News Brief, Karma Police Edition
Joshua Foust on Apr 19 2007 at 9:49 pm | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, History, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science
(Cross-posted at The Conjecturer)
The Pentagon
- Inside the Army reports that the Pentagon has created a council for improving counterintelligence training. The aptly-named Counterintelligence Training Council just might maybe stop the data bleeds to China and Russia we’ve seen over the last 8+ years. China’s much-vaunted subtle spy technique is highly effective in introducing ambiguities to the U.S.’s prosecution-heavy counterintelligence process, which is partly why they’re so effective. And Russia is… well, Russia. They have a few decades of effective intelligence operations here. Regardless, it’s about damned time our guys start to think of a workaround.
- The new commander of CENTCOM has ditched the Long War. I suppose it’s a short one? Or does Adm. Fallon see more value in lying about the security commitments we’ve made so it’s more palatable to the public?
- More evidence that the military’s brainless insistence on NCW in the face of other concerns will be its undoing. I get warm fuzzies when I hear about the DoD’s $500 million paperweights.
Around the World
- Via OFK: Why would Koreans fear some kind of anti-Korean violence after the Blacksburg Massacre? In stark contrast to 9/11, which was (however incorrectly) done in the name of a specific people group and a specific religion, the VA Tech shootings were clearly the work of a single crazy guy. His actions say nothing about the Korean community, and to assume all the white Virginians will simply rise up in murderous revenge is… well, it could be a bit of projection. The Koreans, after all, tend to erupt into violent riots when an American does something stupid on their soil. I don’t think it’s quite tit for tat in VA, however.
- OFK also posts a horrible story of how North Korea treats the refugees illegally repatriated from China. It is not an exaggeration to say China justifies its repatriation policy by comparing its Korean “problem†to our Mexican “problem†(i.e. they call them “economic migrants†or some such). Only, when we send border jumpers back to Mexico, they don’t face starvation, torture, or execution for the crime of trying to feed their families (though we aren’t especially sympathetic to their plight). China should be ashamed.
- Maybe Mia Farrow could ask China to please stop enabling North Korea’s campaign of death, instead of simply asking them to end Sudan’s. Or perhaps she could turn her eyes to Yahoo, and ask them to stop assisting the Chinese in their own torture campaign.
- In the last two days, about 200 people were bombed to death in Iraq. Good thing there were no Koreans blowing themselves up, ’cause then it might have gotten more coverage.
- Also, anyone think Kurdistan will ever be left alone by Turkey? Or, for that matter, Iraq or Iran? That’s why independence is such a terrible idea. It will make things incredibly worse… for the Kurds. Interestingly, Michael Totten has just shown how much Kirkuk looks like… most of Afghanistan.
- The president of Tajikistan is reviving the peculiar brand of Central Asian megalomania as we speak. Tajikbashi, here we come!
- A cornerstone of my writing on Pakistan is that radical Islam only thrives under authoritarian rule. This isn’t precisely true, as the democratically elected Benazir Bhutto certainly did her share to create, fund, then lie about, the Taliban. But Pakistan itself has never had a politically viable Islamist movement, and just like in Turkey the Islamists have historically become more marginalized the more they participate in democratic elections. The recent wave in of anti-Islamist demonstrations—between 50,000 and 100,000—in both Ankara and Karachi hold out hope that this general trend will still hold true. What a beautiful thing, to see Islamic societies debating the role of Islam in society! These demonstrations should also serve as stark warnings to pundits and bloggers who enjoy referring to “Muslims†or “them†as a unitary people group (or who wonder where all the “moderates” are—they are staring you in the face).
- A huge number of Azeris, across the border from Azerbaijan in Iran, don’t much like Tehran. Like all large minority groups in dictatorships, they can and probably will cause major headaches for the Ayatollahs as Iran’s economy collapses under its own weight over the next few years. We will try to explot it? Meh. Unlikely with the current crowd in charge, at least to any effective degree.
- Do higher wages strangle development? It’s a provocative theory, especially when put into context: Most Eurozone countries have seen double-digit wage growth since 2002 (even France saw a 20% wage bump), while real wages have remained relatively stagnant in the U.S. Eurozone countries have posted increasing growth rates as well, surpassing the U.S. Yet in Eastern Europe, higher wages threaten to erase their main comparative advantage: cheap labor. What other factors might influence Europe’s surprisingly healthy macroeconomic indicators?
- As a followup to my article on Turkmenistan (even though it was posted before mine), here is an overview of what the growing importance of state-owned oil companies might mean for energy markets.
Back at Home
- I present to you Representative José Serrano, a petty jerk who uses funding as revenge. Like we don’t need more reasons to hate every national politician in this damned country.
- So is NBC complicit in future murders for broadcasting that video? Only if you think that self-righteous blogger Ron Coleman is complicit as well for posting a photograph of the killer pointing his gun at the camera while complaining about it. Ironic!
- I was chuffed to see I’ve done a surprising number of Esquire’s 60 Things, given I’m “only†25. I’ll happily ignore speculation as to which ones.
5 Responses to “News Brief, Karma Police Edition”
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Hi, Joshua. Naturally I picked up your pingback. Too bad you resorted to name-calling without exploring the issue, as commenters on my blog did. It is especially funny when bloggers self-righteously describe other bloggers as ’self-righteous,’ as if the name-calling blogger considers himself something other than right when he blogs, or as if his characterization itself was an indication of anything like open-mindedness.Having said that, do you really think there is no difference between (1) releasing exclusive and inflammatory footage that was prepared by a mass murderer for the explicit purpose of celebrating his crime, and (2) posting a still photograph of the person — a photograph already found all over the Internet — that admittedly links to the already-released video that is, also, already all over the Internet? If you see no difference between these things then I suppose you are right, I am complicit, and a total schmuck. If you can imagine some possible distinctions between these action, though, then perhaps there is room for discussion. Because you have an interesting and evidently very popular and successful and thoughtful blog, I bet you can recognize this distinction if you will try. Just a thought.
I don’t think you’re complicit, just overwrought.
That’s a big difference! I’ll take it.Sometimes bloggers get overwrought, I among them. I thought it was a disgusting move by NBC though.
That’s fair. I don’t think it’s disgusting, but I think you can make a case for it.
Josh, thank you very much for this :
These demonstrations should also serve as stark warnings to pundits and bloggers who enjoy referring to “Muslims†or “them†as a unitary people group (or who wonder where all the “moderates†are—they are staring you in the face).
You are absolutely right and this is a harsh reality that I have been trying to educate those in the blogosphere about for the past few years. If we as a society cannot distinguish between Sunni and Shiite, Salafist and Sufi, then we are absolutely lost in the GWOT. Another key issue (that you wisely point out) is that there is a HUGE difference between a Turkish Muslim or an Indonesian Muslim and an Iranian or Saudi Muslim. Many, in fact, probably most of us come from moderate backgrounds (my ancestors were from Turkey, Persia, Greece, Armenia, etc.). Only a very small % of the world’s Muslims are radicals. Granted in a religion with over a billion adherents, even a small % is noticeable, but far too many (mainly on the right, but lefties do it too) are guilty of the tired and massively incorrect formula of Muslim = Terrorist. Thanks for helping to promote some education on this issue!