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Archives for May 13, 2009

Craigslist Red Light District Going Dark (Maybe)

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Craigslist has yielded to pressure from a multistate attorney general task force and is supposed to be cleaning up its “red light district.” This part of Craigslist was previously titled “erotic services” and was well known as a place where sexual services could be purchased. Naturally, those posting services had to be somewhat circumspect and generally used abbreviations (“bj” for “blow job”, for example) and some other “commodity” in place of money (“skittles” instead of dollars, for example). So, a prostitute might list that she will provide a bj for 50 skittles. Of course, this did not really fool anyone-it merely allowed people to willingly turn a blind eye towards what was really going on. The same sort of thing is done when people advertise many “escort” and “massage” services.

So, how is Craigslist going to clean up what might be called the best little whorehouse on the internet? Step one of the plan is to replace “erotic services” with the “adult services.” Of course, “adult” seems almost worse than “erotic.” After all, the euphemism for a pornographic movie is “adult film“-which can be bought in an adult bookstore. Obviously, changing the name does not really change the reality. So, on to the more robust steps.

Advertisements posted in the “adult services” section must be from legal adult service providers. Naturally, these never have any connection to selling sexual services, so everything will be fine. Of course, this does help cover Craiglists’ butt legally.  Most importantly, each ad is also supposed to undergo a manual review, presumably making sure that no one is trading “bjs” for “skittles.” Each ad will also cost $10, thus detering whores and gigolos who can’t scrape together ten skittles.

While it could be argued that the folks at craigslist are not responsible for what the people who post ads really offer (like sex for money), they certainly seem to have an obligation to keep their listings clear of services that are clearly illegal. After all, knowingly helping to enable criminal activity certainly seems something that would also be illegal. Since many of the ads in Craigslist were rather blatant, they cannot use the defense of plausible ignorance of what was being offered.

There is also the moral issue, which is distinct from the legal issue. On one hand, prostitution is often regarded as immoral. Some argue this point on religious grounds or because they have a general opposition to sex. Other people argue that it is immoral because it is oppressive, harmful and degrading. Assuming that prostitution is immoral, then it would be wrong of the folks at Craigslist to knowingly assist people in such immoral activities. While they might not know the content of specific ads, they certainly do know the sort of stuff that was posted. As such, they would be tainted a bit with the immorality of these activities.

On the other hand, a free market ethics would endorse people selling whatever it is they wish to sell to customers who wish to purchase it. So, if we let the market decide, then prostitution would be acceptable.  Of course, such unlimited free market approaches would be a path towards madness and evil, so we would probably want to limit it a bit. For example, perhaps prostitution would be acceptable if the prostitutes are not coerced and are renting out their bodies of their own free will. In any case, the free market seems to have a significant demand for sexual services.

One last question is a practical one: will the changes work? Assuming that the folks at Craigslist do what they say they will do, then the answer would be “yes, mostly.” The manual screenings will catch any obvious attempts to sell sex illegally and probably many that are not so obvious. Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect Craigslist’s system to work perfectly. It is also unreasonable to think that this will have a significant, lasting impact on prostitution. While Craigslist did make it easier, I am confident that prostitutes and customers will find other ways to hook up. In fact, I would not be surprised if some clever person came up with a new listing service (“skittleslist” perhaps?) to provide a new place to hang that red light.

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A Look at Suicide Bombing

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Suicide bombers dressed as Afghan National Army Soldiers, took part in an attack on a strategic city. In one incident, ten suicide bombers were killed: three by gunfire and seven by their own vests.

While the use of suicide as a tactic seems abhorrent and even insane to most people in the West, the tactic must be carefully assessed and considered. After all, it is a weapon of choice for many of our enemies.

Prior to the latest incarnation of suicide tactics, the best known use of deliberate suicide in military operation was that of the Japanese. Near the end of WWII the Japanese developed a variety of suicide weapons, the best known being the Kamikaze. Whether it was a plane or mini-submarine, the objective was to direct the explosive laden craft into an American ship. As such, this tactic also introduced guided smart munitions. However, the smart part of the weapon was a human being.

Current suicide tactics use a similar technique-a human being guides a weapon to its target. In some cases, the weapon is a vehicle such as a plane (as in the 9/11 attacks) or an automobile. In other cases, the bomb is worn by the individual (typically as a vest). This enables attacks to be launched with precision (although the goal is often to create indiscriminate slaughter). There is also the obvious advantage of having a truly smart weapon system-a human can react to novel situations and respond to changes and obstacles.

Unlike in WWII, the suicide bombers of today also employ a basic form of stealth-they use civilian vehicles or disguise themselves as civilians or friendly forces. This is effective against conventional military forces in four ways. First, it provides the obvious advantage of disguise, thus enabling attackers to sometimes get past defenses and get in close to maximize damage. Second, most Western soldiers are initially reluctant to engage what appear to be civilians. Third, the knowledge that almost anyone or any vehicle could be about to involved in a suicide attack puts stress on the soldiers and thus begins to lower morale and effectiveness. Fourth, it increases the likelihood that soldiers will accidentally kill actual civilians, thus providing material for propaganda and turning the local civilians against soldiers.

Countering this tactic militarily requires building appropriate defenses, training soldiers to recognize the signs of a suicide bomber (behavior patterns, spotting the vest, and so on), having effective human management (such as knowing who is who and who is allowed where), and so on. Of course, this can be very challenging.

Suicide bombing can also be effective looked at it terms of losses and gains. In battle, the objective is to come out ahead in each encounter so that you gain more than the enemy. On a strategic level, the goal is to consistently come out ahead and gain a general advantage. This can be matter of killing more people than you lose to the enemy It can also be a matter of gaining a political advantage. Just like with economics, the goal is to get more with less. Do that better than the enemy, and you win.

Suicide bombing does provide that sort of potential. From a military standpoint, a suicide bomber will tend to be a low cost unit, low value unit. All that is needed is a human being who can wear a bomb, drive a vehicle, fly a plane, or steer a ship. They do not even have to do it that well-just well enough to hit something.  In contrast, a Western soldier is a fairly expensive and high value unit in comparison. Even training a private takes months and a fair sum of money. As such, if a suicide bomber can kill a Western soldier, the suicide bomber’s side has come out ahead: they have traded a low value unit for a higher value unit. Further, suicide attacks can also create morale damage as well. In fact, one of the main purposes of such attacks is just that-to try to get the enemy to give up and go away.

Of course, suicide bombers are very limited: they just go at a target and blow themselves up. They do not patrol, they do not hold ground, they do not do what soldiers do-other than kill and die. As such, for groups like the Taliban to hold areas, they also need more conventional fighters. This can provide a clearer target for Western military forces.

Most of the members of groups like the Taliban are not suicide bombers (the leaders never are, of course). If they were, such groups would tend to die off in short order. Without leaders to guide them and people to provide their bombs, many of these suicide bombers would not be suicide bombers. As such, the main targets should be those who employ the bombers.

That is easily said. However, groups who employ suicide bombers also tend to either be insurgency groups or terrorist groups (or both). These groups generally cannot be dealt with using conventional military means. Dealing with them is usually much more like police work: finding them among civilians and dealing with them.

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