Recommended Reading
So if you switch out yesterday’s bad guys for today’s, you’re looking at the same old U.S. Cold War defense policy, gussied up with the weapons and communications technologies of this era. The basis of the policy isn’t victory over Islamic terrorism, any more than victory over the Soviets was the objective of the U.S.-led Cold War.
What, then, is the government of United States really aiming at? I think the answer was alluded to by ISAF/U.S. Forces in Afghanistan Commander General John R. Allen when he gave a pep talk earlier this year to a gathering of grim-faced American soldiers in Afghanistan…..
Seydlitz89 –Defining “Literacy”
Seydlitz has a very interesting riff on an earlier post by Venkat:
….Venkat mades some interesting claims here. I think he has a point as to our Western dismissal of oral cultures being simply about memorization, there is more to it than that, but is there not more to the Western concept of literacy as well? Here’s where his analysis falls short imo. Also his example of Indian oral culture is not meant to appeal to most students, but to “a few” who don’t see it as “mindless tedium”. The recitation he uses as an example are religious texts, hardly ones to promote critical thinking which is another drawback.I think the main problem is that he is conflating “orality” with “literacy” which are in fact two different things. This distinction is important because the cultural implications are profound. Following Walter Ong’s distinctions, we have this….
Gunpowder & Lead (Daveed Garstein-Ross) –Reflections on Byman’s “Breaking the Bonds”, (Dan Trombly) Weapons Still Don’t Make War
Information Dissemination (Galrahn)-Time To Talk Lasers
Cool.
Chicago Boyz (LC Rees)- Crap Cleaner
Helpful Freeware recommendation. Used it.
Dave Schuler – The War on Algebra
S. Anthony Iannarino-How to Upgrade the Operating System That Runs Your Brain
Michigan War Studies Review –The Deaths of Others: The Fate of Civilians in America’s Wars and 1066: A New History of the Norman Invasion and 1812: The Navy’s War
The last review is by occasional ZP commenter Ralph Hitchens
Gene Expression – Human on human Sex and The Jewish Diaspora:not an empire of the mind
Before you get too excited, Razib’s first post is about Neanderthal genetic legacy in modern non-Africans.
That’s it.
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Madhu:
August 15th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
You know, once you start looking for the effects of World War II on our current foreign policy, it is everywhere in so many directions, isn’t it? Fascinating. Zenpundit readers: scholarship on this topic? I mean, if I have to read about the Marshall Plan as the basis for something one more time….Brussels, too. They just can’t get over their own history, and the problem is, their (our) history of “other” parts of the world are incredibly sketchy and politicized.
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“The post-World War II occupations of Germany and Japan set standards for postconflict nation-building that have not since been matched. Only in recent years has the United States has felt the need to participate in similar transformations, but it is now facing one of the most challenging prospects since the 1940s: Iraq. The authors review seven case studies — Germany, Japan, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan — and seek lessons about what worked well and what did not. Then, they examine the Iraq situation in light of these lessons. Success in Iraq will require an extensive commitment of financial, military, and political resources for a long time. The United States cannot afford to contemplate early exit strategies and cannot afford to leave the job half completed.”
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http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1753.html
Madhu:
August 15th, 2012 at 3:09 pm
I was getting at the “intellectual history” of all of this here, too. Again, not interested in getting at people or criticizing. Just learning, that’s all:
http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/the-coinventional-wisdom (in comments and at SWC).