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Wednesday 11 June 2008

Another sad case of biblical illiteracy

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It's interesting how this blog has grown over the years that I've had it. I suppose I will never be in the top 100 as far as readership goes, and I certainly haven't managed to start any online discussions on my comment pages, but I consistently pull in several new viewers a day, mostly through search engines where The White Man is frequently in the top three to ten results--sometimes even the top result.

In addition I've developed a core of faithful readers, and it is for their sakes that I have decided, while maintaining the core purpose of this website as a pulpit for what interests me, to treat it more like a web log and post more often--every day or two, if I'm in the area. I can't guarantee the content will be interesting, but at least it will be new.

Today's post takes off on a recent article by George Friedman, founder of Stratfor, the premier civilian intelligence service. Subscription costs are close to a dollar a day, but all subscribers agree that it's worth it (that's somewhat of a tautology, I admit). Those who don't think it's worth that much might be able to sign up for the 'free version,' which is the level I'm at.

In today's Geopolitical Weekly, George talks about the US facing a warfare of the fourth generation, and the necessity of the military gearing itself for a threat that is localized, civilian, and capable of inflicting heavy casualties on the Military's political base.

I was following him just fine when I ran across this sentence:
"King David waged fourth-generation warfare in Galilee."

Now, I'm pretty well versed in the history of ancient Israel, and off the top of my head I can think of only one battle in Galilee that would have involved King David, and that was one that he managed to weasel his way out of without being charged with desertion (he was only a battalion commander at the time). It was the Philistine Invasion of Israel through the Jezreel Valley, and it was hardly fourth-generation warfare; the opposing armies were being led by their respective heads of state.

Now, I'm sure that George was actually referring to was an earlier period in David's life, when he led the life of a desert raider (I've referred to his no-survivor tactics in an earlier post). But this took place not in Galilee, but in the deserts of southern Judea.

A rather striking geohistorical error in a publication with "Geopolitical" in its name.

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