Philosophers Adopt the Ronald Reagan Pledge

Reagan famously issued the 11th Commandment: Republicans should speak no evil of fellow Republicans. (Not counting injunctions to obey the previous Ten, the actual 11th commandment seems to be : "And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them [the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Cannanite, the Perizzites, the Hivites and Jebusites] before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them.")

Now, in response to Brian Leiter's over-the-top letters to various philosophers, a group has proposed that philosophers should never level negative public assessments of the competence or intelligence or philosophical acuity of any other individual philosopher or of the value of any philosophical subject or methodology.

I can go with the first and bite my pen. But a great deal of philosophical writing is trivial, or vague, or just badly done, and there are areas of philosophy that are dismal. Much of philosophy has become (or maybe long was) parochial and defensive. Witness Tim Scanlon's latest, reviewed on this blog. Scanlon holds that metaethics should not be--cannot be--challenged by outsiders. The new group generalizes: no area of philosophy can be challenged by insiders.

War Wackadoodling

Obama's Claim:

We can effectively "degrade" ISIS by bombing without causing huge civilian casualties.

ISIS response:

Disperse personnel and heavy weapons among the buildings and domiciles of the general populaltion.

Obama's Claim:

The Iraqi army, the Sunni militias, and the Kurds will be our "boots" on the ground to defeat ISIS.

ISIS response:

The Iraqi Army is a farce that will not fight. The Kurds will only fight for their territory and nearby areas critical to them; we will buy off the Sunni militias just as the Americans bought them off before.

American Pundits' Claim:

If we don't bomb ISIS Europeans and North Americans who have gone to fight for ISIS will return and terrorize us.

ISIS response:

And they will as well if you do bomb ISIS. What in the world are you thinking?

Mr. Obama Did Not Learn

Someone said stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result.  Over and over the United States has tried to do battle with surrogate armies, in Vietnam, in Afghanistan, in Iraq. It never worked.  In every case the reasons are the same: unless they are psychopathic, people will only willingly die for something they really care about.  Nobody cares about the corrupt government of Afghanistan except the corrupt governors and their beneficiaries; nobody cares about the corrupt government of Iraq except the kleptocrats.  Obama, induced or persuaded not to learn, has announced he is going to do the same thing over again.

In Iraq, Shi'a care about Shi'a, Sunni about Sunni, Kurds about Kurds.  ISIS march south was stopped because Shi'a militias, and possibly even parts of the regular army, cared that ISIS not reach into Shi'a territory, where they and their families and co-religionists live.   But the Shi'a will not fight into the Sunni north and west of Iraq, at least not successfully. They showed is much in the failure to take Fallujah and in their panicked retreat in the north. The Kurds have an interest--securing a Kurdistan. Except marginally, their militia will not fight to secure the rest of Iraq.

Iraq is three nations with many tribes. What Obama owes the world, and himself, is to  show why the colonial manufacture of Picot and Sikes deceit is worth poverty and death to keep in one piece. If he had an answer that is not risible, he would have given it. He has none. He has made the wrong decision and America will come to regret it, as we have come to regret G.W. Bush's decisions.

September 9, 2014

New York Time Letter to the Editor author Martin Beck Matustik:

"Eichmann was not a devil from another planet; he was part of the human race, he was educated, he understood a bit of Kant..."

Absolutely the mark of humanity: understanding a bit of Kant. Matustik (or the Times editor)  informs the reader that "He is completing a post-Holocaust intellectual memoir."  In NY Times training to be the next editor of "The Stone"?