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I’m looking for work on military leadership, narrowly understood.
Archive for July, 2009
July 9th, 2009
Category: Terrorism and its control
Lawful and unlawful combatants can both be detained for the duration of the conflict. Unlawful combatants can also be tried, and if found guilty can be (1) treated as criminal rather than PoWs and (2) held past the duration of the conflict.
July 8th, 2009
Category: Terrorism and its control
A prisoner of war has rights that a convicted criminal (e.g., a terrorist) doesn’t. He’s entitled to much more civilized conditions of confinement. So the fact that a war-crimes acquittal doesn’t lead to the release of the detainee doesn’t make that war-crimes trial a “show trial.”
July 8th, 2009
Category: Health Care, Moral philosophy
Hilzoy takes on the “rationing” argument against health reform. Her argument is unmatched, and unmatchable.
July 8th, 2009
Category: Health Care
The health care debate is getting to the point where a large number of the important actors involved are starting to lay down their bottom line. Put another way, they are figuring out what constitutes a minimally acceptable compromise. For what it’s worth, I thought I’d throw out what I see as the fundamental criteria [...]
July 8th, 2009
Category: Terrorism and its control
A captured Taliban or al-Qaeda fighter who is innocent, or at least can’t be proven guilty, of war crimes can still be held as a PoW. That isn’t new.
July 7th, 2009
Category: Afghanistan
An NBC News report last week painted a picture of military futility in Afghanistan. The more recent large operation in Helmand has a more cogent rationale, but it to suffers from viewing the Afghanistan fight as a US operation. Robert McNamara’s death reminds us that we will lose if we view it as our fight rather than as the fight of local (not initially national) partners who we contrive to support.
July 7th, 2009
Category: Popular Culture
Michael Jackson was buried today in a gaudy, 14-carat gold casket. I cannot imagine a better metaphor for the empty rewards that celebrity brought him.
July 7th, 2009
Category: California Politics, Crime Control
Since Viriginia Postrel was kind enough to point people to this space for ideas about how California might deal with the hole our insanely expensive correctional system puts in the state budget, I suppose it’s time for a post on that topic. (Though this is the first time I’ve heard about a link drawing a [...]