News Brief, Space Oddity Edition
Joshua Foust on Jul 25 2007 at 2:06 am | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense
- Actually, I think it is perfectly natural, even laudable, for Christians to assist in the defense of soldiers who plead not-guilty to war crimes. That would seem perfectly in line with that whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing the Founding Fathers were so up on, and is a principle I think is the height of justice. The language these groups are using, however, concerns me—it seems they have fallen into the political debate around the troops, and don’t seem to make a very good distinction between their religious beliefs and the decisions and rhetoric of elected politicians. That’s a problem, and it doesn’t help anyone.
- Ashley Tellis has a good take, seven months late, on China’s ASAT test from January. He makes a good argument that China is working on denial technologies, ways to knock out or put at risk our space assets and thus dissuade us from getting involved in any potential conflict… but I also think Tellis is pretty alarmist. It is, unfortunately, the classic security dilemma: when does appropriately building defenses become a hostile, aggressive act?
- Afghanistanica mentions a legendary Soviet COIN expert in Afghanistan from the 80’s. I was intrigued in particular at how he refused to fall for the bait tactic of firing from an otherwise peaceful village to draw return fire and have civilian casualties as a PR weapon. I think the same tactic is at play now, though obviously with more sophistication and not as clear lines defining the sides. Still, it is illustrative: our over-reliance on air power, “precision weapons,” and overwhelming firepower are actually hurting our cause. Maybe it’s time for a change.
- Speaking of a change: how about not building Fortress VaticanAmerica in Baghdad?
- Fabius Maximus has written an absurdly long (note: I have no idea if its length is really absurd or not) essay on the Long War. I can’t dig into it in the depth I’d like until the weekend, but from the brief skim I was able to give it tonight, it looks deeply thought provoking, which, even if I happen to disagree with, I would still greatly enjoy and respect. I welcome any reading comments any of you might have.
Around the World
- Pro-Kurdish parties gained seats in Turkey’s election. Excellent.
- Why can’t we have better defence correspondents? I would wager because they’re journalists first, with their beat coming second.
- Even rotting in a depot, I think the Soviets made the most beautiful military equipment.
- Michael Totten posts a nice, long tour around a part of Baghdad after the Surge. Of course people are happy to see us there—it means the militias aren’t there to terrorize them. But how long can we stay? How can we guarantee the militias won’t return? The man, at the end, certainly has doubts; he is perfectly well aware that if the wrong people saw him talking with, collaborating with the Americans, he and his family are dead. The troops there know it, Totten knows it. What do you do? Alas, such calculations will not enter into the domestic debate over whether the Surge worked or not.
- Decrepit old Solzhenitsyn is still kickin‘, that is, when he’s not posing in photo-ops for Vladimir Putin, a man he compares to George Bush Sr. Maybe old age has not been kind to him. Still, that interview with him, as with all things Solzhenitsyn, is riveting.
- He stole my nickname for Stomatologbashi! Well, my other nickname—Nathan came up with the “bashi” one. Seriously, though right now a gigantic Vegas-lite tourist trap is probably one of the last things Turkmenistan needs—on this I actually do disagree with Ms. Boyd. I would feel more comfortable seeing Uncle Berdy spend $1 billion on maybe rebuilding all the hospitals that were shut down under his predecessor, or perhaps some infrastructure development that isn’t more oil. That being said, Ms. Boyd is right that tourism would be a boom to the economy… but the local economy. Turkmenistan needs macro changes.
- Those surf-loving surrender monkeys in Australia, who hate themselves so much they’ll turn Muslim modesty into a market opportunity, have found that not just Muslim women love the burqini.
- Best headline ever.
Back at Home
- I got an email from the CU alumni association, informing they have terminated Ward Churchill for issues relating to his academic integrity. This is fantastic news—while I certainly did not like the man, thought him a pompous ass, he hadn’t really done anything firable… that is, until the investigation deeming his research and scholarship deeply substandard. Now that is a reason to fire him. Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. I’m half-curious if Bill O’Reilly can bring himself to say something nice about the place. While I do doubt it, I certainly will not watch his show to find out.
- I don’t know about anyone else, but my job has been stressing me the eff out lately. That’s why I’m glad I have icanhascheezburger.com (seriously). I is not joking. See also this: “.” Oh yes.
- The government has been paying thousands of people billions of dollars to keep farming, even though they’re all dead. Naturally, we should also have the federal government take over healthcare.
- I do my best to avoid Presidential politics. But my buddy Chris tries to ask me about them, and inform me how pretty much everyone is retarded. In that, I agree. Then today my other buddy Dave sent me a video of Joe Biden calling a gun owner mentally unstable, and added, “that’s so true—machine guns are just so unnecessary.” Ignoring the many arguments against gun control (including the crucial one that it actually makes crime worse), this still bugged the hell out of me: if Biden really thinks all law-abiding citizens (the gun was purchased legally) are mentally unstable, I’m glad it came out, but the hoots and cheers with which his patronizing opinion were received only hurt the Democrats. You don’t win elections by taking a libertarian-leaning guy who just wants the government off his back and calling him deranged. As a similarly libertarian-leaning guy who really just wants to be left alone to live his as he sees fit (including the right to marry whomever I eventually fall in love with), Biden can just suck it.
- I had a humiliating experience today buying a sammich at the local Safeway. Normally, I sign those stupid credit card thingies with a squiggle, or if I’m in a restaurant or something, I’ll draw silly pictures. They never check, the charges always go through, so I stopped thinking anything of it. I have become increasingly brazen of late, writing things like “your mom” and “this card has expired,” and they’ve still gone through. So today, I’m going through all the swipey motions for my diet coke, Milano cookies (I am weak), and my sammich, and the electronic signature thing comes up. I sign it “I H8 You,” and while I’m getting my receipt, I notice the cashier lady is like, glaring at me, clearly not getting the joke. By the time I’m back at my car, looking in the rearview mirror to avoid the Soccermom Suburbans that love hitting 40 in the parking lot lanes, it hits me: the cashier lady was black. Oh. My. God. She totally thinks I’m a racist jerk now, instead of just a really emo jerk. When I was back at my office, I wouldn’t—nay, couldn’t—explain why my face was beet red.
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