Loretta Napoleoni, writing in Modern Jihad: Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks, details the financing behind terrorist organizations, little of which is state financed. The fund-raising activities of such groups are often via goods and drugs smuggling, activities likely to flourish if the legitimate economy of Syria is sanctioned. Sanctioning, which works among the developed economies of Europe and North America, is useless when dealing with developing and rogue states, and putative measures actually increase the potential activities for terrorist funding. The current administration's attitude of confrontation and denial must give way to a more enlightened and effective style, utilizing coalition and aid, as well as a more comprehensive understanding of resistant group support.
In response to an Ender's Game discussion (Goodreads), with a link from Reddit, I posted the following: Much of the Reddit stream seems to focus on military tactics, or the lack thereof, used by the Ender, but who reads Ender and thinks it about military tactics, except the 20-year old grunt that started the thread? For a book written in the 80's, then edited in the early 90's, it seems more prophetic, with its use of game immersion, remote military operations and portable computing. Then when you think about the use of children in military games, one can think somewhat more deeply about sociopolitical indoctrination. The series itself becomes a broader exploration of empathy and foreign culture. The criticism seems more like the problem of a man with a hammer, who thinks every problem is solved by hammering, but even worse, every problem is about hammering. An additional post, regarding suspension of disbelief: Some people commented on the suspension of disbelie...
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