Countdown: H Hour (44 page)

It is obvious. It is intelligently applied emotion—not cold logic, except for the logic of defense against a threat—that makes people draw the largest circles to which they can feel an emotional tie.

So why can’t a woman as well educated, eloquent, and apparently logically reasoning as Martha Nussbaum see that? I can’t be certain, of course, but I can offer a suggestion as to what I think was going on. I think it was a multistep process: 1) she was projecting her logic on to the rest of mankind, despite copious evidence that mankind is not logical, 2) she was simultaneously denying our right to be, and our existence as, primarily emotionally driven beings, 3) despite the probability approaching certainty that a people which loses its sense of nationhood will fragment into weak and possibly warring factions, and high likelihood that such a people will become, thereafter, subjects, or perhaps slaves, of those who did not lose their sense of nationhood, she would still have us do it, because, 4) the attempt would make her happy, which is to say, it would engage her emotions in a personally satisfying way.

In other words, a) I doubt that even she, herself, realizes that she is as emotionally driven as the rest of us poor, ignorant ’eathens, and that that drives everything she says beyond the merely trivial, while b) though she does so differently from the way some other noted and notable intellectuals use others—financially and sexually—she has no more care than they do for what would happen to the rest of us, in the real world, should we be so silly as to follow her advice, so long as our doing so makes her happy.

That, friends, is sociopathy. We do not exist as independent, morally significant, individual beings to Nussbaum anymore that we would to Sartre, Shelley, or Marx. Our function is merely to make them happy.

If I am right in this—and I frankly do not see any other way for a clever person like Nussbaum to put forth such a factually fraudulent argument—can we reasonably call making that kind of misprediction, maintaining it in the face of copious evidence to the contrary, and that kind of lack of personal insight, truly intelligent? Again, glib and eloquent I readily concede, but intelligence is more than these.

One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.

—George Orwell

One of the ways to tell if a philosophy is inherently illegitimate is to ask and answer certain questions, the answers to which either must be historically and universally valid, or must postulate some profound change in the human condition such as to allow them to be valid in the future even if not in the past. These include: “Would the philosophy depend for its continued existence and prosperity on a particular kind of society, which society is its antithesis? Would it undermine the defense of the very kind of society it requires to continue to exist and prosper? Having undermined its home society, would it need universality to continue to exist and prosper while having no credible way of attaining that universality?”

My typical reader will probably understand fully how those three apply to both pacifism and cosmopolitanism. But let me give one that that some of my readers are likely to choke on: Ayn Rand’s objectivism, coupled with her rejection of altruism.

How would objectivism have dealt with Nazism or Stalinism, in the past? It would self-evidently have failed; only the
intensely
stupid could imagine Rand’s self-centered egotists dealing effectively with either the altruistically motivated Wehrmacht or the Red Army. And don’t bother with, “Well, that just shows that altruism is inherently evil.” That’s simply nonsense; like a firearm, altruism is morally neutral, neither good nor evil except in respect to the uses to which it is put. (Yes, this does mean that generally pro-gun objectivists who make the claim have latched on to the moral and intellectual equivalent of the gun grabbers’ argument for gun control and confiscation.)

In any case, what Rand was doing there was something profoundly intellectual, and profoundly unintelligent, fully equal to the stupidities inherent in pacifism and cosmopolitanism. She forgot that there was a real world outside her brainpan and beyond the limits of her fantasy, which world contained people whose emotions, whose altruism, could be harnessed for purposes inimical to Rand’s own, and which she could neither convert, defend against, nor conquer.

You can call this intelligent intellectualism if you want. But why would you?

I’ll be continuing the conversation in the next volume of the Countdown series,
Criminal Enterprise.

GLOSSARY

APERS
—Anti-personnel

AT
—Anti-tank

Barangay
—Tagalog word meaning an administrative district, a neighborhood, or a village, similar to Barrio.

C-4
—An RDX based plastic explosive. Among other uses it forms the filling of a claymore mine. It has a very distinctive, plastic cum solvent, smell to it.

Camp Fulton
—A military installation in Guyana, main base of M Day, Inc, though there are a number of smaller satellite bases for the constituent battalions and squadrons. Named for Master Sergeant (retired) Robert “Buckwheat” Fulton, who was killed in action in Africa during the initial operation.

CH-750A
—sport plane with very short take off and landing abilities

Chemlight
—Also Lightstick. A plastic tube with two chemicals inside, one in a glass vial, which, when broken, produces cool light for a limited period of time. Some produce light beyond the human visual spectrum

Clacker
—The detonating device for a claymore directional anti-personnel mine

Claymore
—A directional anti-personnel mine. There are many broadly similar versions made around the world.

Daisy Chain
—A series of explosive charges or claymores, connected by det cord, such that the explosion of one will set off all the others. Not a good place to be down range of. Oh, and curb your thoughts.

Datu
—A traditional Moro title of nobility and authority.

Det Cord
—Also “detonating cord.” An explosive, formed inside a thin plastic covering, that is about the size of, and sometimes strung like, clothesline. Useful for having one explosion set off another.

Dustoff
—Aeromedical evacuation.

Eland
—A light armored car, French designed, South African built. Different models have different armaments. M Day’s are all either 90mm cannon armed, or have had the turrets removed to clear space to load up infantry.

FSB
—Federal Security Service; the successor to the Soviet Era’s KGB.

Gun Pod
—Also minigun-pod. A self contained, generally aerodynamically sound, container, meant for attaching to an aircraft, and holding a machine gun or multi-barreled minigun. Some gun pods carry light cannon.

Gurkha
—Also Gorkha. Nepalese-born or descended mercenaries serving in the British Army, in small numbers, the Indian Army, in huge numbers, and as sundry security detachments around Asia. Amazingly brave, tough, resilient, and aggressive soldiers, especially considering that they spring from a Hindu culture loaded with charming and inoffensive people.

HEAT
—High Explosive Anti Tank; a shaped charge warhead.

Kalis
—A kris, a (usually) wavy knife or sword, traditional among the peoples of Indonesia, Brunei, southern Thailand, and the Moros of the Philippines.

Kano
—Filipino slang for American. No necessary prejudice involved.

LCM
—Landing Craft Mechanized. The Regiment has obsolescent LCM-6s.

Lightstick
—See Chemlight

M Day, Inc
.—AKA, “The regiment.” A private military corporation, begun as a single use, ad hoc grouping, to effect a particular hostage rescue, the members mostly decided to stay together and keep in the business. Besides hostage rescues, they engage in various other military and quasi military actions, around the globe, along with running a jungle training school at their main base in Guyana.

Marsden Matting
—See PSP

MI-28
—A highly capable Russian-built helicopter gunship, analogous to an American AH-64 Apache.

Minigun Pod
—See Gun Pod

Mufti
—Civilian dress

No-Such-Agency
—NSA, the National Security Agency. They don’t really deny that they exist anymore.

NVG
—Night Vision Goggles

ODA
—Operational Detachment Alpha, an “A Team,” a twelve man grouping of special operations soldiers

Out
—When speaking over the radio, a term indicating the conversation is finished. “I have nothing else to say.”

Over
—When speaking over the radio, a term meaning, “I’m done talking now; your turn.”

PASGT
—Personal Armor System, Ground Troops; the American military body armor that started the modern trend toward heavily armored soldiers.

Pecheneg
—A Russian light machine gun, modified from an earlier model, the PKM. It is M Day’s standard light and general purpose machine gun.

PFM-1
—A small, lightweight, scatterable anti-personnel mine. Very politically incorrect. The PFM-1S is slightly more PC, since it has a roughly timed, and somewhat unreliable, self destruct feature.

POW
—Prisoner of War. Sometimes EPW, for enemy prisoner of war.

PSP
—Perforated Steel Planking. A material, the sections of which are designed to be hooked together, to form a temporary runway.

PSYOP
—Psychological Operations. Think leaflets and loudspeakers, printers, presses, and propaganda.

PT
—Physical training.

Push
—When discussing radios, either the specific frequency being used or the coded sequence of frequency hops, if using frequency hopping.

Roger
—Normally, when speaking over a radio, a term meaning, “I understand.” As a practical matter, military sorts use the expression all the time, in normal, face to face, conversation to convey the same meaning. A general affirmative, often heard in the form of “Roger that shit.”

RP
—Received Pronunciation. An upper crust British accent, largely unknown in working class circles and increasingly rare even among the upper middle class.

RPG
—Pocket Propelled Grenade or the launcher that fires one.

RPV
—Remotely Piloted Vehicle, often called UAV, for unmanned aerial vehicle.

SAPI Plates
—Bulletproof, more or less, usually ceramic, inserts that go in special pockets in body armor.

Schrecklichkeit
—A German word meaning terror or frightfulness.

Searcher
—An Israeli-built Remotely Piloted Vehicle

SITREP
—Situation Report. If given over the radio, in the form of, “SITREP, over,” it means, “Tell me what the hell is going on, succinctly.”

Spec Ops/Special Operations
—(Author’s definition) Typically small unit actions, the operational, strategic, propaganda, or geo-political importance of which, and the price of failure in which, are sufficiently high as to justify the early commitment and organization, of extraordinary human, financial, and material resources, and special training of the individuals and organizations concerned.

Strela
—Any of a number of different models of Russian-made, shoulder launched, anti-aircraft missiles.

Tagalog
—With English, an official language of the Philippines.

Thermal
—Also “Thermal Imager.” A night or limited visibility vision device which, instead of amplifying ambient light, picks up differentials in heat.

Thermobaric
—An explosive that takes its oxygen from the surrounding air. This not only gives more explosive power for a given weight, it tends to suffocate whoever the blast, heat, and lung-destroying post-explosion vacuum do not kill. FAE, Fuel Air Explosive, is a form of thermobaric.

Tore
—Filipino for tower; in the case of rum, a tall round bottle.

Tranzi
—Transnational Progressive(s). The shortened version is believes to have been coined by one David Carr, a lawyer in the United Kingdom. Think: UN and EU bureaucrats, do-gooders who do quite well for themselves, left wing academics, and very spoiled two and three year olds, never quite weaned from mother’s breasts.

Tzahal
—The Israeli Army

Unass the AO
—Move away from the area of operations. Similar to, “Get the Hell out of Dodge.”

Vampire
—Also RPG-29. Also Vampir. A Russian-made, shoulder fired, anti tank weapon. It is arguable whether the Vampire is a rocket launcher or a recoilless smoothbore, since the propelling charge burns out completely while still in the tube. Very nice.

Vympel
—A Russian special operations unit, under the FSB and charged with anti-terrorism and nuclear safety operations.

Whisper
—Where a weapon is indicated, a rifle, generally suppressed, firing a large heavy bullet over a weak charge to drive it at less than the speed of sound. About as quiet as one can get, while still killing someone at a range of six hundred meters or more.

Wilco
—When speaking over a radio, a term meaning, “I will comply.”

Zodiac
—An inflatable boat.

Acknowledgements,

in no particular order:

Yolanda, who puts up with me, Toni Weisskopf, the late Jim Baen, John Ringo, Dr. Scott Joseph, Dr. Rob Hampson, Ken Uecker, Dr. Alfredo Figueredo, Mike Rollin, Neil Frandsen, Michael Gilson, Tim Arthur, Charlie Prael, Chris French, Ori Pomerantz, Leo Ross (RIP), Arun, Ron Friedman, Tom Wallis, Tim Lindell, John Raines, the Kriegsmarine contingent of the Bar (you know who you are), Buz Ozburn, David Burkhead, Alen Ostanek, Mike Sayer, Barry Lowe, Steve St. Onge, Dave Helma, Mark van Groll, Peter Gold, Sergeant Major (Ret.) Henrik Kiertzner, Doc (who’s in the Rockpile by now and doesn’t need the OPSEC issue), Ben-David Singleton, Dan Kemp, Wendy Stewart, Cpt Andrew Stocker, Mrs. Tootie Poulter, and the cover artist, the great Kurt Miller.

If I missed anybody, chalk it up to premature senility.