March 12, 1971

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. From February 12, 1971 through May 21, 1971, The Breeze was titled Genesis II

George\u27s Last Stand: Strategic Decisions and Their Tactical Consequences in the Final Days of the Korean War

This historical analysis concerns the final ground combat engagement of the Korean War from 24-27 July 1953 at the outpost known as Boulder City. During this period, Marines from George Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment withstood a continuous assault by a reinforced Chinese regiment. The purpose of this analysis is twofold. First, this battle provides a single case descriptive case study as to the linkages between the Strategic, Operational, and Tactical levels of war. By providing the full Strategic, Operational and Tactical context to this battle, the second purpose of this analysis is to clarify the historical record concerning this battle and demonstrate the political motivations which orchestrated it as the final engagement of the Korean War

A Paranoid Style? : The JFK Assassination and the Politics and Culture of Conspiracy Theory

This thesis analyses the phenomenon of conspiracy theory, using the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a case study. Doubt is the root cause of conspiracy theory, stemming from both the innate biases all humans exhibit, and a traumatic experience – in this case the assassination of JFK. This thesis argues that conspiracy theories are created and take hold because of a predisposition toward conspiracy theory, a misinterpretation of a central piece of evidence, such as the Zapruder film, and agency panic, where dispossession causes one to feel as if their agency is under threat. Conspiracy theory can provide believers with many emotions which appear to the individual to not be available elsewhere, namely closure, comfort, control, and a sense of leisure. Using the assassination of JFK, this thesis examines the role of conspiracy theory in modern American society. It weighs up the benefits of conspiracy theory, such as it is an example of free speech and it can aid transparency, with the negatives: that it can possibly cause harm to its adherents and their dependants because of a belief in ends justifying the means. The conspiracy theory of David Lifton and how he came to form his ideas, and how Oliver Stone’s movie JFK forced a huge document release will also be examined. The study of conspiracy theory itself is oft bifurcated. Humanities scholars tend to look at the implications of conspiracy theory on society. On the other hand, those which have a background in social sciences usually focus on what causes people to accept and believe in conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theory, however, is a complex issue, and this division leaves one with an incomplete picture. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, one can better understand both why conspiracy theory is so prevalent and how it became that way

Pakistan and the Future of U.S. Policy

A spreading Islamic insurgency engulfs the amorphous and ungoverned border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. After initial victories by the United States and the Northern Alliance in autumn 2001, hundreds of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters fled Afghanistan to seek refuge across the border in Pakistan's rugged northwest. Since 2007, the number of ambushes, militant offensives, and targeted assassinations has risen sharply across Afghanistan, while suicide bombers and pro-Taliban insurgents sweep through settled areas of Pakistan at an alarming pace. For better and for worse, Pakistan will remain the fulcrum of U.S. policy in the region -- its leaders continue to provide vital counterterrorism cooperation and have received close to $20 billion in assistance from the United States, yet elements associated with its national intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, covertly assist militant proxy groups destabilizing the region.Instead of "surging" into this volatile region, the United States must focus on limiting cross-border movement along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier and supporting local Pakistani security forces with a small number of U.S. Special Forces personnel. To improve fighting capabilities and enhance cooperation, Washington and Islamabad must increase the number of Pakistani officers trained through the U.S. Department of Defense International Military Education and Training program. In addition, U.S. aid to Pakistan must be monitored more closely to ensure Pakistan's military does not divert U.S. assistance to the purchase of weapons systems that can be used against its chief rival, India. Most important, U.S. policymakers must stop embracing a single Pakistani leader or backing a single political party, as they unwisely did with Pervez Musharraf and the late Benazir Bhutto. America's actions are not passively accepted by the majority of Pakistan's population, and officials in Islamabad cannot afford to be perceived as putting America's interests above those of their own people. Because the long-term success of this nuclear-armed Muslim-majority country depends on the public's repudiation of extremism, and our continued presence in Afghanistan is adding more fuel to violent religious radicalism, our mission in the region, as well as our tactics, our objectives, and our interests, must all be reexamined

The Montana Kaimin, April 29, 1930

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/studentnewspaper/2225/thumbnail.jp

“Confederate Soldiers in the Siege of Petersburg and Postwar: An Intensified War and Coping Mechanisms Utilized, 1864- ca. 1895”

This thesis crafts a narrative about how Confederate soldiers during the siege of Petersburg experienced an intensified war that caused them to refine soldierly coping mechanisms in order to endure. They faced increasing deprivations, new forms of death, fewer restrictions on killing, dwindling fortunes, and increased racial acrimony by facing African American soldiers. In order to adjust, they relied on soldierly camaraderie, Southern notions of honor, letter writing, and an increasingly firm reliance on Protestant Christianity to cope with their situation. Postwar, these veterans repurposed soldierly coping mechanisms and eventually used institutional support from their states. Camaraderie, honor, literary endeavors, and Christianity remained prevalent postwar, such as through the various emerging veterans’ organizations. However, institutional support took considerable time to appear, such as disability, pension, and soldiers’ home benefits. This required the veterans to fall back onto earlier learned mechanisms, illustrating that the status of veteran began during the conflict

Disruption and deniable interventionism: explaining the appeal of covert action and special forces in contemporary British policy

The United Kingdom has long engaged in covert action. It continues to do so today. Owing to the secrecy involved, however, such activity has consistently been excluded from debates about Britain’s global role, foreign and security policy, and military planning: an important lacuna given the controversy, risk, appeal, and frequency of covert action. Examining when, how, and why covert action is used, this article argues that contemporary covert action has emerged from, and is shaped by, a specific context. First, a gap exists between Britain’s perceived global responsibilities and its actual capabilities; policy elites see covert action as able to resolve, or at least conceal, this. Second, intelligence agencies can shape events proactively, especially at the tactical level, whilst flexible preventative operations are deemed well-suited to the range of fluid threats currently faced. Third, existing Whitehall machinery makes covert action viable. However, current covert action is smaller scale and less provocative today than in the early Cold War; it revolves around “disruption” operations. Despite being absent from the accompanying debates, this role was recognised in the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, which placed intelligence actors at the heart of British thinking

Preregistering NLP Research

Preregistration refers to the practice of specifying what you are going to do, and what you expect to find in your study, before carrying out the study. This practice is increasingly common in medicine and psychology, but is rarely discussed in NLP. This paper discusses preregistration in more detail, explores how NLP researchers could preregister their work, and presents several preregistration questions for different kinds of studies. Finally, we argue in favour of registered reports, which could provide firmer grounds for slow science in NLP research. The goal of this paper is to elicit a discussion in the NLP community, which we hope to synthesise into a general NLP preregistration form in future research.Comment: Accepted at NAACL2021; pre-final draft, comments welcom