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Archive for May 18th, 2004

Tuesday, May 18th, 2004

THE PENTAGON ISSUES A FLAT DENIAL OF THE HERSH STORY

The Department of Defense categorically and officially denies the charges made by Seymour Hersh regarding Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approving the expansion of coercive measures to Abu Ghraib.

I had concluded that Rumsfeld was too much an old hand to personally sign off on something so politically explosive and potentially illegal and this gives some weight to my hypothesis. A flat denial indicates that having checked the records, the DoD is confident that the claim will withstand Congressional scrutiny if documents and testimony are subpeoned.

(Hat tip to Milt’s File.)

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Tuesday, May 18th, 2004

THE ECONOMIST FORSEES CHAVEZ DICTATORSHIP

According to The Economist, Hugo Chavez has outmanuvered his domestic opposition and is poised to legally construct at a minimum a leftist authoritarian state and possibly a personal dictatorship modeled on that of Chavez’s idol, Fidel Castro.

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Tuesday, May 18th, 2004

TERROR, ASYMMETRY AND ETHICS

Foreign Policy has a short post about a new Journal of Military Ethics that contains an article that examines the shifting moral obligations and legal obligations of soldiers engaged in asymmetric wars and ill-defined humanitarian missions that involve force projection.

The United States is going to be positioned to face primarily asymmetric threats for a long time to come. Many states will either sponsor such non-state actor threats indirectly or in the case Russia, China and the EU core- exert diplomatic pressure to try to force the US to accept the asymmetric conflict under the most disadvantageous international law restrictions possible. Sort of a reverse Containment enacted via lawyers, diplomats, journalists and NGO activists.

The United States needs to raise the costs of asymmetric warfare for its supporters even as it counters the strategy of the International Law expansionists.

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Tuesday, May 18th, 2004

CAFFEINE…THE ELIXIR OF LIFE

Brad DeLong discovers how to maximize the effects of caffeine consumption. While I like a good cup of coffee in the morning I keep the caffeine buzz going during the workday by chain-drinking Diet Coke. For fun I’ll occasionally pop a few of these as well.

UPDATE:

Rob at Business Pundit links here with yet another stimulating beverage…taken with a dose of Zen philosophy !

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