The Duck of Minerva

Iraq is not Vietnam. However, the political debate about Vietnam presents a number of valuable lessons that war opponents should be learning. Fast, as in before the 2008 presidential election process starts in earnest. Since candidates are already coming forward to fill what will almost certainly be an open seat (unless Dick Cheney has filled it for some reason), this means war opponents need to act now. Anti-war activists have great difficulty convincing the majority of Americans that the US should simply abandon Iraq. Even those who opposed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq are now reluctant...

Last night, I viewed the disturbing documentary about Fox News, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism." If you haven't seen it, I recommend that you do. Indeed, watch it as part of a double feature with "Control Room," the documentary about Arabic network, al-Jazeera. Frankly, after seeing both films, I'd rather my cable company carry al-Jazeera than Fox News Channel.This week, I'm hard at work on my syllabi for this fall's classes, which begin for me next Tuesday. While viewing "Outfoxed," I kept wondering if it would be acceptable to show it during classtime for the section on...

Jim Hu of blogs for industry is putting together a "virtual faculty club" that includes a useful "Virtual College of Liberal Arts." He apparently only includes regular faculty members who use their real names, so grad students like Bill Petti are not included.The Political Science faculty, however, includes the other Duck of Minerva bloggers. And many more.Filed as: Virtual Faculty Club

Cross-posted on my blog.Much of blogtopia has been talking about the sobering article by Robin Wright and Ellen Knickmeyer in Sunday's Washington Post. I don't have time to comment right now -- the kids actually start school Tuesday (!) -- but the piece is definitely worth a complete read. The title accurately sums up the story: "U.S. Lowers Sights On What Can Be Achieved in Iraq." Here are the first few paragraphs:The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than...

Cross-posted on my blog.On June 27, I blogged about Thomas Friedman's old claim that "no two countries that have McDonald's have ever fought a war since each got McDonald's."That was falsified by the NATO/US bombing of the former Yugoslavia.Now, it seems, Friedman's new book, The World is Flat makes a similar claim. This quote by the author is from a book review in the July Progressive: "“The Dell Theory stipulates: No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell'’s, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply...

This is cross-posted on my blog.Years ago, I sometimes read the usenet group rec.sport.baseball. Many of the posters on that board used a word that I hadn't seen before, but it was one I soon embraced: "mediocy." According to baseballthinkfactory.org, the word was coined "by Dave Kirsch and defined by David M. Tate":It is a portmanteau word, combining 'media' and 'idiot' to denote a member of the print or broadcast media who hasn't a clue. 'Mediocy' is derived by analogy with 'idiocy'.Today, while watching a report on rising gasoline prices on MSNBC, this term immediately came to mind.The...

On his relatively new blog, The Useless Tree, Williams College political scientist Sam Crane recently posted an excellent entry entitled, "The Sad Lesson of Iraq." Crane is an expert on Asian affairs, and thus logically discusses the wisdom imparted by Chinese military strategist Sun Tsu.However, Crane begins where national security experts often begin -- by quoting the most famous line written by German military theorist Carl von Clausewitz: The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purpose.The importance...

Cross-posted on my blog.Last week, I blogged about the G-SAVE: global struggle against violent extremists. Reportedly, the Bush administration decided to toss aside the "war on terror" for this new "catchphrase." Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been using some variant of SAVE for over a year, and Joint Chiefs Chair Richard Myers says that the new phrasing recognizes that the threat must be met by diplomatic, economic, and political tools, as well as military power.Wednesday, August 3, President George W. Bush seemingly canned this new catchphrase:Make no mistake about it, we are at...

Cross-posted on my blog.The point of Dafna Linzer's front page story in Tuesday's Washington Post (August 2) is clear from the headline: "Iran Is Judged 10 Years From Nuclear Bomb." A major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years, according to government sources with firsthand knowledge of the new analysis.In the next sentence, Linzer calls the National Intelligence Assessment (NIE) "carefully hedged," but reflective of a "consensus among U.S....