Broadening The Horizons

All men by nature desire knowledge.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Metaphysics

Along with strictly military training, the Army also has mobilizing units become familiarized with cultural aspects of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there isn’t a great deal of time dedicated to this activity; it’s more of a very brief familiarization with various ethnic groups, languages, and current customs in the form of a PowerPoint presentation or lecture. We have been given CDs with Dari and Pashto instruction on them, which is a significant step in the right direction, although it’s generally up to the individual how much effort will be put into using them.

Several of us have found a number of books regarding Afghanistan for sale on post. I’ve just finished Stephen Tanner’s A Military History From Alexander The Great To The War Against The Taliban. There’s a considerable amount of information here that I’ve never encountered in or outside the military.

From 2001, it had been my impression that Afghanistan was essentially a nation-state that had failed. After reading the history of ethnic migration and settlement over the last millennia, combined with the interaction between these groups, I have a much different understanding of what makes up the populace, and how vastly different they are from one another within the current borders, as well as compared to the Western concept of the nation-state.

Also new to me was the role Pashtuns historically held in government and social structure. This hasn’t been touched on at all during our briefings, yet it’s the Pashtuns who comprise the overwhelming majority of the original and current versions of the Taliban. The Taliban is addressed in the final pages. The author notes what he believes to be some of the changes the Taliban has undergone in the past decade, and has an interesting perception of what may be required to arrive at some semblance of a stable society in the region that isn’t commonly encountered in the military.

For those that have an interest in our ongoing commitment to Afghanistan, I’d strongly recommend reading this book, as it reveals the complexity of a truly multicultural society within a conservative Islamic tradition.

Intermittent Posting (Even More Than Normal)

Posting will be even more haphazard than usual, as the combination of an accelerated finance class studies(I feel like the guy above looks), Guard drill weekend, and work join to create a perfect version of The Suck. When the alternating periods of personal conviction that I'm on the low end of simple and desire to strangle random people cease, the usual torrent of intolerance, anger, and amazement will commence once again.

In the meantime, here's a belated Ugly Gun Sunday Post in honor of Sino-Soviet Saturday's topic:




I'm guessing the artist is question didn't take the time to modify the gas system to function, so we have a really poorly engineered straight-pull pistol at this point. Bet that flash hider works just super too. Although I'll admit, if this was given to me for free, I'd keep it just for shooting at dusk as personal entertainment.

Efficiency

Based on personal experience, if FedGov healthcare administration works as well as VA education benefits administration, the corpses will be stacking up in the waiting room before they ever encounter an actual human being.

Dur

6.5 pages of a ten page ethics paper done today; the rest tomorrow, in addition to probably several more hours spent on other final class requirements that are due Tuesday. But.......with unpredictable ending times for work during the week, it means I need to get it done in five days rather than seven, meaning I actually need to have it done and turned in by tomorrow night. Thus leading to to today's marathon typing session. Only a year left of this. Yay.

Ethics and Distribution

This week's class topic involves them. This is something that's intensely interesting to me, especially as we're seeing a massive shift in philosophy regarding capitalism with the new administration. Doubtless there will be some very interesting discussion threads as we cover this. I tend towards Libertarianism personally, although this is in a broad sense as I haven't deeply studied the topic. One of the ways these classes are beneficial is in refining what I've tended to take for granted since college in the '80s. I'll soon be ordering a copy of Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia for addition to the home library. As to when I'll find time to read it.........

Update: having read one chapter of the textbook for the week and scarcely now into the second, I'm pretty sure the author is a hippie. The main thing I'm picking up here is the humanity is evil and needs to be saved. Bet I know who he voted for.

Stress? What Stress?

After a seemingly short hiatus due to returning from deployment, school is back in session. And I've gone from hanging out at home with The Wife for half a day in my sweats before doing some home destruction improvement projects to "wake up, study, eat, study, install flooring, study, eat, study, hang out for an hour, go to bed, repeat". This should be really fun once I start back at with working full time.

Topic for this week's class discussion- Business People: Amoral Bastards or Simply Tainted With Greed?

My Brain Hurts.

Does This Clarify The Concept For You?

Today's topic in my business class is the difference between intentional torts and negligence. Thus the question from one of my fellow students "Do you personally believe that a business is always liable for its employees actions?"

To which I replied "One of the legal doctrines I work under is "respondeat superior" (Latin for "Let the superior answer"), in which my employer is legally liable for my actions IF I am acting within the course and scope of my employment (Nolo, n.d., ¶ 2). That is, if I assist in deploying a stent in an artery, and rupture the artery thus killing the patient, my employer is liable. However, if I smother the patient with a pillow before the procedure so I can go home early, my employer should not be liable for my actions, as they were not within the scope and course of my employment. So for most of us, it would appear that strict liability, that is, always being liable, doesn’t apply."

I hope it wasn't overly nuanced.

Duck!

....It's a crap storm of studying. I'm back in school again commencing today. How did my leave of absence go so quickly? Now I have start using brain cells again rather than bathing them in alcohol. Blah.