"I hate it when an author writes a very good piece and then shoots his credibility in the foot at the end of it."
Yeah, I am with you on that one. It usually happens when they write an article in their area of expertise and then try to wander of into what they don't have a clue about in the end.
He had his facts and analysis spot on and then, being a liberal professor, he just had to slip in a shot for the moveon.org POV. He understood international law well enough up to that point. I guess he had to throw his brain in the waste can on that so he would still have some friends on campus.