The ten most-commented Best Defense posts of 2011

Posted By tom ricks Thursday, December 22, 2011 - 8:21 PM Share

Here are the 10 Best Defense posts that drew the most comments this year. I am not sure that as a group they tell us much of anything. Except that people always have something to say about John F. Kennedy.

10. Was John F. Kennedy the absolute worst U.S. president of the 20th century?

9. What if President Obama hadn't intervened in Libya?

8. Comment of the day: An Army captain says the military is not protecting your freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan.

7. A dispatch from the My Lai archives.

6. Sure, you're a vet, but that doesn't mean you have license to act like a jerk.

5. What did we fight and bleed for in Afghanistan?

4. A midshipman asks: Should I refuse orders to continue an unconstitutional attack on Libya?

3. So, income inequality really is a big national security issue.

2. Some thoughts on getting my arm broken at West Point.

1. Out for August and an open comment thread.

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HUNTER

11:37 PM ET

December 22, 2011

#7 you must be kidding?

All that work trolling ESIII and all I get to show for it is #7? Tom, do we get honorable mention for reaching 120 between more or less just two posters? Miss Congeniality?...ESIII can have it.

P.S. I'm typing one handed, so apologies for any typos,and that isn't a silly internet porn joke.

LIGHT_CAV

4:15 PM ET

December 23, 2011

Comments

Can we get the top 10 comments of the year?

TOM RICKS

4:29 PM ET

December 23, 2011

Not from me!

That would take several days of work, I fear. I have to earn a living.

I think we could collect all the "comments of the day" that I ran. Would that work 4 U?

Best,
Tom

LIGHT_CAV

6:44 PM ET

December 23, 2011

@Tom

That would be perfect.

CHARLES IN AMERICA

5:03 PM ET

December 23, 2011

It would be interesting

to see what foreign policy, doctrine and personnel policies would look like if the comments from related articles were assembled and a common sentiment derived. But that's a pretty epic data mining project to undertake.

HUNTER

9:12 PM ET

December 23, 2011

Tough time

It would be pretty tough to come up with common sentiment EVEN here, besides "it's broken." Of course admitting you have a problem is the first step, but I think Tom's crowd here is pretty diverse and we all have fairly different ideas of how to tackle the problem. Common problem, many different solutions.