We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 15:55:10 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification [Kat] Apropos Bill's post from yesterday Hussayn's Story Tom Odom of Small Wars Journal created a paper called Introduction to Evolution of Revolt discussing the original document written by T.E. Lawrence of the same name, "Evolution of Revolt". Lawrence explains how he used his much smaller force against a larger force to win "victories". As he says, he went where they were unable to go and they could not be everywhere. He said their actual activities were only actively supported by 2% of the population, but passively supported by 98% who would give them cover or, at least, not give... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html Thu, 15 May 2008 01:06:16 -0600 Iraq = Alien v. Predator I realize that movies are an odd analogy, but I always thought this movie was interesting because, in the end, the actors and audience had to choose or identify with the "lesser evil." The Predator, based on previous movies, hunted humans. But, he had a reason, an objective and a limitation to who, what and when he would attack. Thus, the risk factors and survivability of could be calculated. In short, if you didn't pick up a gun or act agressively, you could survive. Further, the Predator resembled our own human ideas. He had a sense of right and wrong, he had some sense of "honor" and he attempted to communicate. Even if all of these things were not perfect, we could still "connect" with the Predator. Not to mention, he did walk on two legs and have two arms and hands, even if he was butt ugly. The Alien, on the other hand, had a reason or objective, too, but the rhyme and limitations were missing. The Alien would attack anyone and anything in order to propagate. Therefore, the risk factor was exponentially increased and survivability was down across the board. Further, no communications, just ugly hissing and stinky breath. No sense of honor or right or wrong. Just animal instinct of survivability. And, it was uglier than the predator. It didn't look or act like us. Yes, it was disgustingly ugly. So, when you were watching the movie, Alien v. Predator, who did you root for? Somewhere at the beginning, I was rooting for the aliens to kill each other and save the actors the trouble. In the middle, I wasn't sure. I was leaning towards the Predator, but I still hoped they would kill each other and the rest of the humans would be saved. At the end, I was definitely rooting for the Predator, hoping he would kill the Alien, feel like he did what he needed to do and then would leave without killing anymore of the actors. I would add, finally, that, even "looks" aren't necessarily the guiding factor. If the ugly Alien had acted with some sort of humanistic behavior, like compassion, mercy, bravery, etc, protected the humans and fought the predator, even as ugly as it was, would we still feel disgust and reject it, or would we have overlooked its physical flaws in favor of its behavior? If the shoe had been on the other foot, who would the actors and audience chosen to support? sound familiar? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73079 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73079 Thu, 15 May 2008 11:39:39 -0600 I gotta say this something i agree with, in some ways it's one alien versus another because much of AlQ can be seen this way too by locals. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73072 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73072 Thu, 15 May 2008 10:13:12 -0600 Kat - the "allow comments" box got un-ticked somehow during publishing (prolly one of the interior guard with a flea and tick collar wandered by). I went in and fixed it. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73070 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73070 Thu, 15 May 2008 10:04:01 -0600 testing comments http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73066 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2008/05/coin_stop_being.html#comment-73066 Thu, 15 May 2008 09:55:53 -0600