WAR

LESSONS OF HISTORY

The question of whether the free world should support Ukraine in every way possible can be answered. The answer is yes because Putin like Hitler will not stop.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A History of France

By: John Julius Norwich

Narrated by: John Julius Norwich

John Julius Norwich (Author, English historian, travel writer, television personality, Royal Navy veteran with degrees in French and Russian from Oxford.)

John Norwich’s “A History of France” is an intimidating summary of a country that makes one understand how young and inexperienced America is in the history of nations.

France is recognized as a nation in 987 with its first King, Hugh Capet, born in 939-died in 996 at the age of 56 or 57. (King of the Franks from 987-996.)

The actual title King of France is not used until the crowning of Phillip II in 1190 (a descendant of Capet) who died in 1223 at the age of 57. Norwich’s “…History…” recounts the many Kings of France since Phillip II.

The longest serving King is Louis XIV (the Sun King) who ruled from 1643 to 1715 (a total of 72 years).

King Louis XIV moved the center of French government to the Palace of Versailles in 1682. He is the third of five Bourbon Kings of France. King Louis XIV is noted to have expanded France’s borders while centralizing power in France. Norwich notes Louis XIV’s wife, Maria Theresa of Austria, plays a significant role in France’s history. Theresa’s three major accomplishments are to create education for serfs, consolidate the French government’s financial system, and create a unified judicial code that became a foundation for Central European Laws.

The last Bourbon King of France is Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, who are deposed and beheaded after the 1789 revolution.

The brutality of the revolution is exemplified by factions called Royalists, Jacobins, and Montagnards. The Royalists supported monarchy and the Catholic Church. The Jacobins founded the 1789 Nation Constituent Assembly that wished to moderate authoritarianism, offer equal rights to French citizens with government intervention to insure social change. The Montagnards campaigned for the needs of the working and poorer classes of French society.

The 1789 revolution eventually led to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte who through ascension and a series of military conquests reestablishes a French monarchy under his rule.

Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the first president of France which is recognized as a Republic. However, though France is a Republic between 1848 and 1852, Charles reestablishes the monarchy in 1852 until he is deposed in absentia in 1870.

A new faction is formed called the Bonapartists. This faction roiled France throughout the 19th and into the early 20th century.

As the nephew of Napoleon, King Charles oversaw the modernization of the French economy. However, reestablishing the monarchy and his failure in the Franco/Prussian war led to a famine that permanently turned the French against monarchal rule.

Seven French revolutions finally ends France’s monarchy. However, each revolution precipitated chaos, and declarations of war from other monarchies. The final death of French monarchy did not occur until liberation after WWII.

Norwich explains there were actually seven revolutions before France becomes a permanent republic.

The first is the 1789 revolution which is most widely known by Americans. The irony of that revolution’s importance is France’s considerable support of America’s revolution in 1776. The newly established French government did not have a leadership group that could create a republic that could manage the monumental inequities of its long-established French culture. The repression of the poor created by centuries of royal leadership entailed too much animosity to avoid the Reign of Terror that caused the execution of thousands of French citizens. As many as 40,000 people were said to have been killed. It would take six more revolutions to create the lasting Republic of France.

The French Revolution (1789-1799)
The Napoleonic Era (1799-1815)
The July Revolution (1830), a 3 day uprising that overthrew King Charles X because he tried to restore absolutism and censor the press.
The February Revolution (1848), based triggered by economic hardship, discontent, and social unrest.
The Second Empire (1852-1870), a coup against Napoleon III despite the improvements made to France, he poorly manages and loses the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
The Third Republic (1870-1940) did establish a parliamentary democracy but is tarnished by antisemitism, and WWI that killed millions of French soldiers.
The Vichy Regime that collaborated with Nazi Germany led to the 7th and final revolution against monarchy and for a Republic.

The collaboration of France’s Vichy Regime and Chamberlain’s appeasement agreement with Hitler’s Germany are lessons for today’s handling of Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.

The world did not fully respond to Hitler with force when Germany invaded Poland. Hitler, like Stalin and Putin, presumed the world would not respond to Germany’s taking of a sovereign country.

Whether Putin directs the murder of any opposition to his rule is not a question that can be answered but the imprisonment of Navalny and the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin is reminiscent of Hitler’s lies to the world.

The question of whether the free world should support Ukraine in every way possible can be answered. The answer is yes because Putin like Hitler will not stop.

WAR IS HELL

War is hell by any definition, but it gave philosophers focus for understanding the meaning of life. Sadly, that understanding did not change the future course of history.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Time of the Magicians: Wittgenstein, Benjamin, Cassirer, Heidegger, and the Decade that Reinvented Philosophy

By: Wolfram Eilenberger, Shaun Whiteside

Narrated by: undisclosed.

Wolfram Eilenberger (German Author, award winning writer and philosopher.)

“Time of the Magicians” is particularly interesting because it tells the stories of four philosophers after WWI when Hitler is beginning his rise to power. Philosophers will undoubtably get more out of this book, but life experiences of these four men make it more interesting to the general public. The primary focus of “Time of the Magicians” is on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951, Austrian-British philosopher of logic, mathematics, mind, and language, died at age 62.)

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976, German philosopher of phenomenology, existentialism, and hermeneutics, died at age 86)

Three of the four men who live in “Time of the Magicians” have a Jewish background. The two most famous philosophers are Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger. Heidegger supports Hitler, chooses to join the Nazi Party, and refuses to write or say anything about the Holocaust after the war. The other three philosophers leave their home countries before Hitler becomes Chancellor. Wittgenstein, as a world traveler, becomes a student of Bertrand Russell in 1911 at Cambridge. Walter Benjamin and Ernst Cassirer travel a good deal while choosing to leave Germany in 1933.

One of many interesting points in “Time of the Magicians” is that Hannah Arendt was a student of Martin Heidegger’s at the University of Marburg in Germany.

Despite Heidegger’s antisemitism, at 35 he has an affair with the 18-year-old Arendt who came from a Jewish/Catholic household. This is in the early 1920s, before Hitler’s rise, but it reflects the intellectual compartmentalization of life and human weakness that exists when it comes to sex. (At the time of the affair, Heidegger was married to Elfride Petri in 1917 and remained married until his death in 1976.)

Aside from sexual transgressions noted in “Time of the Magicians”, the biographies of these four men are about their philosophical beliefs. WWI like all wars affects people in different ways. Some, like Wittgenstein, and Cassirer join the military and fight for their countries, while others like Benjamin look for ways to avoid conscription. Heidegger didn’t join the military but served the Nazis as an academic.

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940, German Jewish essayist, philosopher, and cultural critic, commits suicide at age 48)

Joining or avoiding military service may come from good and bad motives. Wittgenstein and Cassirer fought for the Central Powers for reasons undisclosed. “Time of the Magicians” suggests Wittgenstein fought valiantly for the Central Powers and became a P.O.W. in Italy. While in prison, Wittgenstein began writing his most famous book on philosophy, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”. However, the Central Powers lost to the Allied Powers (the U.K., France, and Russia) in WWI.

Heidegger supported Hitler through the end of World War II. One might conclude joining a war is a bad idea in any circumstance. As some authors have noted, there are no “good” wars. In any case, wars had a great deal to do with the philosophes of these four men.

Ernst Alfred Cassierer (1874-1945, German Jewish philosopher of phenomenology, and culture, died at age 70.)

The experience of war undoubtedly affected all four philosopher’s beliefs. Wittgenstein came from a wealthy industrial family. Wittgenstein is heir to a multi-million-dollar industrial empire. After the war, he chooses to give any fortune he might inherit to his mother, sisters, and brothers. He refuses his wealth and becomes employed in a small town in Austria where he teaches grade school. Wittgenstein refuses any financial help from his family or fellow philosophers. He is mired in poverty that remains his condition until his return to Cambridge.

Wittgenstein is characterized as a martinet but committed teacher of his young students.

His poverty and isolation seem surreal considering his education and family background. He actually has an engineering degree from the Technical University of Berlin which he received in 1908. His commitment to his young students forms a background to his belief in science with the dissection of animals and his focus on human language.

Today, we take dictionaries for granted, but they were nearly non-existent in Germany after WWI. Wittgenstein begins collecting words used by his students in class to create a dictionary that he intends to have published for schools in his area. The idea is nixed by the school administration.

Wittgenstein leaves the grade school he is teaching after an incident that involves a student who feints after being struck by Wittgenstein. This martial treatment of students is not particularly uncommon, but the parent of the student is a wealthy matron who complains to the school. The school does not discharge Wittgenstein, but he chooses to leave in the middle of the night and abandon his teaching career.

Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus…” is published in 1921 without compensation to its author.

The purpose of the book is to explain the relationship between language and reality. At the same time, it is an attempt to show the limits of science. It is characterized as a difficult book to understand but becomes highly regarded at Cambridge University in England and becomes the basis for Wittgenstein’s return to England where he is called the “God” of philosophy. This is an interesting appellation but equally interesting is the appellation given to Heidegger as the “King” of philosophy. Obviously, both men were highly regarded at Cambridge in the 1920s, but in quite different ways.

**THE HELL OF THE UKRAINE WAR 2022-2023**

“Time of the Magians” is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of storied philosophers and the impact on their understanding of life which appears based on their experience in the “Great War”. War is hell by any definition, but it gave philosophers focus for understanding the meaning of life. Sadly, that understanding did not change the future course of history.

WARS TRUTH

War is only a destroyer, not a builder of society. Samet implies the truth of war will continue to be distorted by both victors and losers who tell the tale.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness

By: Elizabeth D. Samet

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Elizabeth D. Samet (Author, Professor of English at West Point.)

Elizabeth Samet’s “Looking for the Good War” tells a hard truth about war. Samet’s history of war is like the refrain from the Temptations’ song:

War, huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, oh hoh, oh
War huh yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again y’all

As a professor at West Point, it seems incongruous for Samet to write this book. On the other hand, who would better understand a career for future military officers than a West Point’ professor? The command structure of the military requires soldiers do what they are ordered to do. In that doing, they may lose their minds, their lives, or their physical health. Samet raises the hard truth of every war, i.e., a soldier’s duty is to follow orders and when necessary, kill or be killed.

Samet questions stories, films, and images that glorify war.

Samet implies, once war is declared, its causes and consequences become fictionalized tales.

**Once a country is compelled to defend itself in war, like Ukraine, Samet infers a “…Good War…” becomes fiction.**

Truth of war becomes distorted by memory, and human bias that is memorialized by the visual arts and literature. The support for Samet’s view of war is in art and media representations of its history. From Picasso’s Guernica that illustrates the real horror of war to movies like Sands of Iwo Jima, war’s reality is distorted. Art and literature tell different truths.

Samet often refers to Shakespeare’s plays and his many observations about war, i.e., about its perpetrators and victims. From Julius Caesar to Richard III, to Henry IV, to Henry V, to Henry VIII, Samet quotes Shakespeare’s lines like

“Cry havoc’ and loose the dogs of war, That this foul deed shall smell above the earth With carrion men, groaning for burial.”

Samet argues Tom Brokaw, and Robert Rodat (screenwriter for “Saving Private Ryan”) glorify the winning side of WWII by choosing narratives that distort the true nature of war.

Samet is not alone in her opinion about the history of war distorting truth. American author and television writer, Rebecca Serle says the same. To Serle and Samet, history is a personalized perception, a truth imprinted on the minds of combatants. This personalized truth is an interpretation of what one experiences. War’s events are interpreted by the understanding of those who choose to write, paint, or film war’s events. War’s events become interpretations of interpretations. Samet implies a “…Good War…” is oxymoronic, a contradiction of words because there are no good wars.

American author and television writer, Rebecca Serle, wrote “History, memory is by definition fiction. Once an event is no longer present, but remembered, it is narrative. And we can choose the narratives we tell–about our own lives, our own stories, our own relationships.”

Samet is arguing no war is a good war because war is inherently bad for the mental and physical existence of human life. She argues narratives of America’s Civil War are prime examples of the distortion of truth about a “…Good War…” in the same sense as Brokaw’s WWII narrative. Samet coldly notes America’s idealization of rebel opposition to union and civil rights falls into the same category as the idealization of America’s role in WWII. There were singular brave actions in both wars, but those stories of bravery distort the reality of death and destruction, murder of human beings, an aftermath of coping with loss or permanent injury of loved ones, and the consequence of destroyed homes and economies of warring nations. Both WWII and America’s civil war solved nothing. Discrimination has not disappeared. Mass killings still occur. The only difference is in the organization, execution, and volume of deaths and injuries. There is no “…Good War…”

**Samet explains neither WWII or the American Civil war were examples of a “…Good War…”. That statement shocks the senses.**

Just as America did not save the world for democracy in WWII, America’s Civil War did not erase institutional racism. Racism hardened after America’s civil war and continues to this day.

Axis powers chose to wage war just as Allied powers chose to defend themselves. The story told by victors tends to view war by focusing on heroic events of conflict rather than war’s atrocity and aftermath. The story told by losers is one of blame for miscreant leaders who misled their countries into war. Both stories are fictions to justify new leader’s perceptions of reality. More importantly, Samet clearly explains how memory distorts the truth of what is accomplished by waging war.

Samet is simply writing about the fundamental truth–war is hell for all human beings, whether victors or losers.

The upside-down world of George Orwell notes “War is peace, Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” This is the world of which Samet writes. Samet explains what Orwell satirizes. War is hell. “Equal rights” are an unaccomplished ideal. Ignorance of war’s truth is compounded by distorted memories of the past.

As seen in Ukraine, Myanmar, Ethiopia, and Sudan–wars continue to roil the world. War is only a destroyer, not a builder of society. Samet implies the truth of war will continue to be distorted by both victors and losers who tell the tale.

FOSSIL FUELS

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Windfall (How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens American Power.)

By: Meghan L. O’Sullivan

Narrated by: Eliza Foss

Meghan L. O’Sullivan (Author, Harvard professor, Former deputy national security adviser on Iraq and Afghanistan, worked in the George Bush administration.)

Meghan O’Sullivan offers an intelligent but flawed view of today’s world. It is true that energy is critical for economic growth and improved human life. It is also true that energy need and development cause international conflicts in the post-industrial world. O’Sullivan does a masterful job explaining the role of energy, noting its cost while explaining fossil fuels are at a turning point in history.

**Fossil fuel prices fluctuated dramatically in the 20th century but O’Sullivan suggests the trend in the 21st century, despite the rise between 2000 and 2008, will trend downward for three reasons.**

One is the recognition of energy’s environmental consequence and conservationists’ political response; two, energy’s extraction is becoming less costly for most fossil fuels. And three, technological advancement offers alternative sources of energy.

What O’Sullivan correctly notes is that energy will remain a driving force behind international relations.

However, her argument is flawed by suggesting governmental restrictions on discovery and growth of fossil fuels should be weakened. Even in the few years since publication of O’Sullivan’s book, the science of fossil fuel pollution is showing accelerating global warming with potential for a “no-return” human’ consequence. Global warming seems self-evident. That evidence does not change O’Sullivan’s insight to the outsize role energy plays in the real-politic world of today, yesterday, and tomorrow.

O’Sullivan loses a bet with a colleague that Russia would challenge world peace within five years of 2013. She was right, but it took a couple years longer for Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine.

O’Sullivan correctly foretold Putin’s kleptocratic government’s intent to re-establish Russia’s place in the world by using its fossil fuel abundance to lure Europe and Asia with their need for energy. Putin’s drive to offer oil and/or gas pipelines to Germany, China, and Turkiye are meant to assuage their opposition to Ukraine’s invasion. Though China is somewhat supportive of Putin, it has little to do with its energy need but more to do with China’s opposition to U.S. involvement in their sphere of influence. In response to the Ukraine invasion, Germany found alternative sources for Putin’s pipelined energy with imported LNG (liquified natural gas). To some extent, Putin’s energy ploy worked. China, India, and Turkiye continue to buy oil from Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine. Their national interests outweigh their concern about Russia’s invasion, just as Putin undoubtedly calculated.

Energy’s role in the modern world is well documented by O’Sullivan. She notes the history and future of energy and how it will continue to roil international relations.

The cost of energy influences world leaders to exploit the environment despite its harm to society.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Coal continues to be burned for energy around the world because it is the least expensive.

Malaysia coal fire plant.

Technological innovation is decreasing natural gas costs which, though less environmental damaging than oil or coal, is becoming more widely used. Natural gas remains a pollutant. It is estimated to be 50-60 percent less polluting than coal and 20-30 percent less polluting than oil. (A caveat to the less pollution from natural gas is that it is being used in newer and more efficient energy producing facilities.) This argument does not change O’Sullivan’s flawed argument that restrictions should be removed, weakened, or moderated for further fossil fuel technological development and extraction.

Weather around the world, forest fires, and northern arctic warming are dramatic 21st century proof of continuing global warming. Science and nature tells us the world is warming. That warming is, at the least, greater because of fossil fuel use.

O’Sullivan remains correct in noting how energy is key to peace in the world. The vast natural gas find by Israel, called the Leviathan Reservoir, makes Israel’s influence in the Middle East much greater. Israelis use their natural gas’ find to improve their relationship with Middle East powers. On the other hand, it seems to give license to Israel to repress dislocated Palestinians as irreconcilable enemies.

Energy is both a weapon and tool of peace.

Where O’Sullivan’s book is less convincing is in its inference that the energy industry should be given free rein to continue developing fossil fuels. Even if energy is critical to the sovereign right of every country in the world, degradation of today’s environment makes fools of us all.

HUMANE WAR

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Humane (How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War)

By: Samuel Moyn

Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne

Samuel Moyn (Author, Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University.)

Sameul Moyn’s “Humane” shows America is one of many passengers on a train bound for Armageddon. The idea of a humane war is oxymoronic. War cannot, by definition be humane. There is no denying America’s war against Indians, Filipinos, Japanese, and Germans, with a history of mass violence against Blacks and other American minorities, is inhumane. The reasons for war’s violence range from defense of country to racism, to self-interest, to greed, i.e., the ingredients of human nature. From the crusades of Catholics against Muslims to persecution of Jews through the ages, to today’s Palistinian/Israli mayhem, inhumanity seems an integral part of the human condition.

Though Samuel Moyn makes war’s atrocity clear, it is odd to suggest America has reinvented the definition of war. The definition of war has never changed.

War is a conflict between power elites and the powerless. Though Moyn suggests President Obama revises nation-state war to be more humane, the tools of surreptitious killing by drone is just another weapon of war. It can as easily kill or injure the innocent as a WWI propeller driven dirigible dropping a bomb on an alleged enemy combatant. There will always be collateral damage. War boils down to a government leaders’ political strength whether he/she is President of Russia, America, China, or some other military power. Mistakes will always be made. Misjudgment and misperception are part of being human. Innocents will always die in war.

In accusation, Moyn’s history is an excellent reminder of war’s brutality. It is valuable to be reminded of war’s atrocity and stupidity, particularly in the face of Putin’s Ukraine invasion and attempt to recreate the U.S.S.R.

The galling part of Moyn’s reference to President Obama is to imply America is a lesser villain than other nation-states leaders by reinventing war, subject to rule-of-law. As the election of Trump proves, rational intelligent leadership is never guaranteed in democracy. The idea of targeted strikes in the hands of a Trump rather than an Obama is hard evidence of the ridiculous belief in humaneness of war.

War was designed by human nature to become more lethal with the science of many nations.

There is no reinvention of a humane war by any nation-state, let alone America. The only change in war is in scale, i.e., weapons of mass destruction have geometrically increased the number of human beings that can be murdered, wounded, or victimized by war’s execution. Science has added to potential world destruction with bigger nuclear bombs and viral research that could end life on earth, with many nations’ culpability. The point is America is just another player among nations that carry the risk of corruption of power, not to be an inventor of humane wars but to become hegemons of what they believe is their world. War is never humane.

Moyn recalls the history of George W. Bush’s decision to start a war on terror in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Few Americans, if any, can forget or forgive those who perpetrated that heinous act. To prepare a response, the Bush Administration promoted the USA PATRIOT ACT. To some, that ACT violated American civil rights.

Considering Moyn’s history of the creation and legal defense of the USA PATRIOT ACT, rule-of-law is merely a matter of picking the right attorney to get the result a President wants.

That is what the Department of Justice leader John Ashcroft did in choosing John Yoo. Moyn explains Yoo’s family came from Korea, with their son having become a Harvard graduate and lawyer working for the government. Moyn implies Yoo’s success in America and his family’s knowledge of North Korean repression influenced John Yoo’s legal opinion of the PATRIOT ACT. Legal opinion is a fungible skill based on the biases of its writers.

Being humane is in the eye of the beholder whether the beholder is moral or amoral.

Government leaders may represent a nation or a faction of people, but unless one believes in “the arc of the moral universe” as originated by Theodore Parker in the 19th century (made modern by Martin Luther King in the 20th century), the world will continue to have wars; all of which become inhumane.

APPARITION & NUISANCE

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Out of Mesopotamia

By: Salar Abdoh

Narrated by: Sean Rohani

Salar Abdoh (Author, Iranian American, family forced to leave Iran when he was 14, Graduated from U.C. Berkley and City College of New York.)

Salar Abdoh’s book title, “Out of Mesopotamia”, implies an opinion about the Middle East. Abdoh entertains a listener/reader with his wry sense of humor, colored by the tragedy of political turmoil, murder, and martyrdom in the Middle East. His personal life and academic education infer a better understanding of western and middle eastern cultures than most Americans.

Abdoh’s novel idealizes a belief in pan Arabism with return of a borderless Middle Eastern area like Mesopotamia. His novel expresses love for Arab culture.

Whether Mesopotamia may have been a land of erudition, agriculture, domesticated animals, and social classes its culture changed with the creation of nation-states rather than singular settled communities. But, that change is unlikely to have been as quiescent as Abdoh implies.

Mesopotamia means between rivers which are known today as the Tigris and Euphrates. It was originally made of city states peopled by Sumerians between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. These city states each had their own king which implies there were borders and undoubtedly periodic conflicts.

As noted by Abdoh, the level of conflict remains today. The difference is, rather than combat with words, fists, and clubs, today’s nation-states use guns, bombs, and weapons of mass destruction to resolve disputes.

Abdoh’s main character is a reporter, sometimes combatant, who decries Iranian religious rule and Syrian slaughter of innocents. One senses the author’s visceral love for Arab culture and a yearning for return to his native country.

A large part of Abdoh’s story is to explain martyrdom to its listeners.

Most understand religious beliefs are the proximate and most obvious reason for martyrdom. Participants of a holy war are memorialized by dedicated monuments to their deaths. Their belief is that they arrive in paradise while being memorialized by those remaining in life. Abdoh explains paradise and earthly memorialization are only two of many reasons people seek martyrdom.

For some, martyrdom is penitence for a sinful life. For others, it is to escape from what they view as a meaningless existence. For a few, it is a choice to end one’s life for what they believe is a meaningful purpose.

From soldiers, to sinners, to artists, and the remaining living, Abdoh infers martyrdom is a wasted life.

Abdoh’s writing is engaging, in part because of its substance but also because of his sense of humor and point of view. He weaves a story of emotion, and disgust by using irony, humor, affection, love, disgust, and intellect of characters who keep one entertained and engaged. The engagement comes from agreement and disagreement with his character’s point of view.

The relationship between America and the Middle East is complicated.

America and the Middle East’s relationship is challenged by cultural differences that seem irreconcilable because of national and individual self-interests, made even more difficult by language. The failure of most Americans to understand more than their own language breeds ignorance and arrogance. As noted by other authors, the story of the Arab world is tightly woven into the fabric of their language.

Abdoh’s story reflects the ignorance of American policy and how it deals with the Middle East.

He does not suggest it is because of malevolence but infers it is from not caring enough and being consumed by American national self-interest. America is described by Abdoh as an apparition and nuisance to the Middle East. Without mutual cultural understanding, there is, nor will there be, peace in the Middle East or world.

GREEN ON BLUE

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Green on Blue

By: Eliot Ackerman

Narrated by: Peter Marek

Eliot Ackerman (Author, former Marine Corps Special Operations Team Leader who served in Afghanistan.)

“Green on Blue” is about America’s military experience in Afghanistan. Like America’s experience in Vietnam and Iraq, knowing one’s enemy is shown to be difficult, at the least, and impossible at the most. Whether the American military is “Green on Blue” or not, it alludes to the fog of war and complications of knowing the color of your enemy.

Ackerman gives a first-hand account of what it was like to serve as a field commander in America’s intervention in Afghanistan. As a Marine Corps Special Operations team leader in Afghanistan, he knows the subject of which he writes.

Ackerman’s novel is a fiction but bells truth and understanding of America’ intervention in Afghanistan.

Just as Ackerman explains the complexity, folly, and error of America’s good intention, he clearly criticizes American leadership’s decision to invade Afghanistan. America’s intent is to dismantle al-Qaeda leadership and possibly capture bin-Laden. It seems the mistake is not about crushing al-Qaeda but in not understanding the culture in which al-Qaeda received support from Afghanistan’s Taliban.

Ackerman creates a story of an older brother that is fatally injured by a bomb blast and is taken to a hospital for treatment.

This is a frontline hospital in Afghanistan like that in Ackerman’s story.

The younger sibling, who had been cared for, and protected by his older brother, pleads with the hospital to save him. To be saved, because the injuries are severe, requires expensive long-term care which his younger brother cannot pay. A Pashtun visitor at the hospital offers to pay for the older brother’s treatment in return for the younger brother’s recruitment into his “army”. The younger brother appeals to a person who appears to be Pashtun, the same culture of the two brothers.

This Pashtun is actually a leader of an Afghanistan military group.

The Pashtun military leader assures the younger brother of his financial support for the older brother to receive the required treatment. The younger brother agrees. The younger brother’s name is Azize. As Ackerman’s story continues, one finds leaders in Afghanistan use America’s intervention only to reinforce their self-interest. Of course, self-interest is a universal human characteristic, but in war, its dimension becomes life and death.

Ackerman’s story reinforces Anand Gopal’s non-fiction account of “No Good Men Among the Living”.

As one continues listening to Ackerman’s book, one doubts the older brother is alive or that any support is provided by the recruitment leader. The recruiter simply uses the hospital as a tool to acquire and retain recruits from relatives grieving for lost or injured family members. The end of Ackerman’s story tells the tale.

This is a harsh story that reminds America of how risky and unwise it is to believe America knows best for what another culture has grown to believe.

Soldiers like Ackerman remind us of how hard it is to help other countries be the best they can be. It requires more than bravery. It requires understanding of another’s culture and a willingness to let go of one’s own preconceived notions.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

48 Laws of Power

By: Robert Greene

Narrated by: Richard Poe

Robert Greene (Author, B.A. in classical studies.)

Robert Greene’s “48 Laws of Power” is an interesting journey through the history of leadership, and war. It is an interesting contrast to what some authors have written about Machiavelli’s “Prince”.

Greene’s history is timely in respect to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and America’s Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan failures. Though these events were for ideologically different reasons, Greene’s 48 laws are relevant.

Greene offers so many anecdotes, this review focuses on Wu Zetian, Mao Zedong, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (aka Talleyrand), and Henry Kissinger. These are four among many accomplished leaders Greene reviews from the 7^th to the 21^stcentury. Each exercise some variation of Greene’s “48 Laws of Power”. The story of Wu Zetian is the most amazing of the four.

Wu Zetian (624 CE to 705 CE, died at age 81, Empress from 649-683, Emperor 690-704 CE)

One presumes this a mature rendering of Wu, not the young concubine who attracted Emperor Taizong.

Wu Zetian is the only female emperor in 2000 years of China’s imperial rule. She is alleged to have indirectly and directly ruled the Tang Dynasty from 649 to 704CE. She became the concubine of emperor Taizong but was exiled to a nunnery by the wife of Taizong’s son. Wu returned to marry Taizong’s son. According to Greene, Wu strangled her daughter and accused Gaozong’s wife. Upon conviction, Gaozong’s wife is executed. This paved Wu’s way to become first wife of Gaozong. Gaozong became the putative emperor from 649-683 CE.

Greene explains Wu was the power behind Gaozong’s rule. When Gaozong died in 683, Wu formally proclaimed herself emperor in 690 CE and died in 705 CE at the age of 81. Whether precisely true or not, Greene gives this as evidence of steely determination and willingness “to do whatever it takes” to gain power. Ruthless leadership is one of the “48 Laws of Power”.

When Mao gathered a force to overthrow China’s government, he and his recruits were defeated in battle and scattered to the country by Chiang Kai-shek. (Mao in 1943 when Chiang Kai-shek was exiled to Taiwan.)

Chiang Kai-shek failed to eliminate Mao when he had the chance. (Official portrait of China’s leader in 1943.)

Mao gathers more followers and returns to force Chiang Kai-shek into exile in Taiwan. An opposing army’s leader must be eliminated to ensure security of an existing government. Greene explains this is another of the “48 Laws of Power” required to maintain leadership.

Tallyrand served France from 1789 to 1834 under Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis XVIII, and Louis Philippe I. Tallyrand’s skill in keeping his plans to himself allows him to remain a power behind the thrown throughout his adult life.

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838).

Greene notes Tallyrand’s reputation was to never talk about himself while talking to others. This is at the heart of his rise to power. Tallyrand’s purpose for talking to others is to gather information to know how to use information to accomplish his personal objectives. Greene suggests Tallyrand lured Napoleon out of his banishment in Elba because he knew Napoleon would be defeated and no longer a threat to France’s leadership. Greene notes keeping one’s own council secret is one of the “48 Laws of Power”.

In modern times, Greene implies Henry Kissinger is a master of the “48 Laws of Power”. Greene notes Kissinger acted as a power behind the throne of Presidents of the United States.

Greene is not arguing Nixon was not the leader of America during his time as President but that much of what is accomplished in his administration is traced to the power of Henry Kissinger. Kissinger, like Tallyrand, kept his own thoughts and ambitions to himself. When necessary, he publicly praised his superiors to assure his place of power and influence. His intellectual curiosity involved him so many government’ policies beyond his role as Secretary of State that he became an indispensable source of information and counsel.

Greene notes Kissinger insured his ascendence in American government by courting both candidates for the Presidency when the war in Vietnam is raging. Kissinger would work for either a Democratic or Republican President as long as he could achieve his personal and undisclosed objectives. As noted in the biography of Kissinger by Niall Ferguson, Kissinger is closer to Nelson Rockefeller than to Nixon as he pursues his personal ambition.

As one listens to “48 Laws of Power” and Greene’s anecdotes, one realizes the Russian/Ukrainian war is unlikely to end soon. The leaders of both countries exercise their respective “…Laws of Power” at the expense of their citizen’s lives. The same seems applicable to America’s mistakes in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

MILITARY R&D

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Rise of the Machines (A Cybernetic History)

Release Date 6/28/16

By: Thomas Rid

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Thomas Rid (Author, political science Professor received Ph.D from Humboldt Univ. of Berlin in 2006.)

Thomas Rid’s history of the “Rise of the Machines” is a political perspective on society’s adoption of cybernetics (the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things).

Rid begins his history with the industrial age that created machines and increased worker productivity while displacing and retraining workers to meet the needs of a growing economy.

Rid’s history defines the origin and significance of cybernetics. It may be interpreted positively or negatively. Viewing the state of the world today, there is room for praise and criticism. On the one hand “Rise of the Machines” offered opportunities and prosperity, on the other, it promoted murder and mayhem. The irony of both is they come from the same source, military R & D. Like Willie Sutton said about robbing banks, military defense budgets are “…where the money is”.

Rid recognizes Norbert Wiener’s formative role in the cybernetic age. Rid notes Wiener develops communications engineering and cybernetic theory during WWII. Rid reminds listeners of the military’s radar refinement and jet pilot cybernetic helmets, long before virtual reality became available to the public. The key to Wiener’s success is experimenters’ recognition of the importance of environmental feedback when designing machines to precisely locate an enemy target or for pilots to engage an enemy plane.

Norbert Wiener (American mathematician and philosopher, 1894-1964.)

Feedback is key to efficient machine performance because it provides information for changed response in the same way humans respond differently when circumstances or environments change.

Rid gives the example of pilot helmet refinement, partly related to ideas of the Star War’s movie.

Darth Vader’s helmet became a model for pilots of newer jet fighters.

The original helmets were unwieldy and uncomfortable. In Vietnam, the rough terrain led to GE research on motorized robots. However, what they found was the rough terrain and swampy land made them too vulnerable for practical use. GE’s research shows limitations but leads to robotic mechanization for repetitive work in fixed environments of industrial production.

Rid digresses with science fictions’ contribution to the advance of cybernetics. Timothy Leery, and Scientology were early endorsers of Wiener’s theory of cybernetics. Timothy Leery extolls the virtues of LSD as an entry to a different reality. One of Leary’s friends is Jaron Lanier who created an early version of virtual reality headwear.

L. Ron Hubbard claims Scientology’s connection to cybernetics. Wiener pointedly objects to Hubbard’s claim and forbids further association of Scientology with cybernetics.

The first computer is invented in the 19^th century by an English mechanical engineer named Charles Babbage. It was an early form of number computation and analysis. It was a century ahead of its time. During WWII, British codebreakers needed to decipher German miliary communications. In 1936, Alan Turing writes a paper “On Computable Numbers…” that leads to employment by the British during WWII to decode German military communications. Turing’s computer decoded Germany’s secret enigma machine’ messages. As a result, Turing becomes known as the father of modern computer science.

The early internet years came in the 1960s from the need for a communications network for government researchers to share information.

That network is called ARPANET, which is financed by the U.S. Department of Defense. It is transformed into the world wide web, now known as the internet. Rid’s book is published in 2016. The potential of cybernetics in war is clearly demonstrated by Ukraine’s ability to resist a much larger and better equipped foreign power.

The role of the military in cybernetics research and development is shown as both critical and essential in Rid’s history.

Ukraine’s use of cybernetic surveillance for military equipment targeting and drone weaponization equalizes power and effectiveness of two mismatched powers.

Though not a subject of Rid’s history, the principal value of free speech is diminished by a cybernetic world that is not properly legislated, adjudicated and enforced by rule-of-law. Internet users have been influenced by media trolls who spew lies and disinformation. Young people kill themselves because of being dissed on the internet. The internet gives voice to hate groups around the world. Gaming is a principal revenue producer in the cybernetic world that patently discounts reality. Human value is discounted by the mayhem of computer gaming.

**School children shoot teachers and students with impunity, as though they are creatures in a cyber world.**

As late as yesterday, 3/27/23, another school shooting occurs in Nashville, Tennessee. Three adults and three nine-year-old children are killed.

Rid notes cybernetics’ military application both protects and exposes security of nations around the world. Rid writes about an American military intelligence penetration by foreign and domestic hackers during the Clinton administration. Hackers have the tools to disrupt both economic and military operations around the world. Of course, those tools are multiplying. With quantum computing, existing passwords will become obsolete. Intelligence services of all countries are becoming more and more capable of disrupting military or domestic affairs of any foreign power.

REBUILDING UKRAINE

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Chessboard and the Web

By: Anne Marie Slaughter

Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin

Anne-Marie Slaughter (Author, foreign policy analyst, served as Director of Policy Planning under Hilliary Clinton.)

“The Chessboard and the Web” is not about rebuilding Ukraine. However, Slaughter presents an insightful view of diplomacy that confronts international conflict with an idea that applies to Ukraine’s future.

Ukraine is invaded by Russia in 2022, nearly 5 years after Anne Marie Slaughter’s book is published.

Inevitably, either Ukraine or Russia will sue for peace. Ukraine will survive as an independent nation-state. Neither Ukraine nor Russia will come away from this war with a satisfactory resolution. Ukraine’s challenge will be to rebuild their country within whatever boundary is part of a yet-to-be-determined peace agreement. No one knows what will happen to Putin, but President Zelensky will face the complex task of rebuilding Ukraine.

Slaughter gives several examples of how interconnectedness has changed the course of history in modern times and aided thousands of people impacted by natural disasters and internecine conflicts.

Slaughter argues natural disaster relief and international conflict is more constructively addressed by the interconnectedness of the world wide web.

Slaughter offers examples of how interconnectedness changes the nature of management. Though General Stanly McChrystal is discharged for disrespecting President Obama’s administration, he is instrumental in establishing a rebel fighting force in Afghanistan. McChrystal eliminates Al Qaeda’s leader by creating a web of interconnected Afghan rebels that advise the American military of Al Qaeda’s movements. McChrystal is widely acknowledged as an effective leader and accomplished soldier.

General Stanley A. McChrystal (Commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment in Afghanistan.)

In one way, the world wide web is an unstoppable technological change that invades everyone’s privacy. On the other hand, it offers a tool for cultural understanding, team building, and actionable public policy to deal with natural disasters, war’s destruction and its aftermath.

**Slaughter gives the following example: With web interconnectedness, two former Marines create a 38,000-person volunteer group called Team Rubicon that aids Haiti survivors after a 7.0 earthquake.**

Either by design or circumstance, Ukraine citizens set up decentralized teams of fighters to repel the Russian army. Ukrainian fighters’ interconnectedness came, in part, from Elon Musk’s satellites. With that interconnectedness, Ukrainians successfully fought off Russia’s invading army. Zelensky is the leader of Ukraine’s defensive effort. But it is individual group leaders, connected by the web, that have successfully defended Ukraine. Zelensky is the President and leader of the country, but he wisely allows respective team leaders to conduct the war against the Russian invaders. That same system can be used to rebuild Ukraine when peace is achieved.

What Slaughter reveals is an idea that should be adopted by President Zelensky to rebuild Ukraine when Putin’s criminal invasion is defeated. Zelensky has done a heroic job of leading his country in war. He shows the capability of being a leader for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

**The team leaders of Ukraine’s defense are prime candidates for team leadership when the war is over. President Zelensky knows who the best team leaders have been during the war.**

Slaughter is not arguing this is a simple way of rebuilding a country, managing re-construction after a natural disaster, or resolving political crises. Her point is the complexity of international relations, war, and reconstruction can be met by decentralized teams organized around competent leaders using the internet. Their interconnectedness can address complexity based on intimate knowledge and decentralized command. Zelensky would need to establish a financial review process to monitor team results and discipline bad actors, but field decisions would be left to interconnected on-site leaders.

Human nature is what it is, and some leaders will succumb to the lure of money, power, and prestige. However, through careful oversight, theft can be mitigated, and team leaders can be replaced as circumstances demand.

No leadership system, interconnected or not, is full proof. Slaughter’s service in Obama’s government, under the wing of Hillary Clinton, did not eliminate mistakes. The murder of Libya’s leader created a political mess during Clinton’s and Obama’s watch. Syria’s use of chemical weapons killed Syrian civilians. Obama is certainly right to not have invaded Syria for that transgression, but Obama and his red-line comment unnecessarily made America look weak. There were Obama successes. By the same token, re-construction of Ukraine will suffer from mistakes, but Ukraine’s President has shown how mistakes can be corrected. Zelensky acted against corruption by Ukranian team leaders who tried to profit from war material scams.

Slaughter’s last chapters explain the difference between leadership styles of the past and present. In the internet age, wide interconnection of disparate interests suggests a new leadership style, more like being a gardener than a martinet who insists on followers doing it her or his way.

The world wide web and interconnectedness is a two-edged sword. As with all ideas, web interconnectedness can be good or evil. As with any plan for action, there is always potential for unintended consequence. Re-building is going to be a major undertaking for the Ukrainian people and government. Every American hopes the war will be over soon and Ukraine’s reconstruction can begin.

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