ShrinkWrapped

Asymmetric Psychology

[Note: Typepad was down yesterday for much of the day and managed to lose this post; I am re-posting it this morning.]

The war on Islamic fascism (or Islamic totalitarianism) is often described as involving asymmetric warfare.  Whether we are discussing the insurgency in Iraq, the Palestinians against Israel, the Islamists in Mumbai, the general sense is that the Islamists do not have access to the same level of weaponry as the West and have to use their disadvantages, leveraged by the Western media, to carry their message and support their cause.  However, there is one area in which the Islamists have a major advantage and in which the West is fighting from a position of weakness; that area is the asymmetry in psychological warfare.

The Islamists are fighting from a position of absolute certainty:

God is on their side and they cannot lose.  Therefore, even minor "victories" with minimal strategic value, such as the desecration of the bodies of American soldiers, the murderous explosions on trains in Mumbai or the kidnapping of two more Israeli soldiers, are great victories to be touted throughout the Muslim world as evidence of their prowess.  Defeats are only temporary. 

This leads to a major advantage for the Islamists:

They can only lose by being completely discredited or completely destroyed and the West may well lack the will to do what is necessary to win on this battlefield.

Terror and Perversion

Perversion is a rather disreputable term these days, when no one is allowed or expected to make any moral judgments, but it has a specific meaning which receives some of its ultimate expression in terrorism.  Perversion has been defined as a sexual act involving deviation from what is considered orthodox or normal; it was originally defined as a "deviation from the original meaning or doctrine", literally a "turning aside" from the norm.  In sexual practice, its most traditional meaning has been any sexual act that does not have procreation genital intercourse as its goal.  Within this rather restrictive and archaic definition is the sine qua non of perversion: 

Perversion represents a denial of the humanity of the "other"; as such it directly attacks the life force (libido) of the "other" (though often enough, the "other" voluntarily plays their own role in the psycho-sexual drama involved.)

Warfare has a long history of being defined (primarily by pacifists) as a perverse act, though in reality, it has a long, natural history.  The Geneva Conventions were crafted specifically to minimize the most perverse aspects of war, ie the purposeful targeting of civilians, various types of torture and atrocity.  Under any definition, terrorism is a perversion of warfare.  Worse, it is a perversion of human nature.

Yesterday, al Qaeda released their most recent "recruitment film" for Jihad, featuring the desecration of two American soldiers' bodies.  The Jawa Report has more information on this atrocity; it is brutal viewing, but necessary to fully grasp the nature of our enemies.  The film is "atrocity porn" meant to titillate would be terrorists and Jihadis.   Perversion always involves some degree of power and negation of the humanity of the "other" and it is quite clearly displayed in the photo Rusty includes.

The logic of the worst perversion and its facilitator, porn, is to constantly increase in intensity in order to achieve the same thrill in the pervert. 

The End of Medicine

Andy Kessler became very wealthy on Wall Street in the 1990s and in his search for the "next, big thing" has directed his attention at the byzantine labyrinth that comprises the American system of Medicine.  He reports back from the frontiers of Medical research in The End of Medicine.  The book is quite readable with a breezy, mildly sarcastic, self-deprecating style and does a decent job of elucidating some of the opportunities and difficulties that lie ahead in the Medical field.

Medicine has been getting a poor press lately.  Doctors complain about all the paperwork and the decreasing compensation; patients and pandering politicians complain about the cost of medical care; everyone complains about the cost of medications; the Pharmaceutical companies loudly worry about where their next Prozac or Lipitor is coming from; lawyers feed off the inevitable errors and poor outcomes in such a gigantic and complex system.  Almost no one is happy with the current state of American medicine.

Yet, hidden within Kessler's book is the news that this is a wonderful time for someone to be getting into Medicine. 

The Council Has Spoken!

This week's winning Council post was The Wild, Wild West(ern Europe) at Gates of Vienna.  There was a 5-way tie for second place between ESCAPING THE LEGAL AND MORAL QUAGMIRE OF GUANTANAMO, Jew hater Bush?!??, Why haven’t we captured Osama bin Laden?, Lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, and Among the Dead Cities.

The non-Council winning post was Declaration of Independence: A Fisking, by James Joyner at Outside the Beltway.  It will make you very happy that the Internet did not exist in 1776.  In second place was Sometimes even the good ones lose their way at The Shape of Days.

As always all the nominated posts can be found at the Watcher of Weasels and all will reward your time and energy.

Polling and its Discontents

One of the enduring themes that receives expression on a regular basis is that those who control the message control the debate.  When revolutions take place, typically among the first targets of the insurgents are the local TV and radio stations, followed by the newspapers.  Our founding fathers recognized how important the functioning of a free press was to democracy and incorporated their beliefs in the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, first among equals in the Bill of Rights.   

Control over the dissemination of news  occurs in many countries which have state controlled media (Russia, China,much of the third world).  The Internet threatens their hegemony over news coverage and analysis, which is why places like China are working so assiduously to control the Internet, assisted by Google, Yahoo, etc. 

In Western countries there has been the gradual slippage of the press's traditional role, which rested on the ideal of objectivity in gathering and presenting news.  Since the heady days of Watergate and Vietnam, the press has taken upon itself the task of advocating progressive positions.  This is taught in Journalism school along with more traditional fare such as how to construct a gripping opening sentence.  Along with a quasi-official Political Correctness, promulgated by the press and by governments in the West, the combination leads to "news" that is often revealing more for what is omitted than for what is overtly presented.

Consider this New York Times story, with the headline: Poll Shows Bright View of Muslim Integration

PARIS, July 6 — One year after bombings by Islamic militants in London set off intensive soul-searching across Europe about Muslim integration, a new survey has turned up surprisingly positive attitudes, both among European Muslims toward Europe and among society in general toward Muslims.

The article, in a naive reading, suggests reason for optimism about the near future in Europe, a welcome development in light of recent stories about the level of support for Islamic terror among English Muslims, for example.  Unfortunately, the article misses the opportunity to explore some very provocative findings that emerge from the contents of the actual Pew poll data, including a rather glaring question conspicuous by its absence. 

The story suggests European Muslims are mostly concerned with employment opportunities, a solidly progressive theme:

Moore's Law & Counter-Insurgency

In the next 5-10 years, Moore's Law will make Iraqi style insurgencies a thing of the past:

Moore's Law is the 1965 prediction by Gordon Moore (co-founder of Intel) that the transistor density of semiconductor chips would double roughly every 18 months.

In essence, Moore's Law and its derivatives predict that any endeavor that is based on information processing will double in speed and halve in price in ~12-18 months.  This is true in computing, increasingly true in medicine, eventually will prove to  be true in bio-technology, and is already proving to be true in military affairs.  As soon as any endeavor becomes primarily about processing information, Moore's Law applies.

Here is my best guess on how this can work on the battlefield; it involves Smart Birds, Smart Bats, and Smart Mosquitoes along with Smart Snakes, Smart Centipedes, and Smart Cockroaches.

How Arguments End

Over the holiday weekend I had the occasion to discuss our current political predicament with a family member who is a confirmed and reliable Democrat, from he socialist wing of the party.  He handed me the Sunday Times week in review, and triumphantly asked me to read Frank Rich's Sunday Op-Ed piece, which is hidden behind the Times Select firewall, and contains many of the usual New York Times liberal talking points.  Although I do not have access to the article now, my recollection is that it suggested the Times airing of the SWIFT program was a valuable attempt to fight the power of the Bush administration which without the times would be, at this very moment, trampling on our rights.  The war in Iraq, a separate entity form the War on Terror, was a mistake based on slanted intelligence, etc., etc. 

We discussed the article after I read it.  He insisted that Bush lied and Cheney is evil and that nothing I could say would convince him otherwise.  Interestingly, after an initial burst of heat, some light appeared.  I suggested that achieving Democracy in Iraq 2was the single best hope we all had for avoiding a cataclysmic clash between the West and Islam.  He insisted the clash was inevitable and that Iraq would never be a stable democracy.  Finally, I pointed that neither of us could know for sure if the invasion of Iraq was a good idea or not; if, in 5-10 years, Iraq had a functioning democracy in the heart of the Middle East, we would have to conclude that all the lives lost were worth while; if Iraq descended into anarchy, another Saddam strong man rule, or an Islamic theocracy, the lives spent would have been in vain.  At that point questions about WMD, abu Graib, Guantanamo, SWIFT, NSA, et al, will be moot.  He agreed and we were able to move onto other issues that generated much less heat.

Unfortunately, this is not the only way an argument can be resolved.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

July 4, 1976

On the Fourth of July we will celebrate our Nation's Independence.  The Declaration of Independence set out the reasons that our forefathers stated their willingness to risk their "Lives ... Fortunes and ... sacred Honor."  They followed their words with deeds and we have been reaping the benefits since.

On the 200th birthday of our Nation, the Bicentennial, another Declaration of Independence was declared, in action rather than words.  This declaration was given to us by a people whose central myth involves their escape from servitude into the uncertainty and danger of freedom.  Every generation the Jews have faced destruction by their enemies.  On July 4, 1976, the state of Israel overcame nearly insurmountable odds to strike back at the growing scourge of international terrorism.

The remarkable story, which came to be known as The Entebbe Rescue Mission, began one week before our bicentennial celebration and deserves to be re-told:

On June 27, 1976 Air France flight 139 with 246 passengers travelling from Ben Gurion Airport to Paris via Athens was hijacked by Arab terrorists who boarded during the Athens stopover. The hijackers, armed with guns and grenades, ordered the plane to divert to Benghazi, Libya for refueling. There one passenger, a young, pregnant worman, was allowed to leave the plane. The plane then took off again and flew south to Entebbe, Uganda, where it landed at 3:15 local time on the morning of June 28

All in the Mind III

The third bi-weekly PsychBloggers Carnival, All in the Mind III, is up at OK So I'm Not Really A Cowboy.  It is a collection of some very interesting posts by various bloggers in the mental health field.  While there, do take the time to look at the host's blog, which tends to be pretty iconoclastic, not at all surprising since he is (or maybe isn't) an IndianCowboy.