Saturday, 2 August, 2003DiversionsBlogging has been a little sporadic, considering there's plenty happening in the world right now. Part of the reason is that my wife took a tumble on the new stretch of the Chehalis-Western Trail Thursday night when an unleashed dog ran under the front wheel of her bicycle. Nothing broken, fortunately, but she's got some nasty abrasions which need tending. Another part of the reason is that I've been messing about with the HeroMachine on UGO.com, which is seriously fun. If you're into that sort of thing, that is. The HeroMachine is probably a very handy tool for role-playing gamers such as myself to knock out a character portrait in short order, if you can't be bothered to draw one yourself or pester a talented friend to do one for you. posted 0316 Z-8 [more..] Thursday, 31 July, 2003Crossing the line IIIn response to my previous post, I got an e-mail from Bill Herbert. Bill makes a number of valid points, and I conclude that I did not express myself adequately before. So let's see if I can clarify matters. posted 0135 Z-8 [more..] Tuesday, 29 July, 2003Crossing the lineVia Pedantry, I was alerted to a WaPo article, "U.S. Adopts Aggressive Tactics on Iraqi Fighters." The paragraph many bloggers are choking on is this one: Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: "If you want your family released, turn yourself in." Such tactics are justified, he said, because, "It's an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info." They would have been released in due course, he added later.On the face of it, Colonel Hogg and his subordinates appear to have violated the Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War which the US has ratified. The brigade's actions arguably constitute "unlawful confinement of a protected person" or "taking of hostages," both of which are described in Article 147 as "grave breaches" of the Convention. This is all made quite clear in US Army field manual FM 27-10 "The Law of Land Warfare," which I would hope a full colonel of the US Army would be at least passingly familiar with. Frankly, I'd like to know why Colonel Hogg has not yet been suspended from his command pending a criminal investigation. It's possible there are extenuating circumstances, but I can't derive any from the article as written. Certainly, the presence and wording of the note left at the Iraqi lieutenant-general's house indicates that this is in effect a hostage-taking. Follow-up: see also next entry. posted 1819 Z-8 [link] The downside of neutrals Via Jackie D, I came across this article in the Washington Times. Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, also said Switzerland, a neutral nation, blocked delivery of grenades to British military forces during the conflict because it opposed the war.Allegedly, the Micro Crystal Division of Swatch Group AG, also Swiss, refused to ship components for JDAM tail kits for aerial bombs after the start of the war. Now, that this happened, I can believe. But the reason why, as given by Congressman Hunter, is open to question. posted 0428 Z-8 [more..] Complacency Iraq, as I have maintained for a while now, is not Vietnam. But it would certainly help my case if certain people, in government and the media, would stop behaving as if it were late 1967. At the beginning of the month, I argued that Donald Rumsfeld appeared to be channeling General Westmoreland; two weeks later, this was confirmed to a large extent when Rumsfeld's assertions that the situation in Iraq did not even resemble a guerilla war were contradicted by General Abizaid, the new commander of CentCom, who stated that, yes, this was a "classical guerilla-type war situation." I hope Rumsfeld had the decency to be embarrassed. One of the seminal works on the media in Vietnam is Michael Herr's Dispatches. Herr spent a fair chunk of 1967 and 1968 in Vietnam, covering the war for Esquire. At some point in the book, he describes how, every so often, some columnist or sub-editor would come over for a week, be shown around a model village and some quiet sector by some minders from the Joint US Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO), and then tell the permanent correspondents that the stories they're filing are pessimistic and defeatist; after all, the sub-editor had seen with his own eyes how the US forces and the ARVN had everything sewn up (and that Charlie was clearly incapable of mounting or sustaining a meaningful offensive). posted 0317 Z-8 [more..] Monday, 28 July, 2003Roll call reduxAs regular readers will have noticed, I've modified the blogroll. For starters, I've dispensed with the "mini-banners" format, for at least two reasons, the first being that I was putting off up links until I got round to making a graphic. The second was that the sidebar was getting longer than many of the entries. As you can see, I've pruned a bit, and added a lot more. posted 2352 Z-8 [more..] Sunday, 27 July, 2003Do you know Kung Fu? You are Morpheus. You have strong faith in yourself and those around you. A true leader, you are relentless in your pursuit. What Matrix Persona Are You? |
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