Good Reads: From rules for rebels, to elevator cables, to an enchanting sci-fi world
This week's round-up of Good Reads includes rules for arming rebels, defense contractors may know more than our own government, buildings may get taller thanks to new elevator cables, a profile of a cyberwar general, and sci-fi brings magic back to the mundane.
Women rebel soldiers receive training in Aleppo, Syria.
Muzaffar Salman/Reuters
Rules for arming Syria
With the United States inexorably heading toward greater involvement in Syria鈥檚 civil war, the need to figure out the 鈥渞ules of engagement鈥� has taken on more urgency. In a piece titled 鈥�5 Rules for Arming Rebels,鈥� Edward Luttwak offers a list that鈥檚 short and simple 鈥� but not easy.
Rule No. 1: 鈥淔igure out who your friends are鈥� 鈥� presents no easy task in sizing up the various Syrian insurgent groups. Rule No. 4: 鈥淒o not invite an equal and opposite response by another great power鈥� 鈥� translates as 鈥淢ake sure you come to an understanding with Russia, the patron of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, before diving in.鈥� Russia may insist that Mr. Assad play some continuing role.
鈥淭丑别 Obama administration ... can convincingly argue (despite the somewhat inconclusive and murky assertion that Assad鈥檚 use of chemical weapons has now been verified) that it must provide some help to the rebels simply to deny a victory to Iran and Hezbollah,鈥� Mr. Luttwak writes. 鈥淓ven so, one hopes that it retains its prudence 鈥� and keeps these five rules in mind.鈥�
Spies among us
While the world plays a game of 鈥淲here's Edward?,鈥� the whereabouts of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden 鈥� and whether the US will be able to extradite him for prosecution 鈥� are just the most public parts of the story. A recent in-depth piece examines a private US spy organization that operates off the radar. In , authors Drake Bennett and Michael Riley peer inside Booz Allen Hamilton, Mr. Snowden鈥檚 employer, a private contractor whose roots go back to World War II, when it tracked Nazi U-boats. In the last fiscal year, Booz Allen reported $5.76 billion in revenue, 99 percent of it from government contracts. Some $1.3 billion of that was from US intelligence agencies.聽
The firm is saturated with 鈥渋ntelligence community heavyweights,鈥� and sends its alums back into government as well, Mr. Bennett and Mr. Riley say. They include James Clapper, a former Booz Allen executive who is President Obama鈥檚 principal intelligence adviser; Mike McConnell, a Booz Allen vice president who was George W. Bush鈥檚 director of national intelligence; and Joan Dempsey, a former CIA deputy director who now works for Booz Allen.
US government spy agencies now complain that 鈥渢he damn contractors know more than we do,鈥� the authors report. 鈥淭hat could have been a factor in the Snowden leak 鈥� his computer proficiency may have allowed him to access information he shouldn鈥檛 have been allowed to see.鈥�
An elevator to space?
Why don鈥檛 skyscrapers go any higher? One limitation is elevators. After several hundred feet the steel cables used to hoist them eventually become too heavy to use. Now, says a report in , new carbon-fiber 鈥渞opes鈥� that weigh a fraction as much as steel (but are even stronger) may send buildings soaring again.聽
The new ropes should allow buildings to reach as high as one mile (5,280 feet). The tallest building today is Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 2,717 feet. Thinking even bigger? The new material might also be part of a 鈥渟pace elevator鈥� that connects Earth with a satellite in geosynchronous orbit, eliminating the need to launch rockets to send humans and materials into orbit.
Cyberwar general
In 鈥淭丑别 Secret War,鈥� James Bamford at profiles powerful and secretive US Army Gen. Keith Alexander, 鈥渁 man few even in Washington would likely recognize.鈥� Alexander heads up America鈥檚 cyberwar efforts, both defensive and offensive. Alexander, Mr. Bamford says, has built an 鈥渆mpire鈥� by pointing out the nation鈥檚 鈥渋nherent vulnerability to digital attacks鈥� and in the process has gathered more and more power to himself. 聽
Alexander鈥檚 band of cyberwarriors are responsible for Stuxnet, the computer malware that was able to damage Iran鈥檚 nuclear program in 2010. And that鈥檚 only the beginning of what lies ahead.聽 The mysterious Alexander is a modern J. Edgar Hoover, a man 鈥渞egarded with a mixture of respect and fear,鈥� Bamford writes. 鈥溾�夆�榃e jokingly referred to him as Emperor Alexander 鈥� with good cause, because whatever Keith wants, Keith gets,鈥� says a former senior CIA official.... 鈥榃e would sit back literally in awe of what he was able to get from Congress, from the White House, and at the expense of everybody else.鈥� 鈥澛�
Sci-fi fantasy as an exercise in wonder
As yet another summer filled with science-fiction movies gets under way, Christine Folch in lends her perspective in 鈥淲hy the West Loves Sci-Fi and Fantasy.鈥� Robert Downey Jr. already opened the season with his third go-round as an American inventor-superhero in 鈥淚ron Man 3,鈥� and 鈥淢an of Steel鈥� brings Superman (this time played by British actor Henry Cavill) back to the big screen 鈥� just two among many such films.
Today sci-fi and fantasy may serve a function akin to that of religion, offering hope that the answer to 鈥淚s that all there is?鈥� is a rousing 鈥渘o,鈥� Ms. Folch writes. 鈥淲estern societies perceived the world as knowably rational and systematic, leading to a widespread loss of a sense of wonder and magic.... And so we turn to science fiction and fantasy in an attempt to re-enchant the world.鈥�
鈥� Gregory Lamb / Staff writer