Log24

Ig Nobel
Geography Prize

Background from David Brooks (NYT Magazine, Aug. 29, 2004):

“The war on Islamic extremism….
This has been miscast as a war on terror, but terror is just the means our enemies use. In reality, we’re fighting a war against a specific brand of Islamic extremism, a loose federation of ideologues who seek to dominate the Middle East and return it to the days of the caliphate.

We are in the beginning of this war, where we were against Bolshevism around 1905 or Fascism in the early 1930’s, with enemies that will continue to gain strength, thanks to the demographic bulge in the Middle East….”

On last night’s Ig Nobel ceremony at Harvard:

“Coming a week before their more noble cousins are announced in Stockholm, the awards have become a keenly contested, globally reported event.”

— The Guardian, Oct. 1 

From the Bush-Kerry debate last night:

“Kerry: The president just talked about Iraq as a center of the war on terror. Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it.”

As David Brooks has pointed out, the so-called war on terror is actually a war on an Islamic extremism that seeks to dominate the Middle East.  The United States government may deny, and Kerry may decry, the strategy of building permanent bases at the very center of the Middle East, Iraq (shown above), but such a strategy seems not without merit if the long-term strategic interests of the United States are placed ahead of political considerations.

Kerry’s apparent ignorance of such a strategy’s merits entitles him to this year’s Ig Nobel prize in geography– the above map.