JUS IN BELLO: …Adel is innocent. I don’t mean he claims to be. I mean the military says so. It held a secret tribunal and ruled that he is not al Qaeda, not Taliban, not a terrorist. The whole thing was a mistake: The Pentagon paid $5,000 to a bounty hunter, and it got taken. The military people reached this conclusion, and they wrote it down on a memo, and then they classified the memo and Adel went from the... Read more

SOME LINKS… since I didn’t post on Veterans’ Day. The Imperial War Museum has a terrific website (and is an amazing museum). Here is the section on burial and remembrance; here is their complete listing of online documents and recordings on the theme of commemoration. Read more

To grasp the significance of betrayal we must consider two independent dimensions: First, what is at stake, and second, what themis has been violated.–Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam Read more

GO, CHRIS SMITH. GO. (Via Andrew Sullivan.) Read more

“MY FINEST DEATH WAS TWO CENTURIES AGO NOW.” If you want a copy of the Doublethink issue with my first published short story in it, you can do one of three things: 1. You can go to the “Doubledrink Happy Hour” and pick up a copy: Tomorrow night (WEDNESDAY!!!) at the Black Rooster Pub at 1919 L Street NW from 6:30-8:00. Come say hi. 2. I heard a rumor that you can get the magazine at that newsstand right by... Read more

This monkey’s gone to blogwatch… Camassia: Isn’t it nice when somebody else says what you were trying to say, only lots more eloquently? …IOW, what you need Jesus for. What Is a Christian Movie?–excerpt from new book from Act One, Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture, which I hope to read soon. Read the excerpt to know why you want to read the book! Via Church of the Masses. Oh, and last but not least, Two... Read more

When a leader destroys the legitimacy of the army’s moral order by betraying “what’s right,” he inflicts manifold injuries on his men. The Iliad is a story of these immediate and devastating consequences. Vietnam has forced us to see that these consequences go beyond the war’s “loss upon bitter loss… leaving so many dead men” (1:3ff) to taint the lives of those who survive it.–Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Unmaking of Character Read more

A HARD MAN IS GOOD TO FIND: Following, five reasons the phrase “a good person” is bad and wrong, and often put into the service of evil. (No, I’m serious. The fact that this is a hobbyhorse of mine doesn’t make it false!) 1. It divides the world into good people and bad people. “While there is a criminal element, I am in it. While there is a lower class, I am of it. While there is a soul in... Read more

I’m sad to say I must be on my waySo buy me beer and whiskey ’cause I’m going far away (far away)I’d like to think of me returning when I canTo the greatest little blogwatch and to Sally MacLennane… Amy Welborn: School stories from New Orleans. Colby Cosh: Best thing I’ve read on Paris burning. Le Corbusier and other villains. Dappled Things: “One of my own practices, and one that I recommend to others, is to consider what particular temptations... Read more

But it is Montecuccoli’s fourth method which has the most convincing ring to modern ears, ‘developing confidence’. Let the captain, he says, show that he himself is lighthearted and full of hope by means of his facial expression, his words and his dress. His visage should be severe, his eyes intrepid and luminous, and his clothing flamboyant. He should banter with his men, be clever and witty. They will then deduce that their general could not jest and enjoy himself... Read more