{"id":4163,"date":"2009-07-07T06:27:17","date_gmt":"2009-07-07T10:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4163"},"modified":"2009-07-07T08:21:42","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T12:21:42","slug":"rewrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rewrite","title":{"rendered":"Rewrite"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article by Robert Kaplan in the Atlantic discusses the lessons of the Sri Lankan government’s victory over the Tamil Tigers<\/a>, and bizarrely tries to use them to explain why the U.S. shouldn’t engage in the same practices against the Taliban in Afghanistan (and Pakistan).<\/p>\n

The thing is, Sri Lanka’s government (representing the ethnic majority, which is not an excuse for its behavior) was engaged in a civil war<\/em>, while the war in Afghanistan is an invasion<\/em> by the U.S. To equate Tamil Tigers :: Sri Lanka to Taliban :: U.S. Marines is to somehow imply that the Taliban are trying to secede from the United States. Or it’s an effort to fill a column on deadline. Either way, please re-write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article by Robert Kaplan in the Atlantic discusses the lessons of the Sri Lankan government’s victory over the Tamil Tigers, and bizarrely tries to use them to explain why the U.S. shouldn’t engage in the same practices against the Taliban in Afghanistan (and Pakistan). The thing is, Sri Lanka’s government (representing the ethnic majority, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Rewrite”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[769],"class_list":["post-4163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-explicit","tag-robert-kaplan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4C7K-rewrite","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7492,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-war-is-a-self-licking-ice-cream-cone","url_meta":{"origin":4163,"position":0},"title":"Podcast: War is a Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone","author":"Gil","date":"December 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 3 episode 29 - War is a Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone \u201cThere is a great tradition of very brilliant, outside-the-box, non-traditional, dynamic thinkers in the Marine Corps. . . . At the same time, our totem animal is the bulldog, not an animal known for its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=1416561110","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6886,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-gods-way-of-teaching-americans-geography","url_meta":{"origin":4163,"position":1},"title":"Podcast: God’s Way of Teaching Americans Geography","author":"Gil","date":"February 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 4 - Fred Kaplan - God's Way of Teaching Americans Geography Every generation, we find ourselves fighting one of these insurgency wars, but the last one -- Vietnam -- was so awful that the generals threw out all the training manuals and lessons from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/podcasts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=1451642636","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1459,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/missed-by-that-much","url_meta":{"origin":4163,"position":2},"title":"Missed by that much","author":"Gil","date":"April 17, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished reading Taliban, Ahmed Rashid's study of the Taliban's rise in Afghanistan, this weekend. The book was published early in 2001 (pre-9\/11, that is), so its perspective about the civil war is untinged by What Would Come. Rashid does paint a very bleak picture about the region and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0300089023","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1290,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/in-review","url_meta":{"origin":4163,"position":3},"title":"In review","author":"Gil","date":"January 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I read two articles\/posts this morning that I found quite affecting. First, judiciary-writer Dahlia Lithwick at Slate, who isn't given to alarmism, draws some nefarious conclusions from the Bush administration's legal wranglings in the terror-war: But it has finally become clear that the goal of these foolish efforts isn't really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17307,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-622-fred-kaplan","url_meta":{"origin":4163,"position":4},"title":"Episode 622 – Fred Kaplan","author":"Gil","date":"January 20, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 622: Fred Kaplan \"This is a book about Washington culture, a sort of comical 'How Things Work'.\" After 4+ decades as a reporter and with a half-dozen nonfiction books under his belt, Fred Kaplan rejoins the show to celebrate his first foray into fiction, A CAPITAL CALAMITY\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaplan2025compB.jpg?fit=1118%2C800&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaplan2025compB.jpg?fit=1118%2C800&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaplan2025compB.jpg?fit=1118%2C800&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaplan2025compB.jpg?fit=1118%2C800&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kaplan2025compB.jpg?fit=1118%2C800&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9614,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-165-fred-kaplan-wnjpoets-corner","url_meta":{"origin":4163,"position":5},"title":"Episode 165 – Fred Kaplan w\/#NJPoet’s Corner","author":"Gil","date":"April 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #165: Fred Kaplan (& #NJPoet's Corner) \"I asked someone who had worked at Tailored Access Operations [the NSA's black bag division], 'I'm in your cubicle at work; what am I seeing?' and he said, 'I'm sitting at a monitor, and I'm typing code. And behind me is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"dtcover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/dtcover.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4165,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4163\/revisions\/4165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}