War Is Boring

Moroccan troops escorted a World Food Program convoy through rough terrain from Dungu to Ngilima in northeastern Congo on September 21. Lord’s Resistance Army rebels were spotted in Ngilima just before and during the movement. The LRA’s presence forces people from their fields to the safety of the town center, rendering them unable to feed themselves and thus reliant on WFP. The roughly 25-mile trip took nearly three hours owing to kiddie-pool-size potholes in the dirt road.

Cartoonists Ted Rall and Matt Bors — the artist on my new graphic novel — were in Afghanistan to chronicle the plight of everyday Afghans in a series of quickie comics. You can support Matt by buying a print.

by KYLE MIZOKAMI * Mumbai-style terrorist attack in Europe foiled by Predator strikes * U.S., China to resume military talks * Germany finally pays off last of World War I debt * U.S. Coast Guard, drug smugglers in shootout off Nicaraguan coast * The DEW Line: Iran’s “stealthy” flying boats

Chinese and American Strategy Edition
Last week in New York, in support of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly backed giving the South China Sea status as a “maritime commons.” Martin Ott, writing for the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, says this assertive posture stands out from recent years of America’s relative distance from the issue.

Dungu, Democratic Republic of Congo — The Lord’s Resistance Army rebel group marched into Congo from Uganda in 2005 after defeats by the Ugandan army. Today, the LRA — likely numbering no more than a few thousand — is hiding out in the heavily-forested territory where the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Central African Republic meet. A rotating cast of armies takes turns chasing the LRA: the Congolese army, U.N. peacekeepers, the Ugandans, even the Americans. Fighting spiked last year when all four teamed up to spring a trap for the LRA. The trap failed — bad intel, I’m guessing — and the group managed to slip away.

I’ve begun uploading Congo photos to my Flickr stream. Check them out.

Cartoonists Ted Rall and Matt Bors — the artist on my new graphic novel — were in Afghanistan to chronicle the plight of everyday Afghans in a series of quickie comics. You can support Matt by buying a print.

Cartoonists Ted Rall and Matt Bors — the artist on my new graphic novel — were in Afghanistan to chronicle the plight of everyday Afghans in a series of quickie comics. You can support Matt by buying a print.

by KYLE MIZOKAMI * Robert Kaplan on China’s new blue water navy * Mystery helicopter trades fire with Somali gunmen * South Sudan to arm militias against LRA incursions * North Korean military backs Kim Jong Un succession * Why China sticks with North Korea

Dungu, Democratic Republic of Congo — The flight engineer on my U.N. helicopter ride from Bunia to Dungu, in eastern Congo, was wearing — I swear to God — a light blue leisure suit and white leather loafers. After two days straight hopscotching across this thickly-forested country the size of the entire eastern U.S., a fashion flashback in the back of a Russian-made Mi-8 chopper didn’t seem nearly as bizarre as it should have. I was too tired to care.

“There are many factors that make it extremely unlikely that the [People's Republic of China] will use military force to try to achieve the long-held goal of ‘reunification,’” Jeffrey Wasserstrom wrote in his book China in the 21st Century. For one, “money and people are moving across the straits regularly and in ways that benefit both countries.”

Articles, video, comic books … the War Is Boring brand has expanded steadily since we launched nearly four years ago. Next up, Steve Weintz and I are producing a stop-motion animation based on some of the true war stories I’ve heard in conflict zones around the world. The first is The Sleeper, the tale of one very tired Somali soldier. Steve offers us this modest teaser including a photo of the (incomplete) character dolls and a bit of the script.