something as they want people to connect and get out of their apartments.  Hope it works.

You certainly have earned the right to say, "I told you so." Or as Robert Conquest wanted to title a book, "I Told You so, You  Bloody *****Idiots>"

Thank you all. Ms Berlinski, I did not take umbrage at your attempt.  What we had was a failure to communicate, a la "Cool Hand Luke." If you will look at Mr. Cleese's, er Basil's post you will see that he went to the beginning step, where I needed to start.  The rest was a good example of what we call the 'process essay'.  (Thank you very much Basil) I needed to know where you started, Ms. B.  I very much appreciate your help and the help of the rest. This, my first post, was a success and one more reason I'm pleased to be a member. 

I am trying to develop a course for leaders in a multi-ethnic community in San Diego where our foundation works.  We did several sessions on race, where I was the only white guy in the room, seeing movies of the we-suck variety, and I was astounded at the intensity of feelings that there was so much racism exhibited by 'us guys'.  This from 20-year olds who I suspect have never seen what we would characterize as the racism we saw in the middle part of the 20th Cen.  I believe it is a testament to the power if the courses in racism and African studies that we have been subsidizing all these years.  There is a large group of educators who are so invested in this that I fear there will never be an end as there are too many benefits to continuing.  The idea of a 'hard dialogue' is for them to dump  over us 'rulers' and for us to submit meekly.  

On another note Ms. Berlinski, your attempt to explain embedding made the mistake of not preparing and explaining your subject so a complete novice would understand it.  Where can I go to get info?

The Wild Bunch and the Ballad of Cable Hogue, 2 opposite movies by Sam Pekinpah, one bloody and one whimsical.