Sun-Tzu of the twentieth century?
My major accomplishment of the week thus far has been learning to knit with double-pointed needles. I once read someone describe it as "wrestling with an octopus" and I have to concur. This is some hardcore knitting. CIRCULAR NEEDLES ARE FOR THE WEAK!
We watched Fog of War today in Current World Problems. Amazingly, this meant we got through an entire class without mentioning Nazis! I knew it was too good to last...
The movie was basically an extended interview with Robert McNamara and jumped around in time to discuss World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War. It was really pretty disturbing. There was a lot of footage of the fire-bombing of Japan, which, if I remember correctly, actually killed more civilians than the nuclear bombs. There were also helpful captions stating things like "51% of Tokyo was burned to the ground. This would be like 51% of New York City being destroyed!" Of course, we had to have a discussion in class after wards about whether the bombing campaign was justifiable. My first instinct is to say "No, it was a war crime" (and they stated as much in film), but then Mackin was like "Well, what would you tell all of the families of the American soldiers you sacrificed in staging a ground war? That you were protecting enemy civilians?" Christ, I don't know. Most of the soldiers at that time were draftees, right? For some reason, I would feel worse about those casualties than casualties among an all-volunteer army. I'm not sure there was a "correct" solution.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was scary when you realize just how close we came to nuclear annihilation. Especially disturbing are the generals who were like "Well, we're all gonna die, but at least we're taking those Commies down with us!" Mackin offered such illuminating commentary as "These are the morons with their finger on the button!"
I know the whole Iraq = Vietnam thing is old by now, but seriously, a lot of what Lyndon Johnson said could have come straight out of Bush's mouth. We can't pull out! We'll look weak! We're fighting for Iraqi Vietnamese freedom! I'm going to ignore the advice of my military advisers!
Well, that last one was implied...
Eight lessons from Fog of War:
1. Empathize with your enemy.
2. Rationality will not save us.
3. There's something beyond one's self.
4. Maximize efficiency.
5. Porportinality should be a guideline in war.
6. Get the data.
7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
All in all, a depressing, if thought-provoking, class. Moving on to inconsequential things!
Over at the 'rama, the preview of All-Flash #1 looks pretty good. Or at least cathartic. I'm definitely not over Bart yet, though. I cleaned out ACME's back issue bin of Impulse today as therapy.
Also, there's an interview with Andy Diggle about Green Arrow: Year One. A quote of note:
AD: You’ll learn Ollie’s darkest secret - the real reason why he flipped out when he caught Speedy shooting smack. This ain’t your daddy’s Green Arrow.
Does this mean they're going to ret-con Ollie in to being a drug addict too?
"Roy, I couldn't let you make the same mistakes I did. That's why I punched you in the face and kicked you out of the house. It was for your own good."
Besides, I thought Mike Grell already did "not yer daddy's Green Arrow."
We watched Fog of War today in Current World Problems. Amazingly, this meant we got through an entire class without mentioning Nazis! I knew it was too good to last...
The movie was basically an extended interview with Robert McNamara and jumped around in time to discuss World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War. It was really pretty disturbing. There was a lot of footage of the fire-bombing of Japan, which, if I remember correctly, actually killed more civilians than the nuclear bombs. There were also helpful captions stating things like "51% of Tokyo was burned to the ground. This would be like 51% of New York City being destroyed!" Of course, we had to have a discussion in class after wards about whether the bombing campaign was justifiable. My first instinct is to say "No, it was a war crime" (and they stated as much in film), but then Mackin was like "Well, what would you tell all of the families of the American soldiers you sacrificed in staging a ground war? That you were protecting enemy civilians?" Christ, I don't know. Most of the soldiers at that time were draftees, right? For some reason, I would feel worse about those casualties than casualties among an all-volunteer army. I'm not sure there was a "correct" solution.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was scary when you realize just how close we came to nuclear annihilation. Especially disturbing are the generals who were like "Well, we're all gonna die, but at least we're taking those Commies down with us!" Mackin offered such illuminating commentary as "These are the morons with their finger on the button!"
I know the whole Iraq = Vietnam thing is old by now, but seriously, a lot of what Lyndon Johnson said could have come straight out of Bush's mouth. We can't pull out! We'll look weak! We're fighting for Iraqi Vietnamese freedom! I'm going to ignore the advice of my military advisers!
Well, that last one was implied...
Eight lessons from Fog of War:
1. Empathize with your enemy.
2. Rationality will not save us.
3. There's something beyond one's self.
4. Maximize efficiency.
5. Porportinality should be a guideline in war.
6. Get the data.
7. Belief and seeing are both often wrong.
8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning.
All in all, a depressing, if thought-provoking, class. Moving on to inconsequential things!
Over at the 'rama, the preview of All-Flash #1 looks pretty good. Or at least cathartic. I'm definitely not over Bart yet, though. I cleaned out ACME's back issue bin of Impulse today as therapy.
Also, there's an interview with Andy Diggle about Green Arrow: Year One. A quote of note:
AD: You’ll learn Ollie’s darkest secret - the real reason why he flipped out when he caught Speedy shooting smack. This ain’t your daddy’s Green Arrow.
Does this mean they're going to ret-con Ollie in to being a drug addict too?
"Roy, I couldn't let you make the same mistakes I did. That's why I punched you in the face and kicked you out of the house. It was for your own good."
Besides, I thought Mike Grell already did "not yer daddy's Green Arrow."