nerdgirl

Khatami was probably more of a reformer than Mousavi. Concur. I don't think that there's much expectation by those who follow Iran that Mousavi would be as much of a reformer as Mohammad Khatami. Yes, he’s likely to be different from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And if one's perspective/motivation is concern w/r/t Iran's nuclear ambitions, it is worth being cognizant that back when Mousavi was PM in the late 1980’s, he was substantially and substantively involved in the covert deal to acquire centrifuge technology (for uranium enrichment) via Pakistan’s A.Q. Khan that enabled the Iranian nuclear program. Tertiary report on his more recent stance/comments. More on realist perspective on what should be the US response to Iranian elections/protests from Stephen Walt: "Obama's measured response to the events in Iran strikes me as more sensible: we can and should deplore the abuses of basic rights and the democratic process, while making it clear that the United States is not interfering and remaining open to the possibility of constructive dialogue. Given our long and troubled history with Iran (which includes active support for groups seeking to overthrow the current government), any sense that we are now trying to back Moussavi is likely to backfire. Trying to steer this one from Washington won’t advance our interests or those of the reformists." /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

See, now that is cool stuff, like Loretta Lynn's collaboration with Jack White on Van Lear Rose. Interesting that the more innovative stuff is coming from the older folks in country and the younger artists from different genres. The Highwaymen - what’s old is new again, again, eh? (Tangent: Jennings’ voice at that time is his career makes me melt. His narration is one of the best parts of old Dukes of Hazard reruns.

Yes. Altho’ these days I'm more likely to talk/email with staffers from one of my Senator's offices or, more often, with committee staffers. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

"Sure" - w/r/t what? I don't understand your response. Sorry. Who are "they"? /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Sounds like In Flanders Fields Museum. We went through it as well. If one doesn’t know the history of the Western Front well -- & admittedly I didn’t/don’t – it is an excellent place to start. Yes, please post. My assigned character, Nellie Spindler, who was a 26-yo nurse from England, was killed in 1917 during a mortar attack while serving at a Casualty Clearing Station. She’s one of a very limited number of women buried in the Flanders Fields cemeteries. I chose to post in SC mostly because I like SC & the folks who converse here.

Does anyone “make up [their] mind based on polls”? Perhaps I should make a poll? [silly]- Polls are a way to measure people’s opinions, perceptions, inclinations, and feelings, imo. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Largely concur. Who "deserves" what rights ... or even what are imaginable "rights" (e.g., private property) has changed so radically over time. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Seriously, very cool question!

Or maybe it’s a deterrence thing … I still remember former Rep Dick Armey’s response when asked, back in 1998, if he was in President Clinton’s place, what he would he done: “If I were in the President’s place I would not have gotten a chance to resign. I would be lying in a pool of my own blood, hearing Mrs. Armey standing over me saying, ‘How do I reload this damn thing?’” Maybe Republican men are just more more uh, respectful of Republican women with guns? [And to be explicit, I am not in any way, shape, or form advocating violence by any side as a means to resolve marital or other problems.] /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Concur. Although I'm betting it will take less than 50 years for return on that investment. So you two would scheme to get rich off those in need? Hey, I'm a capitalist at heart. If I can become the next George Soros, then I can invest in all sorts of wonderful things I want with *my* money ... & folks in SC can challenge my motivations. Seriously, I heartily support legal and ethical investing and start-up ventures. /Marg ... co-founded my first start-up at 26 Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Curious - what do you think will be the most likely form of warfare in the ensuing 20 years or so? State on state? Concur that unmanned vehicles -- both semi-autonomous and autonomous -- are the next significant military innovation. E.g., see the bullet on Armed Robots in Warfare from my "Top Underreported Stories of 2007." While Hezbellah has employed UAVs, I'm less certain that will be a strategic route non-state actors (whether terrorists or insurgents) will regularly employ or that will have capabilities to challenge US. I'm open to opposing arguments but haven't seen/heard one yet that convinces me. Perhaps you can? Why do you specifically think guerrillas (how do you differentiate from insurgents?) will pursue unmanned vehicles? (As opposed to cyber or other means?) What's the advantage? The AWC's Strategic Studies Institute's Annual Conference this year was on "Strategic Implications of Emerging Technologies." (One of the speaker's from another panel recommended my book .) ... I just got a hard copy of the summary, written by Echevarria today in the mail ... can't find a link One of the panel's was on "Robotics and Contemporary/Future Warfare" ... some interesting things were discussed. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

How the heck did they lose almost 55,000 bodies? That seems rather impossible to do. Many of the grave stones are only marked with "A soldier of the Great War/Known Unto God." At the start of the war, many soldiers had 'dog tags' that were compressed cardboard. More precisely, many bodies were/are unidentifiable. At some of the cemetaries the grave stones are touching to symbolize mass graves. And there are just some bodies that were never found in the chaos and destruction of 'No Man's Land.' Every year remains are discovered. Sometimes identified and the name is removed from the Menin Gate. Otherwise reburied as another "A soldier of the Great War/Known Unto God." So you're saying the bodies were actually found and buried, just not identified. That's quite a different thing from "bodies not found", that I initially believed you were saying. And not at all unusual during war. Some, yes. A lot, no. As I wrote, there are multiple explanations. And what, I initially wrote remains true. The bodies of the soldiers whose names are inscribed on the Menin Gate have no known graves. Almost 57,000 men is a huge number, regardless of the number in unmarked graves. And there are another 30,000 or so names inscribed at the Tyne Cot cemetery memorial - they ran out of room at the Menin Gate. And the New Zealanders and some Canadians have a separate memorial. There are *not* 70,000 "A soldier of the Great War/Known Unto God" grave markers in the Ypres area. There are a tremendously large number of specific soldiers' bodies that were never recovered. They have no known graves. That was part of what struck me -- how in less than 100 years we can find and identify so precisely, as well as the effort that is made now ... that wasn't for lots of different reasons then ... some just an artifact of it being a very different time. Here's a story of a mass grave of 399 soldiers that was only discovered in 2007. This an area separate from Ypres/salient. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Concur. Although I'm betting it will take less than 50 years for return on that investment. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

How the heck did they lose almost 55,000 bodies? That seems rather impossible to do. Many of the grave stones are only marked with "A soldier of the Great War/Known Unto God." At the start of the war, many soldiers had 'dog tags' that were compressed cardboard. More precisely, many bodies were/are unidentifiable. At some of the cemetaries the grave stones are touching to symbolize mass graves. And there are just some bodies that were never found in the chaos and destruction of 'No Man's Land.' Every year remains are discovered. Sometimes identified and the name is removed from the Menin Gate. Otherwise reburied as another "A soldier of the Great War/Known Unto God." /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

While one might call it ironic, I drew slightly differing conclusions and observations. Perhaps those tangible reminders of the costs of war & ever-present reality of history that one encounters in parts of Europe might be seen as having a beneficial effect on the political debate. Considering that over 100,000 men died in just one of the Battles of Ypres (the 2nd), I observe how much less likely fatalities are in battle today. Much of that is due to protective, defensive, and medical technology. That's the simpler side theoretically (social science "theory" here) tho'. The less easily definable aspect are changes w/r/t strategy and type of warfare, imo. And how those intersect with advances in science and technology. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

While it may not have been the weapon to end all wars, the longbow is a classic example of technology giving one side an asymmetric advantage, like stirrups, steam-engine powered ships, tanks, submarines, stealth, command and control systems, etc. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

At the moment I'm starting from the debate between Bill Lind, et al (later taken up by COL TX Hammes, USMC (ret)) and the Army War College's Antulio J. Echevarria on 4th Gen Warfare, particularly w/r/t insurgencies and role of emerging science and technology. Yes, it does.

Tomorrow to 100 years from now, although the farther out one goes in time, it's more speculative (obviously). /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

More pics Edit to add: for those who aren't familiar, all of the 54,896 names engraved on the sides of the Menin Gate are British and former British Empire soldiers whose bodies were never found. They have no graves. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Last week I was in Belgium for meetings on technology & future warfare. One of the Brits very generously offered to take me to Ypres one afternoon. As well as being the site of significant battles during WWI, the 'salient' area of the Western Front just outside Ypres was also where chemical weapons were used successfully first in modern warfare,* which is significant to me. (The Germans unsuccessfully attempted to use CW earlier on the Eastern Front.) The contrast was striking to me with what we were discussing that occurred less than a century ago. Although when it comes Afghanistan one may need to go back further in time in some areas than 100 years ago. Still putting together thoughts on the comparative roles of technology in World WWI and lessons for weaponry of future wars in which the US & NATO is likely to be involved. Thought some might enjoy some of the pics I took from Ypres and Flanders Fields. Mix of a few tourist-esque pics and ones that I took because I liked the composition. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

The realist perspective versus the criticisms of President Obama’s “cautious, almost neutral stance designed to avoid ‘meddling’ in Iranian affairs,” is well-illustrated, imo, by contrasting those criticisms with the observations of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Senator Dick Lugar. From an interview on Fox News yesterday (video, worth watching, imo) Former Secretary of State Kissinger: “Well, you know, I was a McCain supporter and -- but I think the president has handled this well. Anything that the United States puts us totally behind one of the contenders behind Mousavi, would be a handicap for that person. And I think it's the proper position to take that the people of Iran have to make that decision. “Of course, we have to state our fundamental convictions of freedom of speech, free elections, and I don't see how President Obama could say less than he has, and even that is considered intolerable meddling. He has, after all, carefully stayed away from saying things that seem to support one side or the other. And I think it was the right thing to do because public support for the opposition would only be used by the -- by Ahmadinejad -- if I can ever learn his name properly -- against Mousavi.” Dr. Kissinger also notes that while Mr. Mousavi may be more liberal and less erratic compared to Mr. Ahmadinejad, he is unlikely to be pro-Western. It would be a-historic ... & perhaps even disengenous (?) ... to not note that Dr. Kissinger -- as a master of realpolitik -- has had little to no interest in regime change or pro-democratic movements. His interest was in regimes/governments that would cooperate beneficially with the US in support of US foreign policy goals, e.g., Latin America policy of the 1970s supporting less than upstanding representatives of free democracies, such as General Pinochet’s regime in Chile, with the oppressive military junta in Argentina, Uruguay, etc. Another conservative voice -- & one of my favorite Senators

Fair enough (for this discussion). But the point of my (crappy) analogy was: Instead of just tossing out acronyms, at least expand them in parentheses so that some level of understanding of a post might be attained without doing an acronym search. As the acronyms were adjunct examples of programs rather than critical to the content & ideas of the post, they did not limit comprehensibility. Alternatively, did your response change with the explanation of the acronyms? Or was it just an opportunity to criticize me? I didn't need an explanation of the acronyms you used either; if I did I would ask. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

During the recent confirmation hearing for the DoD Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDR&E) nominee, Burris who's on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), didn't realize that the DoD has research labs. Sigh /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

PSI = Proliferation Security Initiative (State Dept program, initated during President GW Bush's admin, to interdict suspected proliferation of technology, mostly on the sea & mostly WMD-related.) ICT = information and communications technology ITAR = International Traffic in Arms Regulations /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying

Depending on the configuration and capability, iirc both IGBT and MOSFET semiconductors can be subject to ITAR restrictions. /Marg Act as if everything you do matters, while laughing at yourself for thinking anything you do matters. Tibetan Buddhist saying