The Duck of Minerva

...or the lenders that prey on them?Conservative Congressman Blocking Crackdown on Predatory Lenders Targeting U.S. TroopsGlad he has a link on his website so that vistors can send a message of support to our troops. Guess that makes the mugging he is facilitating behind their backs okie dokie. Filed as: Geoff Davis

...since the Mets last won a division title. Hopefully they are not done. Gonna be an exciting October.Filed as: Mets

The Senate today released portions of their official inquiry into pre-Iraq intelligence, an inquiry that compared pre-war estimates with post-war findings. Specifically, the declassified documents focused on purported links between Hussein and al-Qaeda as well as the impact of the Iraqi National Congress’ misinformation regarding Saddam’s regime.The results are not (or at least, shouldn’t be) surprising. Some highlights:“Saddam has viewed Islamic extremists operating inside Iraq as a threat, and his regime since its inception has arrested and executed members of both Shia and Sunni groups to...

New Poll: 43% Still Believe Saddam Had Something To Do With 9/11I wonder what percentage of American's lack basic critical thinking skills. Me thinks the numbers would look eerily similar...Filed as: 9/11

It's nice to know the White House is just now accepting the fact that most of us have been fully aware of since at least the Madrid train bombings in 2004. Our own Dan Nexon has been discussing this topic for quite some time. From today's WaPo:A new counterterrorism strategy released yesterday by the White House describes al-Qaeda as a significantly degraded organization, but outlines potent threats from smaller networks and individuals motivated by al-Qaeda ideology, a lack of freedom and "twisted" propaganda about U.S. policy in the Middle East.The National Strategy for Combating Terrorism...

I alerted regular Duck readers to the coming deluge of reputation rhetoric as the Bush administration and the RNC attempt to frame the upcoming midterm elections as a choice between ‘appeasers’ and ‘resolved warriors’. That deluge has officially begun. On Tuesday I discussed Secretary Rumsfeld's latest incoherent drivel speech. This morning’s Washington Post reports on the increase of henny-penny arguments to come:“President Bush and his surrogates are launching a new campaign intended to rebuild support for the war in Iraq by accusing the opposition of aiming to appease terrorists and cut...

Two recommendations for readers of the Duck:First, a noteworthy article for those interested in analytical studies of strategic interaction as applied to terrorism appears in the recent issue of International Security. Andrew Kydd (a new addition to my department at Penn via Harvard) and Barbara Walter discuss terrorism as costly signaling and further elaborate on the numerous strategic logics of costly signaling at work in terrorist actions:(1) attrition,(2) intimidation,(3) provocation,(4) spoiling, and (5) outbidding. In an attrition strategy, terrorists seek to persuade the enemy that...

Exhibit A: Rep. Tom Lantos"The international community must use all our available means to stiffen Lebanon's spine and to convince the government of Lebanon to have the new UNIFIL troops on the Syrian border in adequate numbers," said Tom Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives' International Relations Committee.Lantos said he was putting a legislative hold on Bush's proposal to provide $230 million in aid for Lebanon in the aftermath of the 34-day war between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas."My purpose is not to withhold aid from Lebanon, my purpose ... is...

I am officially declaring that all future invokations of the reputation frame (and its cousin, the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics, which focuses on the importance of 'will') by neoconservatives be renamed "henny-penny arguments", since they invoke the same feeling of hysterical irrationality that Rumsfeld originally tried to convey. In a recent speech, Secretary Rumsfeld stated......the world faces "a new type of fascism" and likened critics of the Bush administration's war strategy to those who tried to appease the Nazis in the 1930s.He quoted Winston Churchill as observing that trying...

It would appear that, like Bill Murray before us, we are doomed to repeat the insufferable lead up to the Iraq War and endure major strategic blunder numero dos.Shorter Frederick Fleitz: 'US intelligence is faulty because they haven't managed to dig up enough evidence to support my beliefs about how advanced Iran's nuclear program is. Therefore, they need to work harder to find such evidence'.It's déjà vu all over again.Filed as: Iran, US Intelligence