Another Whirl On The Potomac Word Circus

Round, and round, and round we go! These midway rides make me nauseous:

LONDON (AFP) – The US commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden was "not an assassination", US Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday after the Al-Qaeda leader's sons denounced the operation.

Holder told the BBC the raid on bin Laden's hideout in Pakistan on May 2 was a "kill or capture mission" and that his surrender would have been accepted if offered, but that the safety of US Navy commandos was paramount.

"What happened to bin Laden was not an assassination," Holder said.

"I think the action that we took against him can be seen as an act of national self-defence. You have to remember it is lawful to target an enemy commander," he said.

Spider Webs everywhere! Look at what Al Qaeda has wrought with its NSA! From Wikipedia:

The proliferation of non-state actors (NSAs) in the post–Cold War Era has been one of the factors leading to the theorizing of the Cobweb Paradigm in International Politics. Under this paradigm, the traditional Westphalian nation-state is experiencing an erosion of power and sovereignty, and non-state actors are part of the cause. Facilitated by Globalization, NSAs have challenged nation-state borders and claims to sovereignty. Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are not always sympathetic to home-country's or host-country's national interests, but instead loyalty is given to the corporation's interests. NGOs are challenging the nation-state's sovereignty over internal matters through advocacy for societal issues, e.g. human rights and the environment.

There exist many armed non-state actors, e.g. opposition groups, that operate without state control and are involved in trans-border conflicts. The prevalence of these groups in armed conflicts has added layers of complexity to traditional conflict management and resolution. These conflicts are often fought not only between non-state actors and states, but also between non-state actors. Any attempts at intervention in such conflicts has been particularly challenging given the fact that international law and norms governing the use of force for intervention or peacekeeping purposes has been primarily written in the context of the nation-state. So, the demands of non-state actors at the local and international level have further complicated international relations.

The ultimate NSA, of course, was the Communist Party, which took root within Russia, its host state.

NSAs have been the preferred vehicle for operations for some time. Look at the GOP, which used to be a political party, but which lately has been functioning as a kind-of NSA within the American state (its lack of loyalty to the U.S. state evident in the 2003 Plame controversy). These days it operates more as a clearinghouse for MNCs. It even has an archipelago of militias (all those Second-Amendment folks) operating on its behalf! The Tea Party movement is GOP-II, which cuts out most internal political deliberations, making for a more-efficient tool to affect the flow of events.

Acronyms are not always the best vehicles for thought, but sometimes one has no choice about using them, when trying to describe the indescribable!