Links for 27 May 2008
After the reflection of Memorial Day and the excitement of another washed-out British Bank Holiday, this outpost of the blogosphere returns to some semblance of normality. First up, another exercise in deck-clearing, with the best of the blogs from the last couple of days:
On Memorial Day, Kip wrote movingly at Abu Muqawama, and this passage really caught my eye and could be discussed at length on any number of levels:
War for most Americans, although not for Iraqis and Afghans, remains a spectator sport to which they can feel little emotional attachment. Fewer than one half of one percent of Americans have seen service in Afghanistan and Iraq, and even if we include the broadest reckoning of their friends and loved ones in the equation, 95% or more of all Americans remain profoundly untouched by these wars – even as their long-term security and way of life remains intimately tied to the outcomes.
Rather than just posting David Kilcullen’s recent RAND PowerPoint presentation, as I did last week, Fabius Maximus actually gets to grips a bit with Dinosaurs versus Mammals: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Adaptation in Iraq, 2007:
Future historians will be able to follow our efforts in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars relying only on the works of David Kilcullen, Special Advisor for Counterinsurgency to the Secretary of State, officer in the Australian Army, anthropologist, top expert in counter-insurgency. His writing, along with that of a small number of other COIN theorists, has driven much of our strategy and tactics. His latest presentation will, I hope, continue to do so. it may prove one of his most important.
I could recommend every post at Dusan Writer’s Metaverse but instead I’ll just say it’s a must-read for anyone interested in virtual worlds. He also – and this, to me, shows how few are the degrees of separation in the blogosphere – references my old blogfriend Think Artificial in a story about Second Life coming to the iPhone.
Matt Armstrong continues his series on the National Defense Authorization Act of 2009. “Part One was on the Strategic Communication Management Board. Part Two was about creating a national strategy for public diplomacy and strategic communication. Part Three is about censoring the domestic discourse because the media failed its responsibilities. ” He closes this piece by referencing a story I also saw at Haft of the Spear:
Perhaps the solution isn’t just realizing the value of information, but realizing physical threats can be the same as informational threats that can debilitate through perception and disruption.
Michael Tanji writes:
Remember, its just words and bits and electrons, it doesn’t impact like real war:
Mexico’s northern border town of Juarez, infamous for its history of drug-related violence, has gone into lockdown after an e-mail began circulating warning of an unparalleled “bloodbath” in the coming days.
Shops, bars and restaurants have shut and soldiers are patrolling the streets, giving a surreal and dangerous tone to this city of 1.4 million people which sits just across the US border from the Texan town of El Paso.
Jihadica analyses an essay on al-Ekhlaas which is, apparently, Channeling Sageman on decentralised networks and al-Qaeda ideology vs. methodology, etc. Good stuff.
The 5GW crowd have been blogging up a storm recently, and here is Arherring at Dreaming 5GW on XGW as a System for the Classification of Doctrines.
Sam Liles asks: What does it means when the military moves from defense to offense on the Internet?
In great news for Egyptian freedom of speech and expression, Egypt’s 27-year old State of Emergency has been renewed for a further two years. In a further boost to academic inclusivity and open debate, the American University in Cairo is eschewing its pucker downtown location for a new home in the desert.
