tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post6768504617807509402..comments2023-10-30T06:31:05.501-07:00Comments on MilPub: Harem ScarumFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-67297263864923058742014-06-01T18:45:56.062-07:002014-06-01T18:45:56.062-07:00Oh, I agree, Chief -- not complex at all. Just sta...Oh, I agree, Chief -- not complex at all. Just standard-issue knee-jerk reaction, married to the ability to instantaneously broadcast said reaction. Everyone wants to be "liked" or "poked", so most function within the safety of their news feeds, and snipe at those who might present an opposing viewpoint. Once they slake off their impotent frustration, they can return to their regularly-scheduled programming, feeling somewhat vindicated.<br /><br />What I wonder is, why not stay on station to begin with? Why not the old, "Think globally, act locally?" Why do so many average people feel so compelled to demand rash action everywhere else?<br /><br />Disappointing is the rush to judgement and military action by our politicians, but as you say, the more places the U.S. can find to deploy troops, the more justification for maintaining that capability.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08839236994990699117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-55864598963144296912014-05-30T21:32:17.962-07:002014-05-30T21:32:17.962-07:00I'm not sure that this is really that complex,...I'm not sure that this is really that complex, Lisa.<br /><br />I suspect that it is simply a variation on the standard-issue human desire to "do something" when something nasty occurs.<br /><br />Think about the number of times you read about people jumping in water to "save" someone and they end up drowing themselves. Or get burned trying to pull someone out of a fire. I think the same thing is going on here; the Western media pick up this story (let's face it, it hits all the right buttons; scary dusky people with weapons, little girls in danger) because it sells advertising. Westerners see it and their reaction is "Oh, how terrible! We should really do...something." Because the U.S. has a pantsload of military capability one of the first - if not THE first - reactions is to suggest sending soldiers to "fight the bad guys."<br /><br />The people - the We the People people - have no effing idea of the history of Nigeria, or the current events in Nigeria, or any damn thing about Nigeria for that matter. The "leaders", half of them, probably have little more notion themselves. So the push to "do something" almost invariably becomes "do something military", regardless of whether more soldiers can or can't (and I'll be the first one to admit that I have no effing idea if a mlitary expedition to Nigeria would help or harm the situation there but my usual instinct is to suspect that an influx of foreigners with weapons is usually not helpful...) do anything useful...<br /><br />And, as always, there are lots of emotional and political sidebars that allow for the nice Western people to bloviate about this stuff.<br /><br />200 years ago it was probably about the nasty neighbors over the next hill, now it's the nasty Muslims in the next continent.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-78103443821275194372014-05-29T10:29:08.062-07:002014-05-29T10:29:08.062-07:00Yes, mike, this Boku Haram (BH) is a real nothing ...Yes, mike, this Boku Haram (BH) is a real nothing in the gestalt of things. I can't see wasting ink on it, save as a side note in a course on perduring female subjugation, or perhaps a tiny example of fringe Islamic brutality.<br /><br />But to be something a US President or First Lady addresses, or for which US military personnel are deployed, no.<br /><br />This is hardly the stuff of Clausewitzian theory, and I did not expect it would get much play here. Yet it is another something which occupies the masses, and has a definite tie-in to the military. I suppose what most interests me is the legs that stories like this have, compared to say, the sad and quiet daily grind that so many of our soldiers face upon return from such hyped escapades.<br /><br />Everyone who participates at this site is reasoned and seeks balance, but the much-too-many who fill the airwaves with things like BH usually do so in a knee-jerk fashion, and you're either with us or against us. We have found invariably it is the people with most messed up personal lives who invest the most time trumpeting their outrage over remote incidents under the "progressive" banner, discharging their vitriol upon any who might question their rushed demands for action.<br /><br />These are the types who imagine they are for peace, yet cannot brook an alternative position to their outrage. They gleefully alienate and make enemies out of their fellow travelers.<br /><br />I suppose this phenomenon -- the human need to fight over any and everything -- is what I find most interesting. I will write a piece on blogging soon exploring any benefits and the profound limitations of the medium, which I suppose is coincident with the limitations of the human employing the medium.Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08839236994990699117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-381917167978264683.post-35810179741385758442014-05-28T19:35:46.769-07:002014-05-28T19:35:46.769-07:00Didn't the British kidnap thousands of Boer wo...Didn't the British kidnap thousands of Boer women and children just over a hundred years ago, lock them up in concentration camps, and let one-in-four of them die from malnutrition, and typhoid? Abubakar Muhammad Shekau is a pipsqueak compared to Lord Kitchener.<br /><br />Never heard a peep from Teddy Roosevelt. mikenoreply@blogger.com