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Epigram

  • Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
    Qohelet Raba, 7:16

    אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

    Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

    All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

    More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

    Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

  • Abraham Isaac Kook
    "The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.
  • Heinrich Heine
    "Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).
  • Simon Wiesenthal
    Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."
  • Maimonides
    "Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."
  • Douglas Adams
    "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.
  • Thucydides
    "The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."
  • Milan Kundera
    "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Notes

  • Care to Read What I Read?

    I've embarked on a great reduction in privacy by bookmarking my web-based reading on the "delicious.com" utility. It may tip my hand as to what I have in mind for blogging, but the same may help friends and frenemies alike track my thinking: here is the URL:

    http://www.delicious.com/commart

  • Author's Wish Each Friday Night
    Shabbat Shalom. May our arguments be resolved through perceptive words and good deeds only; may we live another week helpful to one another in relative peace.
  • Photography: Prints & Services
    A gentle reminder: I'm in business as a producer of fine art prints and as a provider of shoot-for-fee services, including portraiture and weddings plus assigned photojournalism. My general location: intersection of I-70 and I-81; core camera system: Nikon; transportation: Mustang.

    Main web: www.communicating-arts.com

    E-Mail: [email protected]

    Also: as of 2011, I am building a photography print-on-demand presence at Fine Art AmericaM. This is the address:

    http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/james-oppenheim.html

    Effort in print-on-demand will not offset the production nor value of signed, limited edition prints made under my own hand. However, for very good convenience, price, and quality, print-on-demand may work out well for many fans and patrons.

  • Research Services

    If you're engaged in funded research in conflict analysis or other areas that may be addressed here and wish to engage my mind in your project, feel welcome to drop me a note at [email protected].

Etcetera

J. S. Oppenheim's Other Blogs and Webs

  • Flickr!

  • Communicating Arts - Main Web Site
  • Communicating Arts - The Journal
  • Mustang Highways
    American highways and a six cylinder, 190 horsepower Ford Mustang 2000, Nikons, and philosophy.

« Iraqi Kurdistan and the War of Attrition | Main | Somalia: The Look of the Place »

February 24, 2008

Somalia: Fast Reversal - Reversal

Action: Weapons confiscation.

Assets: 3 "battlewagons" burned.

Casualties: 15 government troops--7 dead, 8 wounded.

Most striking paragraph:

"A senior commander of the Islamists' Shabab youth wing, Muktar Ali Robow, led rebels equipped with rocket propelled grenades and machineguns as they outgunned government troops in Dinsoor early on Sunday." [2]

Most puzzling phrase: "It was unclear why the Islamists briefly took over the town . . . ."

My hypothesis: discourage government forces; pacify the town; go home with weapons.

The conventional officer would say, "Stand and fight!"

The guerrilla leader instead says, "Strike and melt away."

Well . . . it works.

Accounts differ slightly.

Reuters AlertNet reports three battlewagons--usually small trucks equipped with machine guns--burned.  Agence France-Presse notes in parallel or through additional witness's observation: "I saw Islamists driving four Somali government armed vehicles after the troops fled." [1]

In Somalia and elsewhere, conventional engagements yield ambiguous outcomes (except for the dead--there's nothing ambiguous about what has just happened to them).

While "firepower" counts for any combatant, the variables that overarch all are "information" and "relationships", and information withheld--i.e., the tactical secret--turns out the strongest armor while related "cloaked" relationships produce their certain level of aggressive potency in the form of ambush.

The guerrilla's eternal paradox: invisibility survives; visibility draws fire.

# # #

1. AFP. "Somali Islamists wrest control of southern township."  Yahoo Canada, February 24, 2008.

2. "Somali Islamists kill 7 govt troops in southern town."  Reuters AlertNet, February 24, 2008.

Correspondence: James S. Oppenheim

Posted on February 24, 2008 at 08:37 PM in Conflict Culture |

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