The Duck of Minerva

It appears Rob and I have much in common. From the Which Historic General Are You test (via Curzon at Coming Anarchy):You are...Julius CaesarYou scored 53 Wisdom, 73 Tactics, 59 Guts, and 45 Ruthlessness!Filed as: diversion

Chilling story in the Washington Post this morning on the lack of free speech in Afghanistan four years after the US invasion and toppling of the Taliban regime. What's so disturbing is that it's the type of story I expected to read before we brought down the Taliban.Additionally, Rodger has a post on the seemingly delusional Senator Mitch McConnell who stated that the transition in Iraq has been "rather smooth". Rather smooth? Compared to what? The French Revolution??Filed as: Democracy, Afghanistan, Iraq

From my fellow Quakers over at The Apollo Creed, a must read on the fallacious 'War on Christmas'. Check it out.Filed as: War on Christmas

Now certainly we can all agree that many of the most inflamatory, anti-Israeli statements from Iran's newest President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been targeted towards a certain segment of his domestic audience and possibly segments of the Arab world. This is quite common for politicians of all types, since their continued power relies in part on their ability to maintain support from relevant actors, and this is done through signaling. However, there is a right and wrong way to signal so that you minimize the amount of negative reactions from other audiences who are obviously...

[updated on 12.4.05]I know I promised to comment on the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, but to be honest it isn't worth the effort and I don't know if I have the strength. Those who read this blog are intelligent enough to see the Victory Stratey for what it is--a transparent attempt to mollify the administration's critics and reverse the declining trend in public opinion for the war.The 'strategy' is simply a collection of regurgitated, vapid platitudes that offers nothing in the way of original strategy and fails to outline the tactics necessary to achieve each element of the...

I don't have time to comment on the document yet since I just got my hands on it, but I will definitely post my thoughts soon. In the meantime, here is a link to the full-text.Filed as: Iraq, Exit Strategy

An excellent piece by Justin Webb at the BBC on the ongoing war on science by evangelical christians in the US and its impact on politics and the Republican party.Patrick has previously blogged about so-called "intelligent design" and I don't think I can improve on his points, suffice it to say that I am fervent supporter of evolution and rational science. Whether or not there is a higher power is a question beyond my faculties--agnostic is the best way to describe my views (nicely summarized by Bertrand Russell). However, I know enough about evolution to know that it does not purport to...

Why, oh why do people continue to assert that the US is required in any way to defend Taiwan in the case of an attack by mainland China? The latest example of this fallacy comes from an AFP report from Monday. The article recounts Chinese President Hu Jintao's restatement of China's position on Taiwanese independence. At the end of the article we come across this statement:Despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, the United States remains Taiwan's biggest arms supplier and is bound by US law to help the island defend itself against any attack.This is wrong....

Just wanted to wish my fellow members of the Duck as well as our readership a Happy Thanksgiving.

An update to my earlier post on Congresswoman Jean Schmidt of Ohio.From the Washington Post: "Schmidt doesn't understand what the fuss is about, and sees herself more as victim than villain." Read on.Filed as: Jean Schmidt