Carl Schmitt might have been amused by the criticism John Kerry has received for declining to characterize operations against ISIS as “war”: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday would not say the United States is at war with…
#Terror
Terror in Concept: Comment on “Panic Stains Tsarnaev’s Apprehension”
Because the idea of “terror” is a definitional and circumscribing topic for our “way of life,” perhaps for ways of life at all, we should not be surprised if it is not merely difficult to define, but ends up seeming to connect everything to everything – if every particular question explodes like a conceptual bomb striking ever other question in the vicinity.
Posted in Philosophy, Politics, The Exception, Torture Tagged with: Boston, Columbine, liberal democracy, Newtown, Terror, The Exception, Torture
A Diffuse and Ever-Variable Enemy (It’s the War, Intellectuals #2)
If progressives believe, or know whether they believe, that exceptional measures were justifiable, but went wrong, then an entirely different replacement regime and set of reforms might make sense than if they believe common rhetoric about rule of law mattering more than all other concerns, whatever the costs or risks. On the other hand, if they believe the War on Terror was in fact a self-obviating success, then they might wish to replace the AUMF with a new legal and administrative regime that acknowledges and learns from authentic successes – successful warmaking against a real and legitimate, not simply ideologically constructed enemy – as well as from errors.
Posted in Politics, The Exception, War Tagged with: AUMF, Chris Hayes, Obama, Progressives, Terror, The Exception
Toward a Society of the Anti-Spectacle
Jonathan Bernstein asked for suggestions on 9/11 Reading/Viewing/Listening. I suggested: Gillespie THE THEOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF MODERNITY Wright THE EVOLUTION OF GOD Lilla THE STILLBORN GOD Ansary DESTINY DISRUPTED (A History of the World through Islamic Eyes) Van Creveld THE TRANSFORMATION…
Go ahead, make a mistake, you’re human
You’ve probably noticed for yourself that whenever someone says “make no mistake,” there’s a high probability that whatever he or she says next is going to be dubious. If it was certain or near-certain before the speaker pointed it out,…
Major Announcement from Prez
Any moment now. Have heard no rumors. Doesn’t he realize that I’m on a deadline? UPDATE OBL is dead.
Should Rumsfeld apologize?
Tom Ricks reflects on the American reaction to 9/11 – “Rumsfeld, America, and apologies” – and how his own sense of the world has changed: “I never expected to live in a country whose government officially embraced torture.” He points…
Martin Peretz: “Muslim life is cheap, and I mean it.”
Martin Peretz, Editor-in-Chief of the New Republic, has offered an apology for one of two statements singled out yesterday by Nicolas Kristof in his New York Times column. Both statements appeared in the concluding paragraph of a post at Peretz’s…
Posted in Politics Tagged with: 9/11, Ground Zero Mosque, Islam, Islamophobia, Martin Peretz, Nicolas Kristof, Othero, Terror
Terrorists and Hawks together again…
As Rex noted in an e-mail, we again see conservative hawks and radical Islamists on the same side of an issue. They both want a war with Iran. Bruce Riedel – “Al Qaeda Plans for War With Israel” – channels…
The IdjitihadTM rolls on
The HotAirians are greatly impressed with an article by two Canadian Muslims, Tarek Fatah and Raheel Raza, whom Ed Morrissey describes as “Muslim columnists,” and who appoint themselves the representatives of 1.57 billion people, in a sentence that has only…
Posted in Religion Tagged with: Cordoba Initiative, Ground Zero Mosque, Idjitihad, Islam, Islamophobia, Terror