November is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.
You go, guy: Wil Wheaton wrote to Rep. John Cooksey in response to his infamous ‘diaper’ comment. My sentiments exactly, Wil. Thanks.
Primer on Raising Your International Literacy, from rc3 [via Medley]: “Rather than just complaining about the lack of literacy among Americans when it comes to international issues, I’ve decided to provide a short list of ways people can learn more about what’s going on in the world beyond our borders. Not only is it crucial to understand what’s going on around the world, but it’s also pretty interesting. Why follow the 100th day of 24 hour Gary Condit coverage when you can read about things like the Prime Minister of Papua-New Guinea being deposed because he hired South African mercenaries to put down a rebellion on the island of Bougainville? Here’s the list…”
I’m adding Electrolite to the list of weblogs I’ll try to keep up with (and steal links from…?).
In Defense of Freedom: “On September 20, 2001 at the National Press Club in Washington, more than 150 organizations, 300 law professors, and 40 computer scientists expressed support for (this) declaration.” Consider endorsing…
Kids: ‘Help us name this war!’ from Spin On This (“news minus spin equals comedy”). Lots more here too.
Deja vu? Powerful photos document the similarities between scenes from the US bombardment of Belgrade in 1999 and the 9-11-01 attacks. Dedicated “to the innocent,” and entitled “Death on a Very Small Planet.”
November is NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.
Commentary from the BBC’s defense analyst — The Pentagon’s special forces message: why would the US confirm that special forces are operating in Afghanistan, when the standard response to questions about such activities is to have no comment? Our bluster will get harder and harder to justify without evidence we are doing anything in the absence of an immediate objective for a conventional military strike. And when will military action commence? BBC
Let The Hague decide by Geoffrey Robertson, author of Crimes Against Humanity – The Struggle for Global Justice The Age
Islam gains place in U.S. military as ranks of Muslims grow: “…the military, which a decade ago barely acknowledged Muslims in its ranks, finds itself defending the faith.” Seattle Times
Enterprise Crew May Intervene in Earth Affairs “In Stationary Orbit (SatireWire.com) — Disturbed by ruthless terrorist attacks and talk of war, the crew of the starship Enterprise, which has been stealthily orbiting Earth since August, is reportedly torn over whether to violate Star Fleet’s Prime Directive and intervene in Earth affairs, or gather for drinks in the forward observation lounge and watch the planet go to shit.” satirewire [thanks, David!]
Anti-War Protests Underway in D.C.: “Demonstrators began a series of weekend rallies in the nation’s capital today, shifting from anti-globalization themes to anti-war protests after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.” Washington Post Recall, the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington scheduled for this weekened were cancelled in the wake of the attacks. The new intolerance of dissent in the air will be a challenge to the anti-globalization movement…
I know I’ve already blinked to an article named “Welcome to 1984” but, as the saying goes, it feels a whole like more like it does now than it ever used to. With no disrespect meant to the need to respond effectively to the 9-11 attacks, perusing the newsstand headlines about “Infinite Justice”, “Enduring Freedom”, “Eternal Vigilance” or whatever it is this week begins to have a surreal feel, already, of permanent war with an ill-defined moving target of an enemy, encouraging dispatches from an ever-changing front, constant catchphrases and buzzwords. To wit, Bloomberg reports that ‘…President George W. Bush said global cooperation to root out terrorism and “isolate” Afghanistan’s Taliban regime “is gaining momentum,” and vowed to use military, diplomatic, financial and legal means.’ Meanwhile, The New York Times displays: “President Says U.S. Is in ‘Hot Pursuit‘ of Terror Group“. <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/29/gen.america.under.attack/index.html
“>CNN says, ” President Bush said Saturday that the American people’s “patience and resolve” will be tested in a methodical antiterrorist campaign, but “the cause of freedom will prevail.”
Maybe it’s just that he needs new speechwriters, an implication one might draw from some recent Time magazine commentary. Actually, my other, post-Orwellian, association, to all the sloganeering is the disturbing and hysterical 1988 John Carpenter film, They Live. Those of you who have seen it will probably immediately know what I mean.
“The post-Cold War era ended on September 11th,” quotes Joe Klein: Closework
The United States military has accumulated a storehouse of spectacularly lethal equipment, which it has been willing to use from great distances — perhaps too often — over the past decade; it is probably the most effective conventional-war fighting force in history. But the basic assumptions, the culture, of the military-intelligence complex seem suddenly anachronistic. The nexus of national-defense and intelligence agencies may be as unsuited for a long-term offensive anti-terrorist campaign as they were unprepared to defend New York and Washington against the aerial attacks of September 11th. “The history of the American military ever since Ulysses S. Grant has been about the use of mass and firepower and ‘redundancy’ — the application of overwhelming force,” said Larry K Smith, a defense strategist who was Counsellor to both Les Aspin and William Perry, the Secretaries of Defense during Bill Clinton’s first term. “Overwhelming force implies, almost by definition, a lack of precision. That won’t work now. What we’re going to need is a much greater emphasis on the concentrated application of street smarts. I call these sorts of operations ‘closework.’ They are extremely precise missions that are used when the results are absolutely crucial. They demand the very highest standards of intelligence, of training, of preparation, of timing and execution. We haven’t been particularly good at this in the past.”
Indeed, there seems to be near-unanimous agreement among experts: in the ten years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, almost every aspect of American national-security policy — from military operations to intelligence gathering, from border control to political leadership — has been marked by exactly the kind of institutional lassitude and bureaucratic arrogance that would inhibit the “closework” that Smith proposes. New Yorker
Klein goes on to point fingers (one of the things we’re going to see accelerating now that we’ve sustained our patriotic detente and comraderie about as long as might be expected, and 20-20 hindsight takes over), and largely at the Clinton administration’s unpreparedness. But, as Joshua Micah Marshall points out in his Talking Points ‘mezine’, this “makes you wonder, of course, why the only big foreign policy player (beside CIA Director George Tenet) the Bush administration kept on from the Clinton team was Richard Clarke, head of counter-terrorism at NSC.”
Land Of The Free? Arianna Huffington goes to bat for Bill Maher: ‘As you will see from today’s column, we need your help if we are to stop ABC from canceling “Politically Incorrect.” A small group of zealots have intentionally distorted comments made by Bill Maher, and succeeded in putting the show’s future in jeopardy. If you agree that we can simultaneously rally around the flag and allow dissent and free speech to flourish, please email ABC at netaudr@abc.com or visit www4.PetitionOnline.com/promaher/petition.html and sign the petition.’
Also, if you know anybody in the ABC or Disney hierarchy, please give them a call. This is not just about one show — it’s about avoiding the first step on a really dangerous slippery slope. Thank you so much.’
Dissent, Anyone?: “…a slew of incidents further suggest a dark underside to our near-unanimous flag-waving and monolithic support for George W. Bush.” Chris Moody, The American Prospect
Does Osama Have a Nuclear Bomb? ‘Nobody who knows for sure is talking publicly. Yet for much of the last decade, government reports and intelligence experts have been warning that bin Laden has been trying to build the bomb. The reports have been sporadic but persistent: A 1999 article in the Jerusalem Report magazine claims “bin Laden has several nuclear suitcases,” and a 1998 New York Times article says that a bin Laden aide was arrested in Germany on charges of trying to buy highly enriched uranium.’ Wired
No Lye: Docs Probe ‘Soap Lady’: “Sometime in the 19th century, a fat woman died and her body changed almost entirely into soap.
It may sound like an urban legend, but researchers are serious. On Thursday, they performed a CT scan on the woman’s mummified body hoping to learn more about the process that turns some corpses into a waxy, soap-like substance called adipocere.” Wired
Phil Agre answers the common argument, “… we have to give up some
civil liberties in order to secure ourselves against the danger.”
We must certainly improve our security in many areas. I have
said that myself for years. The fallacy here is in the automatic
association between security and restrictions on civil liberties.
Security can be improved in many ways, for example by rationalizing
identification systems for airport employees or training flight
attendants in martial arts, without having any effect on civil
liberties. Security can be improved in other ways, for example
by preventing identity theft or replacing Microsoft products with
well-engineered software, that greatly improve privacy. And many
proposals for improved security, such as searching passengers’
luggage properly, have a minimal effect on privacy relative to
existing practices. The “trade-off” between security and civil
liberties, therefore, is highly over-rated, and I am quite surprised
by the speed with which many defenders of freedom have given up any
effort to defend the core value of our society as a result of the
terrorist attack.
Field Notes: See No Evil: “Philip Jenkins is a dogged debunker of media-fueled frenzies. Americans should not lose sleep, he has argued, over pedophiles in the clergy, kids on ecstasy, or serial killers. Sex fiends don’t lurk in every day-care center, he insisted in Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America (Yale, 1998). But today Jenkins, a professor of history and religious studies at Penn State University, finds himself in an awkward position: He wants to alert the public to a peril he considers authentic. Lingua Franca
Oh, what the heck, everybody else is doing it, why don’t I link too to this hilarious, poignantly so, article marking the triumphal return of The Onion? 
God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule
“Look, I don’t know, maybe I haven’t made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again,” said the Lord, His divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. “Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don’t. And to be honest, I’m really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand.”
Caterina is another fan of Samuel Delaney’s Dhalgren, about which I have frequently sung praises. She has also mentioned Mary Douglas’ Purity and Danger, a formative influence on my thinking about the tyranny of culture, oh, almost thirty years ago. Makes me curious about what else I’d find on her attempt to list every book she’s ever read…
This is a mirror of Phil Agre’s war-related links. “…neatly-organized,” commented the prolific Mr. Agre. And here his recent pointers to non-attack-related issues.
Newest twist in web advertising: make ’em view the ads before they can get the content. CNet
White House whitewashers: “Bush staffers chastise NBC for a Clinton interview, Fleischer whacks Maher and the Bush-was-in-danger story falls apart. Tension mounts between the White House and the media.” Salon
In related comments:
“Yeah, yeah, I know what everybody’s thinking: Who cares about a talk-show host who makes millions of dollars a year? But if (Bill) Maher can’t say what he wants, how can you, lowly citizen? And what’s the White House doing editing transcripts? Also, editorial writers have been fired from papers in Oregon and Texas for writing criticism of George W. Bush. Can you say blacklist, anyone?” randomWalks
Teleportation a step closer. Quantum entanglement is demonstrated on a macroscopic scale for the first time. Reuters
Recall, I’d been curious about whether any attention was bing paid to the African American reaction to the terrorist attacks. AlterNet observes: Old Glory’s New Appeal to Blacks — “For a younger generation of African Americans like Jones, now may be the first time they have felt such a level of identification and belonging in their national homeland. In the absence of national conflict, younger blacks have often felt like outsiders in America as they have had to deal with America’s history of racial oppression and remnants of racial discrimination that are an everyday reality.
But the terrorist attacks, which killed people of all racial backgrounds, religions and nationalities, have forced many African Americans to come to grips with their Americanness.”
Many of today’s blinks courtesy of Phil Agre’s Red Rock Eaters list. Sadly, here’s what Agre has to say today:
This is the last of these encyclopedic collections of URL’s about the
attack and war that I am going to put together. It’s too much work.
Besides, I feel like the fever broke today. The war talk has suddenly
calmed down, having finally confronted the reality that there’s no
single place to drop a bomb. The whole world has now shifted into
some weird new configuration, and we’re going forward from there.I’d rather have the old world, obviously, but this new world has some
real advantages. I am struck that American culture, amidst all of
the bad feelings that anyone would have, is more thoughtful and less
absorbed with trivia than it was last month. Maybe the rageaholics
will even lose their grip on our political system. We’ll have to see.We’re going to have civil liberties controversies in this new world,
that’s for sure, and I’ll certainly be covering those. And please
do keep sending URL’s that represent, say, the top 5% most important
URL’s reporting information that people aren’t going to come across
by reading the major papers. I hope that everyone has been introduced
to some new information sources by these reader-contributed URL’s; I
know I have.If anybody wants to take over the job of collating URL’s related to the
war, let me know. I’m not sure how that would work, exactly. Maybe
I would simply announce your address to the whole list and ask people
to send the stuff to you. Then you can filter and arrange them however
you want.
Grasping Ruins: Todd Gitlin’s meditation on various aspects of the attack and its aftermath: “We had better inquire deeply into this hatred because terrorists are neither gods nor animals who massacre and ruin and call their acts godly. Others, possibly already in place, may be consecrated to their furious cause, ready to murder again, even with joy in their hearts. To stop terrorism will require more than military self?defense, more than police and courts. Can there be any doubt, to thoughtful people of all persuasions and nations, that there is an urgent need for some disciplined curiosity?”
The people who resolve to do whatever necessary to destroy their Great Satan of choice devote themselves to years of planning. Their lives become the planning and they disappear into their tasks. He who signs up for such schemes convinces himself that there is a devil responsible for his and his people?s wounds; that his hatred is love?for his people or his God? and that he must regenerate himself as pure righteousness and fling himself against absolute evil. As a man, he does not matter. He melts himself down into a symbol, a symbol at war with symbols. Deploying himself against the heart of American capitalism and its chief military citadel, he will overcome earthly limits.
Violence is crucial in his scheme. Violence is at once his break from yesterday, his link to a glorious past and his door to the luminous future. Claiming ancient vindication and denying his modernity, except when it comes to techniques, he struggles to fuse the glorious past with a glorious future and burns up the present between them. To such a man, there can be no civilians. His pure totality is at war against the enemy?s impure totality. Of this, sacred men assure him. If the dead matter at all, it is as symbols themselves, symbols of the raw power, he believes, that has brought him and his people low. Their deaths will stand for his rectitude, inspirations to those who will come along behind him, inspired by his martyrdom.
Open Democracy
Obscure Team Scans Systems To See Where Enemy May Hit. ‘The eclectic, low-profile researchers — among them, a college physics
professor, a nuclear engineer and a veteran of the federal government’s Y2K
preparations — are working in near-obscurity at the Commerce Department.
The team is trying to map the government’s electronic underbelly to identify
the systems and services whose failure or disruption by a hacker or foreign
enemy could cripple the U.S. military or economy or threaten public health,
and to determine how those systems are linked with, or “cascade” upon,
others.’ Wall Street Journal via lists.jammed.com
Editorial: Take the broad view— “This umbrage over presumed US rejection doesn’t behove (sic) us. Members of the cabinet, among others, are still apparently smarting from the perceived US rejection of India?s offer of bases and logistic support. When the US published a list of terrorist and other organisations whose assets were frozen, the cry went up that India?s concerns were ignored. All this unhappiness is absurd and unnecessary and comes from looking at the global fight against terrorism through the prism of India-Pakistan rivalry.” The Indian Express
Happy New Year: It’s 1984. “Seventeen years later than expected, 1984 has arrived. In his address to Congress Thursday, George Bush effectively declared permanent war — war without temporal or geographic limits; war without clear goals; war against a vaguely defined and constantly shifting enemy.” Common Dreams
Berlusconi: The West must conquer Islam: “Breaking ranks with allies reaching out to the Muslim world, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday said Western civilization is superior to Islam. He also said he hopes the West conquers Islamic civilization.
The conservative billionaire’s remarks were instantly disavowed by more moderate politicians in Italy, who called them both ill-timed and offensive.” Salon
White House Drops Claim of Threat to Bush: “The Bush administration appeared to back away yesterday from its claim that a threat was lodged against Air Force One on the day terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.” Doubts about the original ‘spin’ the White House put on Bush’s limited visibility for most of Sept. 11th; are you surprised? Washington Post
Most victims male; many were parents. “A portrait of the people the terrorists murdered Sept. 11 is slowly emerging…” USA Today
When I walked into my local Starbucks yesterday, they were prominently displaying a tally of how much money Starbucks has donated to the relief effort. Now for something completely different — the Guardian UK reports that Starbucks charged rescuers for water: “A branch of the coffee chain Starbucks charged New York rescue workers for water to treat victims of the suicide attack on the World Trade Centre, it emerged today.
Ambulance workers were forced to scramble in their pockets for money to pay a $130 (£88) bill for three cases of water used to treat victims for shock after the twin towers collapsed.”
Architects don’t foresee skyscraper’s demise — “…while skyscrapers may be a painful reminder to some of the September 11 destruction, it’s unlikely they’ll stop sprouting on the urban landscape in the wake of the attacks, architectural experts say.” CNN
Amygdala’s Inner Workings: “The amygdala, an almond-sized and -shaped brain structure, has long been linked with a person’s mental and emotional state. But thanks to scientific advances, researchers have recently grasped how important this 1-inch-long structure really is. Associated with a range of mental conditions from normalcy to depression to even autism, the amygdala has become the focal point of numerous research projects.” The Scientist
“There is no time, there will be time…” A 1998 Forbes magazine essay by Peggy Noonan “devoted to the subject of time–how we experience time, how modern men and women relate to it in ways that might be different from our predecessors. Ms. Noonan has received many requests for reprints since the events in New York the past week.” Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal
Jon Cohen, a writer for Science: Vax Populi: “A viable anthrax vaccine exists. Why aren’t we making it and other defensive vaccines available to the public?” Scroll down for an excellent compilation of links to bioterrorism resources. Slate
Kiss and make up: “Like animals, humans can transcend their capacity for violence…
Humans might be forgiven a little despair now as the warplanes gather and terrorists hide. But in the animal world, giving in completely to the dark side is out of the question.” San Francisco Chronicle
Girls giggle and guys grunt. New Scientist
Response displays kindness of strangers: “Help selflessly offered in emergency situations differs somewhat from everyday acts of kindness, according to psychologist John Dovidio of Colgate University in New York.
In non-emergency situations, people are more selective about who they help and consider the potential costs and benefits of lending a helping hand.” Times-Dispatch
Rouse yourself! Sit up!
Resolutely train yourself to attain peace.
Do not let the king of death, seeing you are careless,
lead you astray and dominate you.
–Sutta Nipata II, 10
An Open Letter to the Peace Movement, a letter to the editor of the Willamette Week Online from Portland playwright Charles Deemer: ‘…(T)here has not been a single military action by the United States that I’ve supported as an adult. Not one.
Over the years, however, I’ve expressed the view that, if the U.S. were under attack, I would support a military response. And I believe that is the case now, which is why I am leaving your ranks.
I am writing to share my steps in deciding to leave the peace movement; to challenge you to do your work in a way that is constructive rather than divisive (as I believe your early responses have been); and to urge you to avoid easy analogies, such as Vietnam, and to find radical new ways to “wage peace.” ‘ [via Ed Fitzgerald]
Mr. Putin’s Choice: “On Monday, Mr. Putin gave Chechnya’s rebels a 72-hour deadline to begin talks on disarmament with his envoy in the region, and he demanded that they “halt all contacts with terrorists and their international organizations.” The statement suggested the possible onset of a major new Russian offensive against the Chechens, which Mr. Putin would insist be accepted on the grounds that some allies of Osama bin Laden allegedly have joined the Chechen resistance.” Washington Post editorial
George Will’s style of yellow journalism and saber rattling, in the Washington Post. There’s no such thing as a war against an abstraction, so we’d better get about the business of Taking Down Enemy Territory. ‘Soon, on campuses, in the media and in Congress (where, in 1991, 47 senators opposed using force to reverse Iraq’s aggression against Kuwait), there will be familiar calls to confine the war to minor objectives. But those objectives would mock the president’s calculated and correct use of the word “war.” When advocates of merely minor objectives are praised as “cooler heads,” the pertinent attribute may be cold feet.’
Anti-terrorism proposals worry civil libertarians. “Advocacy groups, legal experts and some members of Congress are voicing strong concerns that a proposal to expand law enforcement powers in order to ratchet up the fight on terrorism could end up treading on civil liberties enjoyed by all Americans.” CNN
Readers of FmH know I’m often preoccupied with civil liberties issues, and I have since Sept. 11th covered concerns about whether a precipitous reform of law enforcement authority will exact too steep a price to our fundamental rights. In the last few days, I’ve been even more worried about another civil liberties implication of these events, more along the lines of my membership in Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch than the ACLU. The “allies” whose cooperation we are seeking for our global “war on terrorism” are surely looking for concessions in return. They include some authoritarian regimes whose repressive stance toward their own citizens we may no longer have the discretion to object to. The threat of terrorism or of domestic unrest over being in bed with the U.S. may be the impetus, or the pretext, for such regimes to take even more draconian measures, that will make any domestic clampdown in our civil liberties pale in significance by comparison. (Many so-called anti-terrorism measures are of course not really about terrorism, although at times of passion it may be an effort to stop and analyze the implications of proposed new state powers to conclude that.) “If you thought the Taliban were monsters, just wait until you meet the West’s new friends…” warns the Sydney Morning Herald.
Amid fears, antibiotic selling fast: “Pharmacists in New York have sold greater-than-normal amounts of antibiotics for treating anthrax, a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease, amid rising fear of biological warfare.
Sales of antibiotics normally rise in September, when children return to school and parents worry about their exposure to infections. But pharmacists said the sale of Bayer AG’s antimicrobial drug Cipro are much higher than usual.” So reports the Boston Globe, which also has an opinion piece exhorting the U.S. to take this opportunity to reinstitute Iraqi weapons inspections.
Meanwhile, in the New York Times, frightened Europeans snap up gas masks, an editorial on the specter of biological terror, and a report on added security for dams, reservoirs and aqueducts.
In my region, the Quabbin Reservoir in Western Massachusetts, which supplies much of Boston’s water supply, has been “off-line” since last weekend when two light aircraft swooped low over its waters. Experts attempt to reassure us that contaminating the water supply is not as easy as most doomsday scenarios would have it, because the volume of reservoirs is so great that anything short of multiple truckloads of toxic material would be diluted to harmlessness. Will post-attack fears heighten watershed consciousness? How many urban dwellers even know with confidence where their drinking water comes from? Should we all become much more conversant with the language of WMD (weapons of mass destruction) and CBW (chemical and biological warfare)? The Bush admnistration had been reluctant to sign a treaty (one of the many at which it thumbed its nose in its go-it-alone stance until Sept. 11th) that would have tightened controls on the production of biological agents, supposedly because it would have obligated us to reveal details of our so-called “defensive” research into virulent strains of anthrax and who knows what else. Will the administration be able to get away with this with a population more highly educated about the terrible potential of biological weaponry?
Analysts: signs point to U.S. strike within two weeks: “Official lips are sealed, but U.S. analysts say the signs — military buildup, coalition formation, and weather forecasts — point to U.S. strikes on Afghanistan in the next two weeks.” Rapid action before snow falls or resolve of ambivalent allies weakens. Boston Globe
In Cases of Euthanasia, Men Most Often Kill Women — ‘Colorado State University psychologist Silvia Sara Canetto recently uncovered a curious statistic: two thirds of the people who die in so-called mercy killings are women. Moreover, most of these women are killed by men. “Many people may view women’s high rates of death by mercy killing as an indication of men’s beneficence or of women’s healthy pragmatism, rational thinking and self-determination,” Canetto says. “Yet one should be wary of those who present mercy killing as a gift to women. These are fatal gifts, embedded in a long tradition of legitimizing women’s sacrifice.” ‘ Scientific American
No brainer: ‘A new culture war is emerging. This one pits “minders” against “brainers,” and cuts across the usual political lines. Brainers build their cultural castles on the rock of cutting-edge science: genetics, brain biology, and evolutionary psychology. Minders craft a worldview the old-fashioned way, by drawing on religion, philosophy, and classic social science.’ The author, Stankey Kuntz, a fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute think tank, describes himself as a “confirmed minder” and is essentially cheerleading for the various salvos fired against the brainers’ “medicalization of unhappiness.” Perhaps worthwhile, but unfortunately he doesn’t know enough about neuroscience to criticize it, and some of his assertions — e.g., that there is no well-established understanding of the pathophysiologiy of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — are just plain untrue. It is also remarkable to hear him proclaim that the brain/mind battleground is a new one. Indeed, it’s one of the longest-running shows in the psychological sciences. I won’t go too far into his efforts to disparage and patronize the positions of his opponents as “religion”, since he also seems to know little of the philosophy of science and epistemology. His crowning blow is to imply that this is a battle about “the degree of humanity we shall be able to retain.” You can guess which side he thinks holds all the humanity. National Review
Married 203 Times, He Has Only Memories, Not Wives: “(Egyptian) law and custom make short, legal liaisons a form of protection. Musician, 70, now wants to settle down–with two mates.” LA Times
Los Angeles Times letter to the editor: “I am an 80-year-old veteran of 3 1/2 years in the Army during World War II and am really upset by one thing in our reaction to our recent tragedy. Ever since the terrorist attacks it has been appropriate to sing our national anthem on the radio or TV–yet “America, the Beautiful” or “God Bless America” have been substituted. I hope this is not a case of the religious right trying to use this recent tragedy to promote their agenda of getting God into the national anthem. Our national anthem is “The Star Spangled Banner”.
Some See ‘Ghost’ of Towers at Night: ‘For many New Yorkers, the Twin Towers are legendary. But for some, there is now talk about the buildings, the kind that sometimes spurs urban legends. Some residents of the Lower East Side, who for decades have had an unobstructed view of the majestic 110-story towers simply by glancing down East Broadway or Madison Street, say they see the outlines of the two destroyed buildings.
“It was amazing,” said Mike Atta, who works at a grocery store at Rutgers and Madison streets. “It was a light, a straight light going up into the sky. It actually looked like the Twin Towers.”
Atta said many people have stood outside his store on evenings to admire the “ghost” and have spoken to him about it. “Some people say it’s just a light,” Atta said. “Some people say it’s an amazing thing.” ‘ Newsday [via Spike]
Researchers Find Enzyme Crucial To Preservation Of Memories: “…elimination of the enzyme, calcium-calmodulin dependent kinase (CaMKIV), in the forebrains of mice had profound effects on signaling pathways in the brain and learning behavior.
The scientists began their studies to clarify the enzyme’s role in late long-term potentiation (L-LTP), the process by which enduring memories are established through a mechanism of activating genes that trigger protein synthesis. This protein synthesis, in turn, alters the synapses — connections between neurons — and ?etches? permanent memory pathways.” Science Daily News
FAIR Action Alert: Media Pundits Advocate Civilian Targets Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
The ‘art’ of naming military operations, a 1995 historical survey from the
World Wars to ”infinite justice’. US Army War College Quarterly
Everyone’s talking about how the weblog has served us well as a tool since 9-11. But of course it is also a potential vehicle for inanity. Take this, from WarLog by Jeff Jarvis, self-described “president & creative director of Advance.net and former TV critic for TV Guide, creator of Entertainment Weekly, Sunday Editor of the NY Daily News, and a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner“, who writes (taking the cake from Andrew Sullivan’s “fifth column” comments I noted below):
The Axis alliance of this war: Extreme fundamentalist Muslims who hate America, extreme fundamentalist Christians (read: Falwell) who hate what America has become, and extreme fundamentalist liberals (read Matt Welch and Christopher Hitchens’ attack on them) who want to blame America for what has befallen it. They’re all dangerous lunatics. Shouldn’t we in the media be exposing and ridiculing these kooks and cults? Isn’t that in our job description?
US considers faceprints for air security — “Officials given the task of tightening security at airports were impressed by a demonstration of the technique and believe that the expected opposition of civil liberties groups will resonate less widely with the public because of widespread fears about safety.
A government committee under the jurisdiction of Norman Mineta, the Transport Secretary, examined the FaceIt system last week and was told that it could be installed at key airports within weeks.” Times of London
And:
ID cards “don’t stop crime”: “Civil liberties groups are crying foul over the possible introduction of identity cards in Britain, claiming they would infringe liberty but have little impact on the West’s newly declared war on terrorism.” Reuters
How the British national identification card might look. Times of London
Rep. Barbara Lee: “Why I opposed the resolution to authorize force” San Francisco Chronicle
Remiss: “Dubya and the national media have continued to harp on their latest song: America, America, America! I dearly love my country — I had an American flag hanging in my front window long before the Big Awful came down on the 11th — but this is getting embarrassing. Have they not noticed how many of the missing (go ahead and say it: the dead) are from other countries?” Making Light
Researchers map how schizophrenia engulfs teen brains: “Scientists at UCLA and the National Institute of Mental Health employed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to
scan a group of teenagers repeatedly as they developed schizophrenia. Using a new image analysis method that detects
very fine changes in the brain, the scientists detected gray matter loss of more than 10 percent first in the parietal, or outer,
regions of the brain; this loss spread to engulf the rest of the brain over five years.” EurekAlert
Now, Doctors Must Identify the Dead Among the Trade Center Rubble, “… gearing up for the largest
effort in the annals of forensic
medicine…” New York Times [login:”fmhreader”; password: “fmhreader”]
How big a war? More on the Wolfowitz/Powell schism. I thought Powell’s restraint in not wanting to march on Baghdad during Desert Storm was a soldier’s conceit about getting done just the job he was sent to do. According to this essay, however, he was more the diplomat even then, concerned for the fragility of the alliance the U.S. had forged.
During the Gulf War, then-President Bush sided with Powell, rejecting calls from Gen.
Norman Schwarzkopf and others to continue on to Baghdad. Bush’s background as a
legislator and, like Powell, a diplomat made him sensitive to Powell’s concerns about
undermining the tenuous coalition that was assembled during the Gulf War.But the current President Bush does not have the foreign policy experience of his father, and
so the question of who has his ear on key foreign policy decisions has been the topic of
much speculation. During the presidential campaign, Bush tried to temper concerns about his
lack of foreign policy experience and knowledge by pointing to the seasoned foreign policy
hands surrounding him. But those advisors have real ideological divides over a number of
issues, and so far Bush has not sided clearly with one side or the other. Salon
The terrorist attacks: news frames and filters Susan D. Moeller’s 1999 book Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine,
War and Death describes a typology of media coverage of assassinations and terrorist events that anticipates what we’ve seen in the last two weeks.
…there is rarely even any cognizance that the media’s rendition is itself
“framed.” Only if multiple similar events are compared is it made evident
that conscious choices guided the media’s coverage. Many news
frames appear to be natural, unforced, perhaps even self-evident ways
of reporting a story.
— Susan D. Moeller
disinformation
U.S. Plans to Release Its Evidence on Bin Laden: “The Bush administration, determined to prove to the world that Osama bin Laden and his cohorts are guilty of the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, plans to make public a detailed analysis of the evidence collected by intelligence and police agencies, senior officials said today.
In deciding to publish its case against the Afghanistan-based terrorist, the administration concluded that international support for its planned military, diplomatic and economic retaliation is more important than the intelligence secrets that might be compromised.” LA Times
The Phantom Towers, a memorial Paul Myoda and Julian Laverdiere
The Phantom Towers, a memorial Paul Myoda and Julian Laverdiere
The Phantom Towers, a memorial Paul Myoda and Julian Laverdiere
Book shops are no
longer sweet, sedate, cerebral places in the calm, measured
business of selling knowledge. They’re battlegrounds for
publishers, piled high, battalions of their products coming after
you. Their weapon is the book cover.Publishers think we’re all mugs and, by and large, that’s exactly
what we are. We judge books by their covers. We know what to
expect. The bookshop is almost colour-coded to make selection
easier. Bubblegum cartoon covers for girly relationship novels.
Cold-war thrillers, horror, sci-fi, all dressed in gothic black with
melodramatic gold lettering. It’s design shorthand. Publishers
have just a few seconds to catch your eye, as you
promiscuously scan the shop floor. Let your eye rest for a
second, and they’ve almost got you. Make contact, read the
blurb on the back and, most important today, clock the face of
the author. Raffishly lived-in like Paul Auster, or boho glam like
Zadie Smith: either way, you’re sold. It’s not enough any more
for wannabe bestselling authors to send in a mere manuscript. A
photo, professionally styled, is mandatory. The Guardian UK
Governments struggle to second guess terrorists’ next move: “As the dust starts to settle on the terrorist atrocities in the US, governments around the world are urgently reviewing their counter-terrorist measures. One of their biggest unknowns is whether terrorists are now likely to stick to the low-tech approach of 11 September, or whether they will turn to chemical or biological weapons.” New Scientist
Hacker rewrites Yahoo! news stories: “A computer security expert has revealed how he altered news
articles posted to Yahoo!’s web site without permission. The
incident highlights the danger of hackers posting misleading
information to respected news outlets, say experts.” New Scientist
What happens next? Six options beyond war and peace. Reason
This is robo-roach:” …surgically
implanted with a micro-robotic backpack that allows researchers to control its movements.”
Attack on America: An Islamic Perspective
In short, America isn’t anti-Islamic. Nor does it need to be. America and Allah are not at odds. Nor do they need to be. If the United States fails to alter the course of its foreign policy and if it continues to be perceived as anti-Islamic, Islamic terrorism may not go away with missiles and bombs. In that event, more than six million Muslims, now living in the United States, may suffer persecution that American Indians, African-Americans and American citizens of Japanese descent have experienced in the past. In that event, America will also fail from within. –Professor Ali Khan (Washburn University School of Law), The Jurist
The war effort gears up:
Kabul looted as order disintegrates: “As thousands of nervous Afghans flee Kabul and other big towns, reports have emerged of looting in the capital as law and order begins to break down.” The Times of London
Destined to Shadowbox With the Devil: “When is someone going to admit that the terrorists have already won, immobilizing the world’s greatest democracy and that much of what we are doing as a nation is simply stomping our feet in frustration? LA Times
The Hunt for bin Laden Gears Up on a Trail Gone Cold — ‘For his part, Mr. bin Laden is where he has so often been since he proclaimed his holy war in the mid- 1990’s and set out to kill as many Americans as he could — everywhere, and nowhere, the subject of countless rumors and speculations. The only thing certain is that each passing day gives the world’s most wanted fugitive more opportunity to move and to hide.
As of today, 24 hours after the Taliban announced their “final decision” to refuse his handover, this much was known publicly about Mr. bin Laden’s whereabouts: virtually nothing.’ New York Times [name: “FMHreader”, password: “FMHreader”]
However, whom would you rather believe? “British intelligence agents have discovered the position of terror chief Osama bin Laden… PM Tony Blair’s official spokesman last night confirmed: “Bin Laden is in Afghanistan. We know he is there, put it that way.” ‘ News of the World
Or: Bin Laden ‘fleeing to Somalia’: “US officials believe Osama bin Laden is preparing to
leave Afghanistan to set up his terrorist operations in Somalia.” This is London
The Phantom Towers, a memorial Paul Myoda and Julian Laverdiere
U.S. Measures May Incite Domestic Terror: “These new measures may be necessary components to protect the United States from further attacks by foreign terrorists. But they will also likely fuel the fears and anger of domestic groups such as the Michigan Militia or the North American Volunteer Militia. In time, as the U.S. security apparatus looks for threats coming from outside the country, the United States may again face attacks from within.” StratFor
Rumors of War: “A collection of links to pages discussing the various rumors to come out of the September 11 terrorist attack on the United States of America.” It brands claims as true, false, undetermined or indeterminate. Urban Legends reference pages
I’ll give you the punchline: email circulating telling you you’ll find something sinister if you enter the supposed name of one of the hijacked flights, “Q33NY”, in the Microsoft font Wing Ding, especially at a large size. What you’ll find is an airliner, “twin towers”, a skull’n’crossbones, and Star of David. There’s also been about a decade’s worth of concern about “NYC” in Wing Ding, which gives you the skull’n’bones, the Star of David, and a thumbs-up. Microsoft has felt compelled to issue denials that it had embedded hidden anti-Semitic messages in its fonts.
Saturday, or was it Sunday, the TV networks began running commercials again. Carrot Top shilling a 1-800 number while cracking panty jokes in a laundromat. Babes With Guns, a very special season premiere.
We are blessed with a rich culture, woven from thousands of years of European, African, and Asian art, philosophy, and political thinking. But you wouldn?t know it to look at the junk we put on TV and export to the world.
Suddenly pop culture looks like excrement smeared by a mental patient.
Of course it always did. But suddenly the shallowness feels shameful. Am I the only one who feels this way? What dream have we been living in?
Somehow in my pursuit of happiness I failed to notice that children were dying in Iraq.
Somehow when car bombs exploded in London, or gunfire ripped the West Bank, I felt a moment of sorrow and disbelief, then went about my business ? never realizing that love was my business, the world was my business.
We use love to sell mouthwash.
The thing is, I am under a cloud ? literally. A cloud of pulverized metal, asbestos, and human beings blankets my city.
I find it hard to work, hard to think. Like my mother when she began to come down with Alzheimer?s, I find myself at a loss for names, a loss for dates, a loss for titles of books I?ve read.
I say, “that guy, that actor, who married that woman, actress, who was in Batman” when I mean Alec Baldwin.
I say “that fucker” when I mean bin Laden.
That one doesn?t bother me.
The thing is, like everyone, I keep putting one foot in front of the other.
The thing is, I feel helpless as an embryo.[via wood s lot]
More on the bravery of the Flight 93 passengers, after analysis of the cockpit voice recorder.
And, folded into the same article, speculation that the assassination of the Afghan opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massoud by suicide bombers may have been the work of Al Qu’ida, and timed to throw the opposition into chaos to coincide with the American attacks. Recall, further, the reports of explosions in Kabul on the night of the 11th, about which I’ve seen no further followup after it became clear that the U.S. had not started a bombardment. But, with reports that Massoud had died that day (inaccurate; he lingered for several more days before succombing), I thought that anti-Taliban forces might be retaliating in Kabul. New York Times [name: “FMHreader”, password: “FMHreader”]
Thinkers Face the Limits of a Just War: ‘Few moral philosophers except committed pacifists dispute that the United
States has just cause to use force in this case. But many emphatically reject
the use of the word “war” in anything but a metaphorical sense, noting
that in this case the enemy is not a state against which hostilities can be
formally declared and from which surrender can be sought.’
The moral philosophers are not the only philosophers grappling with the implications of the attacks and our response. Attacks on U.S. Challenge Postmodern True
Believers:
The destruction of the World Trade Center
and the attack on the Pentagon may have
similar effects, challenging the intellectual
and ethical perspectives of two sets of
ideas: postmodernism (affectionately
known as pomo) and postcolonialism
(which might be called poco). These ideas,
which have affected political debate and
university scholarship, are now being
subject to a shock that may lead in two
directions: on one hand to a more intense commitment, and on the other
— I hope — to a more intense rejection.
New York Times [name: “FMHreader”, password: “FMHreader”]
For Bush, a Mission and a Defining Moment: ‘ “This,” he told them, “is the purpose of this administration.” …One of the president’s close acquaintances outside the White House said Mr. Bush clearly feels he has encountered his reason for being, a conviction informed and shaped by the president’s own strain of Christianity.
“I think, in his frame, this is what God has asked him to do,” the acquaintance said. “It offers him enormous clarity.” ‘ [While I’m all for people finding themselves, how will the Islamic world (or for that matter our allies) face a war shaped by Christian zealotry?]
‘…Although the current moratorium on presidential criticism in the nation’s capital prohibits most on-the-record carping, there is off-the-record concern, expressed not only by Democrats but also by some Republicans.
They fear that there is something headlong and immature in some of Mr. Bush’s exhortations over the last few days. They wonder if he is making promises he cannot keep and threats he cannot back up.
They note it is impossible to know how ? and how much ? Mr. Bush has really changed, because efforts by the White House to control what gets said about him, and who says it, have been unusually aggressive.
Most of the people in a position to talk knowledgeably about Mr. Bush’s emotions are not talking at all. Those who do talk have often sought the administration’s permission, and they reel off the same adjectives, like focused and resolute, that White House spokesmen do.
Moreover, there are indications that Mr. Bush’s nonchalant, jocular demeanor remains the same. In public, his off-the-cuff language still veers toward the colloquial. In private, say several Republicans close to the administration, he still slaps backs and uses baseball terminology, at one point promising that the terrorists were not “going to steal home on me.” ‘ New York Times [name: “FMHreader”, password: “FMHreader”]
Sweeps Find Box-Cutters On Two More Airliners: “Federal investigators found box-cutter knives on at least two airplanes during sweeps conducted in the aftermath of the deadly Sept. 11 hijackings, including two stuffed into seat cushions on a flight out of Boston and one found in a trash bin of an Atlanta jetliner headed for Brussels…”
And:
Rumors of New Attacks Leave Cities on Edge — “In Atlanta, Richmond and now Boston, vague, unsubstantiated threats received since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack have presented authorities with the difficult task of sorting through raw intelligence and alerting authorities without panicking a jittery public. In each case, there have been warnings of possible violence followed quickly by retractions.”Washington Post
‘The harm done to innocents’ — “Most Americans who have lived or traveled in the Arab world can relate similar experiences: Arabs are entirely capable of differentiating between a people and the actions of its government, or the values of a people and the political agenda of a narrow minority of them. What confuses, and, yes, angers them is that we do not seem to return the favor.” Boston Globe
Bin Laden didn’t do it, says an Egyptian security analyst. American conclusions are based on inaccuracies in understanding of Islamic fundamentalism and of bin Laden himself. Al Ahram (Cairo)
In 1974, I spent several months in Afghanistan, and several weeks stuck in limbo in ‘no man’s land’ on the Pakistani-Afghani border in the Khyber (because of a visa problem that blocked me from official movement into either country). Part of my lifelong urge to make pilgrimmages to what the current cliché calls forbidding mountainous terrain. Of course you know I’m going to say this: I loved the country, and its people. I’ll try to dig up my slides and get some of them digitized and posted, if I can…
When blogging came of age Charles Cooper at CNET; Second sight: the atrocity through the eyes of webloggers Nick Denton, founder of Moreover, at The Guardian
E-bombs: “In the blink of an eye, electromagnetic bombs could throw civilization back 200 years. And terrorists can build them for $400.” Popular Mechanics [via MetaFilter]
This essay by the editor of The New Republic argues that the honeymoon after the attacks may be over, and political fault lines are reopening around the question, “Does America have the moral authority to go to war?” Widening the cracks, he immediately goes after The Nation for claiming that the attacks were about the U.S.’s support for Israel (“…downright bizarre”) or the sanctions against Iraq (“Longtime bin Laden watchers know he has never been especially concerned with the plight of the Palestinians… Nor has bin Laden been a big supporter of Saddam.”):
In bin Laden’s mind, America’s greatest offense–by far–is its military presence in his home country of Saudi Arabia. (The bin Laden-sponsored attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam occurred on the eighth anniversary of the dispatch of U.S. troops to the Gulf.) And that’s a harder line for Western leftists to peddle. Because bin Laden isn’t upset at the United States for bolstering Riyadh’s oppressive policies–after all, the Saudi government’s views on individual freedom and the status of women roughly mirror his own. Bin Laden is upset simply because non-Muslims live in the Holy Land around Mecca and Medina. His first priority is banishing Christians and Jews from Saudi Arabia. And his second priority is banishing Christians and Jews from every other Muslim country…
Bin Laden, after all, is an ethnic cleanser. And the United States is the only powerful country on Earth willing to take up arms to make sure that people of different religions and races can live together. The main difference between September 11 and what came before is that bin Laden desires ethnic cleansing on a scale far greater than the Hutus and the Serbs, a scale that has only one true twentieth century parallel.
If Fisk and The Nation really want to argue that America brought the World Trade Center attack on itself, they shouldn’t delude themselves. They are not defending the Palestinians’ right to a state or the Iraqis’ right to medicine. They are defending a Muslim’s right not to live with a non-Muslim. And in so doing they are renouncing this country’s most sacred principles–principles that saved countless Muslim lives in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s…
The Spinsanity site (“countering rhetoric with reason”) singles out malignant conservative commentator Andrew Sullivan for calling dissenting leftists a “fifth column”. For those who don’t know, this scurrilous term has connoted domestic traitors who covertly aid their country’s attackers or occupiers.
On the other hand, it occurs to me, some would say that, in automatically linking dissent to the cause of the enemy, Sullivan may be the true “fifth columnist” [grin]. The message that the terrorists have won if their attack prompts us to dismantle X or Y that is best about America has been bandied about this week. Of course, it ignores the fact that it was almost certainly not merely begrudging the U.S. its ‘best’ attributes like freedom and affluence (the closest Dubya’s speechwriters came in his address to the nation last night to offering any explanation) that motivated the carnage. As much or more, of course, it is some of our unacknowledged baser aspects — our bullying arrogance, our interventionism, our perceived support for corrupt oppressive regimes — that give the fanatics an axe to grind against us.
In another sign of the intolerance of dissent, the President of the University of Texas felt compelled to criticize the expression of just such sentiments by a UT journalism professor who had written an antiwar column in the Houston Chronicle.
Faulkner’s letter begins by stating Jensen made his remarks entirely in his
capacity as a free citizen of the United States, but that “no aspect of his
remarks is supported, condoned or officially recognized by the University of
Texas at Austin.”Faulkner’s letter then turned to a more personal note.
“Jensen is not only misguided, but has become a fountain of undiluted foolishness
on issues of public policy,” Faulkner wrote in his letter. “Students must learn
that there is a good deal of foolish opinion in the popular media, and they must
become skilled at recognizing and discounting it,”
Back in June, the U.S. designated the “Real IRA” as a terrorist organization. Are we going to go after them along with the other infidels? American Embassy London [via MetaFilter]
Not War, Crimes. Says a former State Department attorney and professor of law at Hofstra, ‘The enormity of the attacks has almost inevitably led to war talk, among the people, opinion writers, and political leaders. “We’re at war,” President Bush remarked on Saturday. “There’s been an act of war declared upon America by terrorists, and we will respond accordingly.”
But the ultimate nature of the attacks is more akin to crime than to war, and should to the maximum extent possible be addressed as such.’ FindLaw legal commentary
And Phil Agre on a similar subject [must read]: War in a World Without Boundaries
An odd feature of the new war is the mixture of languages: George
Bush and his staff constantly switch between the military language
of war and the police language of crime. It is, for example, a war
to bring evildoers to justice. This development is relatively recent.
It was during the Clinton years, for example, that the FBI went
global. Congress vastly increased its funding and it opened offices
worldwide. This was reasonable enough, given the globalization of
crime along with the globalization of everything else. The drug war,
likewise, brought complaints that military forces were being used for
police activities. Before the 1990’s, though, the distinction between
military and police activities was relatively clear. The Korean
War was supposedly a “police action”, but it was obviously a war;
the “police” language was universally understood as a legal fiction
to escape the Constitutional demand that US military activity be
authorized by a Congressional declaration of war. Legal scholars
protested this development, but it has now been institutionalized.
Other wars have ended with criminal tribunals, but these tribunals
have been conducted under the law of war, not under peacetime criminal
law.So something is taking form here — a “war” whose sole stated aim
is catching individuals who have committed crimes — and it raises
questions. The difference between war-talk and police-talk is
not trivial. When a war is over, the victorious party customarily
lets the rank-and-file soldiers go back to their lives; having
been subject to the laws of their nation-state, and they are regarded
as following orders. With a crime, however, one does not let the
soldiers go. To the contrary, one tries them as individuals for the
full extent of their activities and punishes them if they are found
guilty. In the United States, this punishment can include death.
In a war, either party is empowered to use nearly any means to detain
or kill the soldiers of other. Captured soldiers have certain rights,
but others do not. Criminals, however, have rights, and police are
heavily constrained in ways that soldiers are not. The distinction
between “war” and “crime” is particularly important for the attack
on the Pentagon, which would be an ordinary military action in a war,
but it is also matters for the ways in which the World Trade Center
attackers can be brought to justice.Here, then, is the danger. Does Osama bin Laden, assuming for the
moment that he is the “commander” of the terrorist forces in whatever
sense is relevant, have “soldiers” who are just following orders?
Or is the United States setting the precedent that the winning power
in a war tries all of the losing power’s soldiers for capital crimes?
That would set back the rules of warfare by centuries. An odd feature of the new war is the mixture of languages: George
Bush and his staff constantly switch between the military language
of war and the police language of crime. It is, for example, a war
to bring evildoers to justice. This development is relatively recent.
It was during the Clinton years, for example, that the FBI went
global. Congress vastly increased its funding and it opened offices
worldwide. This was reasonable enough, given the globalization of
crime along with the globalization of everything else. The drug war,
likewise, brought complaints that military forces were being used for
police activities. Before the 1990’s, though, the distinction between
military and police activities was relatively clear. The Korean
War was supposedly a “police action”, but it was obviously a war;
the “police” language was universally understood as a legal fiction
to escape the Constitutional demand that US military activity be
authorized by a Congressional declaration of war. Legal scholars
protested this development, but it has now been institutionalized.
Other wars have ended with criminal tribunals, but these tribunals
have been conducted under the law of war, not under peacetime criminal
law.So something is taking form here — a “war” whose sole stated aim
is catching individuals who have committed crimes — and it raises
questions. The difference between war-talk and police-talk is
not trivial. When a war is over, the victorious party customarily
lets the rank-and-file soldiers go back to their lives; having
been subject to the laws of their nation-state, and they are regarded
as following orders. With a crime, however, one does not let the
soldiers go. To the contrary, one tries them as individuals for the
full extent of their activities and punishes them if they are found
guilty. In the United States, this punishment can include death.
In a war, either party is empowered to use nearly any means to detain
or kill the soldiers of other. Captured soldiers have certain rights,
but others do not. Criminals, however, have rights, and police are
heavily constrained in ways that soldiers are not. The distinction
between “war” and “crime” is particularly important for the attack
on the Pentagon, which would be an ordinary military action in a war,
but it is also matters for the ways in which the World Trade Center
attackers can be brought to justice.Here, then, is the danger. Does Osama bin Laden, assuming for the
moment that he is the “commander” of the terrorist forces in whatever
sense is relevant, have “soldiers” who are just following orders?
Or is the United States setting the precedent that the winning power
in a war tries all of the losing power’s soldiers for capital crimes?
That would set back the rules of warfare by centuries. Red Rock Eaters
