Peace Intelligence – Page 340 – Public Intelligence Blog

There are some interesting and provocative materials on counter-insurgency and 4th generation warfare at two very different websites.

The Fabius Maximus website has an essay, with many important links, titled “How I learned to stop worrying and love Fourth Generation War. We can win at this game.” Find it at http://fabiusmaximus.com/2013/09/18/4gw-insurgency-55320/.

George Kenny's very different and diverse website at electricpolitics.com has an interview with a thinker in the Army, Col. Gian Gentile. It addresses the various fallacies of the Petraeus/COIN dogma that resulted in the surge in Iraq (the action that allowed some in the US to pretend that “we won” there and the catastrophe now occurring there is some sort of separate event) and that has prolonged the agony in Afghanistan (while we pretend we are preserving something worth preserving). While this interview starts slowly, it becomes very interesting and thought provoking, I believe. Find it at http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2013/09/wrong_turn.html.

I highly respect all the discussants in these two pieces and I defer to much of their knowledge on the subject, which is deeper than mine. However, there is an element on which I dissent. They focus much of their energy on how to “win” these conflicts. I am not at all sure that is the correct focus. These conflicts (call them whatever you want) occur mostly in very alien societies with massively corrupt, wantonly un-empathetic, and/or grotesquely incompetent governments. Not only is “helping” the government side the equivalent of pushing a very wet string, but also why is it that we feel compelled to take a side in those conflicts where one side is repulsive and the other is hideous? Trying to win by taking one of those sides is a fool's errand, and it has proven our undoing since the end of World War II — and especially in recent years. That we pretend ourselves to be superior to the culture in these countries, and behave accordingly, does not exactly help either.

The situation in Syria, where we side with one of the many insurgents, is merely a variation on these themes.

There are alternatives; we should be exploring them.

2013/09/182013/09/18

Berto Jongman: Uzbeckistan Faces Civil War, Possible Disintegration

08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Uzbekistan Faces Civil War, Possible Disintegration, Tashkent Scholar Says

Over the past six weeks, the independent FerganaNews.com portal has conducted an online discussion, sparked by an article of the leader of the “Birdamlik” opposition movement, Bahordir Chorniyev, on the possibility that Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov and his regime could be overthrown by a “velvet revolution” (fergananews.com/articles/7849; fergananews.com/articles/7852;fergananews.com/articles/7854; fergananews.com/articles/7856).

Most of those taking part were skeptical about that possibility, but none of them has as bleak a vision of Uzbekistan’s future as Maryam Ibragimova, a Tashkent-based political scientist, whose article concludes the current series (http://www.fergananews.com/articles/7860). In an 800-word letter to the editor, she argues that her “beautiful and unhappy land” likely faces “either a military dictatorship or a civil war.”

As “a professional political scientist,” Ibragimova writes, she says she has no choice but to add her voice and that in her view there is no possibility of any “velvet” revolution in Uzbekistan. Instead, she continues, what lies ahead is “a bloody dismantling” of the existing dictatorship “or a prolonged civil war accompanied by the disintegration of the country.”

The Tashkent scholar gave five reasons for her explanation.

2013/09/172013/09/17

David Swanson: “Strategy” in Syria – Humanitarian Murder

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Peace Intelligence

Humanitarian Murder

This past Sunday night on “60 Minutes” John Miller of CBS News said, “I've spoken with intelligence analysts who have said an uncomfortable thing that has a ring of truth, which is: the longer this war in Syria goes on, in some sense the better off we are.”

Now, why would that be uncomfortable, do you suppose? Could it be because encouraging huge numbers of violent deaths of human beings seems sociopathic?

The discomfort that Miller at least claims to feel is the gauge of our moral progress, I suppose, since June 23, 1941, when Harry Truman said, “If we see that Germany is winning, we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let them kill as many as possible.”

On Monday, Time magazine's Aryn Baker published an article under the headline “Syria's Rebels Turn on One Another, and That's Not a Bad Thing.” Baker's point wasn't that more would die this way, but that this would allow the U.S. to escalate the war (which of course would mean more dying).

Remember that President Obama's reason for wanting to attack Syria is to “confront actions that are violating our common humanity.” How is it that support for mass killing rarely seems to violate our common humanity if it's that other 96 percent of humanity getting killed, and especially if it's this 4 percent doing it? Why is the excuse to kill more people always that people are being killed, while we never starve people to prevent them from starving or rape people to protect them from rape?

Continue reading “David Swanson: “Strategy” in Syria – Humanitarian Murder”

2013/09/142013/09/14

Jean Lievens: Creating Global Unions Crossing All Boundaries

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Discussing Global Unionism II: The Social Network Model

Below we are re-posting the second paper of the very timely discussion on how to form truly global unions -instead of international federation of national unions. The discussion has been recently launched by the New Unionism Network and you can read other papers here.

The union movement and FaceBook are about the same size, as of October 2012. That’s about one billion members, or one seventh of the world’s population[1]. It’s a milestone that has attracted very little attention because, frankly, the comparison ends there.

But why?

In this discussion the author argues for a new type of social networking — one which takes great care to protect the user while actively promoting honesty and openness. This combination of safety and collegiality is vital if working people are to build international networks; it is all too easy to forget the real hazards faced by many who need a collective voice. Adding a social network layer to our existing model of unionism would also create a horizontal base, and bring tremendous new strength to the existing vertical structures.

Unlike FaceBook, the union movement grew organically, almost always in the face of resistance. The “new unionism” of the late 19th century ushered in an age of industrial unions, and by the beginning of the 20th century we were uniting workers and federating their unions along regional, sectoral and national lines. The first experiments with international structures began to appear in the very earliest years of the twentieth century. Back then, comparisons with FaceBook might have made sense.

Read full article.

2013/09/14

NIGHTWATCH: Syria

08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, Peace Intelligence

Syria: Syrian ambassador to the UN Jaafari said, “Legally speaking Syria has become, starting today, a full member of the (chemical weapons) convention.” He made the statement after submitting relevant documents to the United Nations.

He said President Bashar al-Asad signed a legislative decree on Thursday that “declared the Syrian Arab Republic approval to accede to the convention” and that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mu'allim had written to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to notify it of Syria's decision to join the convention.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Syria”

2013/09/132013/09/13

Jon Ramer: Compassion Games to 21 September 2013

Collective Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Gift Intelligence, Peace Intelligence

Games run September 11-21 worldwide—anyone can play

“We behave ourselves into new ways of thinking,as distinct from thinking ourselves into new ways of behaving.” —from the Hoʻoponopono practice of forgiveness

SEATTLE, September 9, 2013—Announcing the Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest, a worldwide “co-opetition” running September 11 through 21, 2013. To date, 18 communities in four countries have signed on, and the number of teams and local activities is growing daily.

Opening ceremonies and local festivities will kick off the Games September 11 in communities around the world. Over the following 10 days, neighborhoods, organizations, businesses, and individuals will organize and participate in games of their choice. Scores will be tallied and displayed online, so the progress of teams and individuals can be tracked across the globe. Closing ceremonies will take place worldwide on September 21, coinciding with the International Day of Peace, established by the United Nations in 1981.

Organized by the nonprofit Compassion Games International (CGI), the Compassion Games are designed to help and inspire individuals to make their communities safer, kinder, more just, and better places to live. The Games provide a network through which individuals, organizations, and businesses can actively participate in and lead societal change—being empowered and caring citizens, while putting kindness at the center of fun, good-natured, competitive play. CGI offers tools and an active online community to help organizers form teams and participate.

Continue reading “Jon Ramer: Compassion Games to 21 September 2013”

2013/09/132013/09/13

Open Mind: CIA PSYOP Against US Public – Labeling Truth-Seekers as “Conspiracy Theorists?”

Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, IO Deeds of War, Peace Intelligence

CIA Responsible For Labeling Honest Research Into Finding the Truth As “Conspiracy Theories”

Boy does this article by Foster Gamble fit on this blogsite. For more than 40 years anyone attempting to find out the truth about anything that the “controllers” wanted to keep secret, was labeled a “conspiracy theorist”. Of course, then, propaganda was used to discredit any “conspiracy theorist” so no one would take them seriously. Now, the CIA admits what many have known for a long time. There is also a good little video near the bottom of this article where Foster and Kimberly offer suggestions about how to talk to others about “conspiracy theories”.Tom

News Flash — CIA Invents “CONSPIRACY THEORY” Wed, 11 Sep 2013 By Foster Gamble

It is a little-known though well-documented fact that the origin of the campaign to ridicule research into conspiracies was initiated by the CIA in 1967 to undermine the credibility of those who questioned the official claims of the Warren Commission regarding the so-called facts of the Kennedy assassination. Given the challenge we and others feel when speaking out about conspiracies, I think Lance deHaven-Smith is right when, in his new book Conspiracy Theory, he suggests “the CIA’s [covert and illegal] campaign to popularize the term ‘conspiracy theory’ and make conspiracy belief a target of ridicule and hostility must be credited…with being one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time…”

Of course not all proclaimed conspiracies are true. There are competent conspiracy analysts and incompetent ones, just as there are skilled and shoddy reporters, historians or practitioners of any discipline.

Continue reading “Open Mind: CIA PSYOP Against US Public – Labeling Truth-Seekers as “Conspiracy Theorists?””

Category: Peace Intelligence

Winslow Wheeler: Two Thought-Provoking Pieces on Counter-Insurgency and 4th Generation Warfare