4GW Links of the Day, (Plus two disturbing ones)

1. Sic Semper Tyrannis posted a great article which talks about the idocyncracies of the Israeli Army.  Foremost among these is the large reserve force which can be called into action during a crisis, but also comes from a highly productive portion of the Israeli economy.  This, of course means that Isreal cannot afford long conflicts, much like Sun Tzu advised when he wrote that "No country benefits from protracted war".  Additionally, the Israeli Defense Force does not have a non-commissioned officer corps like the US has, instead relegating NCOs to a speciality field, and forcing younger commissioned officers to fill the gap, with results that are less than optimal, as the article claims.
2. Air power as soft power?  Oh yes, it can.  
3. Global Guerillas (as well as Greg in Mexico) has shared some thoughts on the issue of increasing economic and criminal chaos in Mexico at the hands of drug cartels, which certainly represents a national security threat, possibly one of the most relevant ones to the US.   
4. Bizarre links of the Day:  The Internet Twilight Zone--a thread on the Tucker Max message board that links to a message board where one user has over 2,000 posts...and is the only poster on the board.  
5. In Virginia, a 6-year old boy drives himself to school.  When the police asked where he learned to drive, he answered "Grand Theft Auto".  Yeah, I think this actually surpasses the 8-year old who wrote to me and told me that his favorite movie was Saw III.