tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11646250.post838963154000010836..comments2023-11-05T02:34:38.816-08:00Comments on The Ape Man: Warblogging: Serious and UnseriousAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13829102073305209917noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11646250.post-68329047885792077202009-08-12T20:34:00.689-07:002009-08-12T20:34:00.689-07:00I've wanted to respond to this comment - the b...I've wanted to respond to this comment - the best and most insightful I've received, in my view (apologies to heatkernel, whose mathematics expertise is unparalleled and much appreciated whenever he offers it) for some time.<br /><br />I may or may not get around to it tonight as I'm about to go on a call for a script I'm trying to finish, but I will get to it. Suffice it to say for now that "blog your way to riches" quixotic triumphalism notwithstanding, the reason that blogs exist is because people benefit from being in touch with the people whose ideas have formed them so that they can continue to understand the thread of cognition that has produced their current outlook.<br /><br />My Uncle Philip taught me to drive, but beyond that I never knew him. It was my own fault and I am the poorer for it.<br /><br />His brother, Uncle Kevin, has taught me about the layers of things - how humans' interactions with our problems are shaped not only by the design of solutions but by innumerable other factors, from the care taken in executing our plans to the dynamic factors of time and tide that wash away everything in the long run.<br /><br />There is much here to unpack, but I feel I am almost done. I will take a run at it soon.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13829102073305209917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11646250.post-53289534151388811402009-07-14T07:17:29.948-07:002009-07-14T07:17:29.948-07:00The war is _IN_ Afghansitan, it is not "on&qu...The war is _IN_ Afghansitan, it is not "on" them. This is not out of some generous spirit on our part. It is merely the functional reality. We don't give two hoots about the long term stability of Afghanistan, or the people therein. And we don't really care if or when they become some sort of stable economic and political nation. The Afghan/Pakistan region is currently one of several in which an wide confederacy of actors are operating against whom we have complaints. There are others. We spent a fair amount of time in Mylasia recently attempting to deny this confederacy operational capability there. (We were relatively successful because of the extent of local, if often brutal, cooperation). Tommy Franks originally wanted to move from the Afghans to Somalia before Cheney got his hard on to invade Iraq. And there are other areas as well, Yemen comes to mind. It is merely the case that Afghanistan is a useful place with which to do battle with this confederacy. The local civilians merely get in the way, or are useful as methods with which to engage the confederacy. <br /><br />I don't particularly defend this methodology, I'm not even sure anyone could demonstrate that it is effective in engaging the entities we wish to defeat. The problem is that we don't know any particularly successful way to engage them, and history has left us with the belief that attempting to ignore them will only ensure their continued growth and impact. In the absence of effective ideas, ineffective ones will be attempted. An effective pacifist movement would seize this opportunity to explain exactly what goals should be pursued here, and by what methodologies. Besides the fact that there is no effective pacifist movement, I also suspect they would have no better advice than what is being offered now.Uncle Kevinnoreply@blogger.com