War Games

It is not, perhaps, that much of a coincidence if Arquilla and Ronfeldt's Networks and Netwars and Tom Barnett's The Pentagon's New Map, two recent attempts to rethink the nature of conflict, should each use a games metaphor to describe that newness – both chess and go are war games, and mentioned in a previous DoubleQuotes, soccer has itself been both a casus belli and a suggested means for transcending conflict.

Arquilla and Ronfeldt's choice of Go as the "new game" exemplar begs the question of whether things have changed since the time of Chairman Mao, as depicted by Scott Boorman in his Protracted Game: A Wei-Ch'i Interpretation of Maoist Revolutionary Strategy -- but it is Barnett's choice of soccer (a non-obvious comparative for chess) which is intriguing, sparking our interest in the differences and likenesses not between chess and soccer so much as between soccer and go.

Playthings

I am very curious about Sheikh Palazzi, featured in the quote accompanying the image of young Palestinians in suicide kit: he tells some very brave truths. The first quote is replete with irony, too: the doll being a work of agitprop, yet costing more than $1,000 -- with the proceeds going to Amnesty.

Musics to Soothe

[One of the reasons I wanted to post this particular item is that it illustrates the possibility of these doublequotes encompassing visual as well as verbal information. I also find Ms. Jacobsen's image quite lovely, and can imagine the possibility that if she smiled at me, I might be a little shaken and not be able to meet her eyes. Finally, I wanted to get the cluster of links available below on record, because I think Ms. Jacobsen's story is interesting as a phenomenon, and that later developments with regard both to the Federal Air Marshals and Mr. Mehana's band are important in understanding the whole picture.]

Terror in the Skies, Again?

http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/article_landing.aspx?titleid=1&articleid=711
A HREF="http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:05lo14w5n84J:www.kfi640.com/ericleonard.html+Air
http://www.womenswallstreet.com/WWS/images/Article/img_AA050656_wide.jpg

The Syrian Wayne Newton:

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/taylor200407211921.asp

Martial Musics

Thus far, I've posted these doublequotes without any commentary of my own, without active links to the sources quoted, and without offering comment or feedback opportunities to my readers. I have now discovered a way to include comments and trackback, so those features will be available here from now on.

My latest doublequotes entry is an intriguing one, I believe, raising issues about warfare and the arts in a somewhat allusive manner:

The URLs, for anyone who wants to read the quotes in context, are as follows:

Musicians call-up is not playing well in Congress
Terror in the Skies, Again?

Bagpipes, anyone?

Sporting Chance

Torture