Nine times out of ten, when somebody is gleefully described as being "politically incorrect", you can safely assume that person is just an asshole and move right along. The War Nerd (a fat suburban data entry clerk who might actually be the pen name of eXile literary critic John Dolan) is one of the rare exceptions to this rule, whose unfailingly misanthropic and contrarian yet well-educated and insightful perspectives on war and society manages to be both offensive (if you had any mistaken ideas about some imagined superiority of American military acumen) and funny at the same time. His articles are difficult to categorize; they're a mix of unabashed love of warfare, scathing denunciations of inept politicians and generals, sober analyses of military news, and a genuine respect for warriors of all times and places that's almost unique. Reading his book, which unfortunately includes many repeats of his old eXile articles, I was made very aware of the strange gap between the unceasingly bland and safe American heartland where I live and mankind's seemingly limitless capacity for destruction and conflict. It's hard to describe, but you'll never read some bland AP article about Iraq War casualties or "tensions" between countries X and Y again without thinking of how truly odd it is to live in an air-conditioned consumer utopia while millions of people still fight and die all over the world. Better yet, you will actually think it's funny! ( )

Some paleoconservative tendencies, not really sure how accurate the analysis was, but it made me laugh. John Dolan has a way with words. ( )

Great and nerdy as always ( )

Essays on war and foreign policy.