An editorial cartoon is worth an entire blog post!

This editorial cartoon about sums up my feelings on the congressional Democrats' amazing lack of guts and logic the case of their rolling over for the Bush administration and (mostly) agreeing with its horrendous NSA domestic wiretapping program.

Conflict Meter, map edition plus

My Conflict Meter, charting the ebbs and flows of major conflicts throughout the world, has been on hiatus for a little while now, but I think it's time to bring it back. Instead of the usual "Up" and "Down" lists, here is the Conflict Meter in map form with a few non-violent but politically serious nonetheless conflicts thrown in.

Key
Red: major current violent conflict
Yellow: less serious, continuing, dormant, or recent, conflict
Blue: previous violence or political conflict
Green: political conflict, usually nonviolent, sometimes crippling to state
Black: conflict with other nations in foreign relations
Note: the larger in number or darker in color the dots, the more severe the conflict

World Conflict Meter map


More info...

Countries with the most current violence (red):
Iraq
Somalia

Countries with the most conflict or controversy in international diplomacy (black):
United States (w/ almost everyone)
Russia (w/ West over missiles, democracy, etc.)
Iran (w/ international community over nukes; w/ US over Iraq)

Other countries with conflict in diplomacy, i.e. sanctions, scorn, etc., or regional relations (black):
Israel (w/ Arab neighbors over clashes)
North Korea (w/ international community over nuclear program)
Sudan (in re to Darfur genocide)
Zimbabwe
Burma

Countries with the most civil or political disruption (green plus red/yellow):
Iraq
Israel/Palestine
Somalia
Afghanistan
Sri Lanka
Pakistan
Colombia

Countries with the most low-grade violence (yellow) or nonviolent political conflict (green):
Venezuela
United States

Most violent region:
Middle East

Country with most undemocratic initiatives in recent times, edging towards international isolation:
Venezuela (e.g. closing down opposition TV station)

Countries with civil wars:
Iraq
Sri Lanka
[Israel/Palestine]

Countries not listed above with major recent internal political troubles:
Turkey (presidential election)
Ukraine (intergovernmental conflict)

Occupied countries with high rate of violence:
Iraq (by US and others)
Afghanistan (by NATO)
Somalia (by Ethiopia)
Palestine* (by Israel)

Map of the GWOT, perception, and the fire paradox

Perception plays a key role in the so-called war on terror (or, in its global state, the GWOT) and the resulting blowback of US counterterrorism foreign policy: the fire paradox. Instead of focusing just on the domestic political and strategic front of the 'war on terror', I'll look at the US foreign policy and, specifically, the issue of perception in the fire paradox, a result of American counterterrorism efforts abroad, involved in the fight against terrorism.

Origins: radical Islamic terrorism and terrorist threat; US politics in general.
Map


Doing the math
War on terror [politics, policy] (retaliative strike against 9/11 terror attacks, etc.; counterterrorism) + global (allies + terror movements, etc.)
Perception [power] + ideology [both sides] (effect of war)
Fire paradox [some counterterrorism feeds terrorism] (blowback: side effect of war, perception plays key role) ideological + military

Reasoning
Fire paradox of US foreign counterterrorism of GWOT — Many counterterrorism policies ironically help inflame/incite terrorism because…

of US ideological stance (e.g., 'us against them') — (global) GWOT ideology

political decisions — GWOT policy

helps foster the idea of America as an imperial, evil power — GWOT perception

Chart of the fire paradox

Throughout this month, I will be posting excerpts of my lengthy paper "The War on Terror and the Fire Paradox", as mentioned in this post. Here is one such excerpt...

Here is a simplified chart showing the cycle of the fire paradox.




See posts relating to...

terrorism

the fire paradox

the war on terrorism