This NZ physicist says in the video that his favorite news source is  
Fox, and he doesn't mean Herb. Consistent with this, he views  his  
data as trying to show what "we" should be doing about "insurgencies,"  
defining the problem as  getting them to stop fighting, though he does  
mention the possibility of arriving at a situation where "they" will  
be organized enough to sit down and talk. I see little reason to doubt  
his rough conclusion that on average the form of organization the  
guerrillas have affect the number typically killed in each attack, and  
I suspect the Pentagon also has arrived at similar theories.

This is just another use of science to enhance war fighting and  
therefore killing and control. Stopping such thoughtless or malign  
efforts was one of the starting points of SftP to begin with. I think  
this video may be a good tool to use to try to persuade young  
scientists what not to do and why.

Best,
Michael

On May 14, 2009, at 6:11 AM, David Westman wrote:

> My opinion of this is that he is totally clueless about the POLITICS  
> behind war.  War is not just a random series of killings, there is a  
> political
> reason behind all these killings, and this guy and his team totally  
> fail to consider the political dimension. When they "extract the key  
> pieces of
> data"  they ignore the political dimension entirely, they discard  
> the back story and the causal relations between the economic and  
> political
> factors and war.   War is not just an isolated series of killings,  
> it is "politics conducted by other - violent - means" as Clausewitz  
> said, and
> that principle has been totally lost here.
>
> David Westman
>
> Bob Broedel wrote:
>> I would love to hear the opinion of SftP folk about this
>> video. It is fairly brief.
>>
>> http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/physicists-fool-proof-war-forumla-just-add-media-accounts/
>>
>> Bob Broedel in Tallahassee.
>>
>>
>