This blog opened in November 2007. It is a spin-off from Defense and the National Interest, whose Editors generously published my articles since September 2003. There have been 150,000 “vews” of the FM blog (the counter appears at the bottom of the right-side menu bar). The daily rate has increased by 4x since November, to roughly 1,600/day.
This is just a drop in the great ocean of the Internet, with its millions of blogs — where 150,000 hits is a slow day at sites about Britney. More important are the contributions of the people who posted over 1,500 comments. I have learned a lot from them. It has been, imo, both a valuable and civil discussion. I have banned nobody, and never deleted a comment (except one off-topic essay, deleted with the author’s consent). My thanks to all of you!
This blog’s themes have emerged over time, centered on three beliefs:
- Great challenges lie ahead for America.
- We can meet them; the difficulties that lie ahead are no worse than those behind us.
- We must make better use of our resources — esp. our ability to research, analyze, and plan — rather than rely on the inspired guesses that dominate so many fields today (e.g., national security, peak oil).
During the past five years I have written 264 articles, many fiercely disputed at the time. Quantity means nothing, but does create a track record. Accordingly I revised one oft-quoted section of the “About Fabius Maximus and this blog” page. It now reads as follows:
VI. Qualifications of the Author
A work of intellectual analysis stands on its own logic, supported only by the author’s track record. You can easily assess the latter by using the dropdown calendar to read my old articles. After four or five years the dust settles and forecasts can be evaluated. For example, here are my first four articles. They were controversial at the time, like much of the work you will find at this site.
- Scorecard #1: How well are we doing in Iraq? How well is our opposition doing? (22 September 2003)
- Scorecard #2: How well are we doing in Iraq? Afghanistan? (31 October 2003)
- Scorecard #3: the Coalition’s Progress in Iraq (9 November 2003)
- Scorecard #4: New developments in Iraq (22 November 2003)
Please share your comments by posting below. Be brief! Stay on topic! Or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).
