Culpability

 Posted by Mike  Crime, Disasters and Tragedies, Racism, Terrorism  No Responses »
Aug 312010
 

Make sure to read this excellent article by Stanley Fish, Law Professor and New York Times opinion contributor. This gist of his observation is this:

“If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on or is in the air (he came from nowhere) and characterize him as a one-off, non-generalizable, sui generis phenomenon.”

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It’s a MAD World

 Posted by Mike  Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism  4 Responses »
Jul 152010
 

There is an interesting opinion piece today by Timothy Egan on nytimes.com about mutually assured destruction (MAD). MAD is a Cold War era policy that says essentially “if you nuke our cities, we promise to nuke your cities”.

Egan assumes, like many people do, that MAD kept us safe during the Cold War. But he criticizes the Pentagon for continuing to rely on MAD in an era where the greatest threats to United States security are terrorist organizations:
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What A Pentagon Budget Ought To Look Like

 Posted by Mike  Fiscal Issues, Obama Administration, Terrorism, War in Iraq  No Responses »
Apr 092009
 

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates just this past week announced the details of the Obama Administration’s Department of Defense budget. For once, it isn’t the size of the budget that has made a lot of waves, but instead the details of the budget. Gates and Obama want to radically restructure the military. And while I disagree with a few of the details, in general they are right-on. Here’s a breakdown of the winners and losers of the proposed budget.
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The Latest Torture Debate

 Posted by Mike  Abuse of Power, Bill of Rights, Bush Administration, Terrorism  1 Response »
Mar 312009
 

Dick Cheney is on a whirlwind tour trying to justify the Bush Administration’s record on the War on Terror, especially their decision to torture detainees. Mostly he is trumpeting intelligence gleaned from a supposedly high-level al Qaeda operative who was held and tortured at Guantanamo. Meanwhile his critics are countering his claims, noting that most evidence suggests this guy wasn’t particularly high-level, that he didn’t give us a lot of information we didn’t already know, and that most of what he did tell us was mentioned before he was actually tortured. (You can read a round-up of the latest exchange, along with links to the appropriate articles, here.)

All of which may be true, but they are missing the point.
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Comparing the Candidates: The War on Terror

 Posted by Mike  2008 Election, Bill of Rights, Central and Southern Asia, Foreign Policy, Terrorism, War in Iraq  No Responses »
Sep 112008
 

Given the date, I thought it would be a good day to go over the differences between the two presidential candidates when it comes to The War on Terror. (If you were hoping that I’d discuss whether or not Senator Obama believes that Governor Palin is a barnyard animal, I’m sorry to disappoint.) The War on Terror covers a pretty broad range of issues, and I’ll try to address most of them; if I miss something, please let me know. Also, these issues are not presented in any particular order.
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