Class

So today I was sitting in class, enjoying the lecture on POWs and the 3rd Geneva Convention in the morning and International Tribunals in the afternoon, and I got more and more annoyed with some of my classmates. Why? Because while I sit there and diligently take pages and pages of notes, they are playing free cell on their computers. Now don't get me wrong, I think laptops are great and wonderful for taking notes because it is faster to type than to write. However, I still sometimes think that they shouldn't be allowed in the classroom. People check email, play games, and do anything but pay attention when they have them in class. And when somebody who does nothing but play gets a position someone like me wants, it is super, super annoying.

Anyway. Tomorrow is the dreaded simulation with me as Attorney General. I am sonot looking forward to it. Our issues are Iran in 2009 (what should our foreign policy be), the ICC (should we sign the Rome Statute?), North Korea in 2009 (what should our reaction be to the recent missle launches), and Guantanamo Bay in 2002 (what should the US position be on detainees). For the issues in 2002, we are acting as if we are in 2002 and none of the relevat court cases have occured. I do not hae to act like anyone, I just have to do the job of the Attorney General. We are divided up into lawyers and policy makers, so I have outlined a bunch of lawyer-y stuff, such as the UN Charter Article 2 (4) that says no use of force is allowed, and UN Charter Article 51 which says it is allowed in self defense, and information on the Geneva Conventions Articles 4 and 5 on what makes one a POW and what you do if you are unsure. Its been interesting, but I feel like I have been cramming as we just finished lectures today, and most of todays stuff was relevant.So Charlotte (one of my roommates) and I talked a bunch of stuff out (she is the General Counsel for the CIA) and helped with positions. We also decided that while we can plan for the Guantanamo Bay and ICC stuff, we can't really prepare too much for the Iran and North Korea issues as it depends on what the policy people throw out as possibilities for foreign policy. In any case, this is a group with some very big egos, and I doubt we will have enough time to get through everything, but I have to make sure to get myself heard.

Then there is a paper I need to start, and I am still struggling to pick a topic. It is a response paper, not a research paper, and only 3-5 pages. Still, I don't want to just regurgitate what they have said in class, so it is a bit of a challenge. I am thinking about talking about the legality of the Nuremburg trials as they used ex post facto in applying laws that didn't exist at the time of the crimes committed. Or maybe looking into the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 and looking into the argument of whether or not Israel's invasion was legitimate. Another thought is to focus on Covert Action. Sigh. So many options.

In any case, I need to get ready for and go to bed as I need to be awake for the simulation tomorrow. We are doing a wine tasting in Florence after with dinner, so that makes it a day to look forward to... once the morning/early afternoon is over.

Good Night!