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Master Debaters
My friend Mike Horowitz -- author of this great new book
[Blog alumna Charlie Simpson? Yes, also a debater.]
Update: Oh, snap! And Nagl too! I never knew this, but he's now in one of the common areas talking up his skilz in something called IE.
Update II: This has started a feverish Friday afternoon conversation among the staff at CNAS. The office is roughly divided between those who did debate/mock trial(!)/school newspaper/Model UN and those who played sports along a 1:2 margin. Some, like Nagl (Debate, Track) and Bob Kaplan (School Newspaper, Swimming), did both. I can sense a research project here: what if we sampled people in government at the deputy assistant secretary level and asked about their high school activities. What do you think the result would be?
Update III: Kath Hicks, too, I am now told.
Update IV: Slate's Fred Kaplan reports he went to the NFL nationals in '72, and Dave Barno -- Ranger Dave freaking Barno! -- also confesses he was president of his high school debate team.
I was thinking about joining
I was thinking about joining the college debate team, and went to one of their practice sessions where they were jabbering at 500mph. I couldn't understand a word they were saying, and it really turned me off.
There's no pussy to be had
There's no pussy to be had in debate, go play sports.
On the mosque, this hits it
On the mosque, this hits it pretty good.
http://www.slate.com/id/2262495?obref=obnetwork
Master Debaters=Masturbaters
Master Debaters=Masturbaters
But policy or
But policy or parliamentary?
ADTS
In re sports versus debate,
In re sports versus debate, and their attractiveness to the opposite sexes:
As Fick's first platoon leader kind of alludes somewhere relatively early in "One Bullet Away," you go to school with the Chicks Dig It factor you have, not the one you want.
ADTS
So: policy wonks learn how
So: policy wonks learn how to control and direct debates. It's a game of political maneuvering within established boundaries, where the winners get to tell the jocks what to do - thus erasing that feeling of inferiority that still lingers from those high school days?
The problem here should be obvious, however: great skill in political maneuvering (as evidenced by Rumsfeld and Cheney) doesn't necessarily correlate with integrity, intelligence, or anything else. Political operatives tend to be ideologically fixed and incapable of fluid responses to changing situations.
The gross failure to capture or kill Osama bin Laden in 2001-2002 is an example of neocon mentality. The policy wonks refused to allow the people on the ground to decide how to capture Osama bin Laden, and instead chose an approach that allowed him to escape into Pakistan, repeatedly nixing alternative plans suggested by Delta commanders. They created a small group of CIA and Special Forces soldiers who worked with Afghan allies of dubious loyalty, and all they managed to accomplish was to chase the Al Qaeda leader over the border, where they were allowed to regroup, restrengthen, and re-infiltrate Afghanistan, as attention switched to Iraq's oil fields.
This is Furherprinzip thinking - everything must be controlled by the inner cabal, no independent action is allowed. As the crimes of the inner cabal grow and grow, they become ever more fearful of exposure, and their grip tightens - with typically disastrous results.
I mean, consider the neocon support for plausible Iranian agent Chalabi? Iran is the real geopolitical winner in the region, thanks to the invasion. Iraq can't even defend itself against Iranian incursions now, can it? Is that the real reason 50,000 well-armed U.S. soldiers, along with the thousands of private contractors, are still in Iraq?
@ADTS Read the discussion on
@ADTS
Read the discussion on Slate. Policy - obviously.
Have not been here in
Have not been here in awhile, being buried under pdfs and the chapter that will not be finished. Still, had to chime in here: On the sports/debate spectrum, add Carlos to the debate side (college).
Carlos
AT last someone exposes the
AT last someone exposes the true power structure in the USA ... not Skull and Bones, Wall Street, or Hollywood ... but the National Forensic League.
Yup, I was at Nationals in '72 and '73, and if I recall correctly, two of the judges were named Robert Shrum and Lawrence Tribe ...
Master debaters.. I like it
Master debaters.. I like it :)
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