david sugarman,

Sure, there was the chivalric ideal, but warfare was as brutal as anything else during this period of history. Henry slaughtered his French captives; peasants and men-at-arms were fair game; captives were taken, but usually only if they had a sufficient ransom. Richard was captured while a guest. And you could always buy your way into heaven with sufficient donations to the monasteries to pray for your soul.

And policing was bad because it was applied by the nobility against the serfs; if the crime was noble vs. noble, you then had the chivalric ideal of war (or treachery, or subterfuge if you couldn't take that route).

So selecting soldiers for combat duty based on their ability to not empathize with their fellow humans, allowing them to kill without remorse.

Maybe they should be looking at successful investors:

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/finance_shiv_invesmtdecisions.shtml.

but if you want to make a point, you have to have one. i just think that this policing of an entirely different culture is bound to fail. the best we could do is set up another dictatorship like saddam. and no one is going to let us do that - not after all we said. the only real question is, how long are we going to stay there? well, the iraqis who are leaving aren't going to other areas, they're leaving the country entirely. so i guess they, who know more than we, figure they have less than 2 years, the next election, to go. my guess is that we bolt after the next election and what will happen then? who knows? i figure we aren't going to be playing this kind of game any time soon. how long was kosovo from vietnam? 25 years? i guess we have another 25 before america decides to rule the world (again)

if you want to channel your money to the least fear, you ought to pick index funds (and they do outperform individual investors and mutual funds (in between, they are judged, but it's not their money)) but you really can't make a killing on it. really, what's the difference between bonds and stocks? 2% in the long run? the best soldiers are the ones (from what i've seen here and heard elsewhere) are the ones who have most attachment to their group. if they have no empathy for others, how can they have love for their comrades? and i don't think *anyone* can kill without remorse - you might wait till later to feel it - after all, it's survival time - but eventually you feel it. really, i don't want to be the one to kill the worst monster - i might *imagine* it, but when the time comes, i'd throw up. unless, that is, you are a complete psycho and in that case you're just as likely to kill the sergeant or someone who steals your cigarettes. (again, folks who've actually *been* there like garry, don't scream at me that i don't know what the fuck i'm talking about - i *know* i don't know what the fuck i'm talking about (you can *tell* me though)

FARTHER ALONG (lovingly updated)

Chorus

Farther along we’ll know all about it,

Farther along we’ll understand why,

Cheer up my brother live in the sunshine,

We’ll overcome it all by and by.

Verse1

Tempted and tried we’re oft make to wonder,

Why it should be thus all the day long,

While there are others living about us,

Never molested though in the wrong.

[Chorus]

Verse2

When death has come and taken our brothers,

It leaves our hearts so lonely and drear,

Then do we wonder why others prosper,

Living so wicked year after year.

[Chorus]

Verse3

Freedom or death, so said our Founding Fathers,

Freedom or death, don't tread on me

The toils of the road will then seem as nothing

As we release the chains of tyranny.

[Chorus]

Verse4

When we see Glory flying above us,

When you see peace in your brother's eye

We'll know that freedom is the strength of our union

We’ll understand it all by and by.

We’ll understand it all by and by.

{Guitar:

Chorus & Verse (1,4,5)

1________4_______1

1________2_______5

5_____1____4_____1

1______6m__5_____1

}

GoodGirlRoxie...

Your comment made me think of Shakespeare's use of the "play within the play," which he used to great effect to prick the conscience of the guilty. But in this case, it's really the voting public we want as our audience, not the GOP.

"Ideally"... our "war room" would be filled with artists, playwrights and poets producing devastating works of art that would reveal the GOP's tactics in all their gory detail. But the lead time is too great. Lacking an instant Picasso, or Beckett or Yeats, we must improvise. [And I don't even like reality shows!]

Still, I think our team could be doing even more with YouTube: e.g., a series of short films contrasting the GOP's criticism of the MoveOn ad, and their deafening silence on Rush defaming uniformed soldiers.

Many more such "compairings" could make good use of the fodder provided by Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and all of the rest of them.

But to paraphrase Glenn, they need to be made to face the logical consequences of the standards they set. And the logical consequences would be having to meet those same standards themselves.

It would be the "Holding Their Feet to the Fire" campaign and could include word and thought balloons with the RWA/GOP's reactions to being held to the same standards they like to set for others.

"No Fair!" "Taken out of context!" Oh... so it's okay if you're a Democrat?!"

Or, even better, imagine a notable member of the GOP (who would probably have to be played by an actor?) confessing in a short film...

"Yes, my colleagues in the GOP, as well as our stenographers in the RWNoiseMachine, have indeed committed (many times) the same "sin" for which we have just criticized our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We regret our actions, and will not do it any further. We hope that the DemocratIC Party and the rest of the electorate will forgive us this lapse."

Followed, of course, by a giant (visually screaming) NOT!!! and laughter, guffaws, giggling, snickering and snorting, etc.

...and then a narrator's voice: "This piece of satire brought to you by the members of Left Blogistan who frequent Glenn Greenwald's blog. A Holding Their Feet to the Fire Production."

I agree that transforming the GOP's supposed strengths into weaknesses-- actually revealing them as the weaknesses they are-- is the best strategy. But I think an effective tactic looks more like a martial art defense than a mirror image of the GOP attack.

Of course humor (but only with attendant humiliation) is effective, because it has been abundantly demonstrated that the RWA-GOP coalition suffers from a severe and incontrovertible "humor deficit" and... because they fear any perception of humiliation.

(Otherwise, they wouldn't be making our troops stay put in Iraq just so GWB and his cronies and Kristol's NeoConInc can all save face.)