HOT5 Daily 7/26/2010

1. "The Case of Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer" Very long but interesting if you've followed any of the recent back & forth, or if you ever read Walt. 

Representative Sample: Walt and Mearsheimer have made seminal contributions to the field of international relations scholarship, and thanks in large part to their teachings, I consider myself a realist in viewing international affairs. But realists can disagree, and when it comes to Walt and Mearsheimer, they have wholly abandoned the realm of realist theory–not to mention a great deal of other respectable intellectual real estate–when it comes to discussing Israel, the Israel lobby, and the Middle East.

2. "The logs of war: Do the Wikileaks documents really tell us anything new?" It appears I'm not the only one asking that question and reaching similar conclusions. 

Representative Sample:  I'd say that so far the documents confirm what we already know about the war: It's going badly; Pakistan is not the world's greatest ally and is probably playing a double game; coalition forces have been responsible for far too many civilian casualties; and the United States doesn't have very reliable intelligence in Afghanistan.

3. "85 Years Later, And Little Has Changed" For some people scientific evidence will never be able to compete with religious beliefs, no matter how absurd.  

Representative Sample: An article on the 85th anniversary of the Scopes Monkey Trial states what we all know: that much of the country still hasn't accepted evolution. While it's true that "intelligent design" has been created as a pseudo-middle ground philosophy, the debate hasn't really changed

4. "The "Colonialism" Bogeyman Should Be Just About Dead" I wouldn't go that far, but some good points here. 

Representative Sample: So many Third World countries went through spasms of coups, counter-coups and coups to counter the counter-coups, and on and on, all the while holding fast to the myth that the colonial era was still the cause of all their dysfunction. Pakistan is only one of a multitude of poster children that illustrate the fruits of that game.

5. "German MG-42 machine gun, including what it is like at the receiving end" A video that gives you a small taste of what Allied forces had to go up against in the European theater during WW2.

Representative Sample: It's a video.

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