There’s No Fighting in the War Room

Just Terrorist-Sympathizers…

I have been contemplating the source of terrorism lately. My research kept returning to the same place of origin. As the echo chamber of my cranium kept returning the same conclusion, I decided to share my findings. At the invitation of Alex Ward, I spent a short afternoon at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.

A gracious host, Alex rushed a colleague and I from the Council’s lobby into a glass room reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove’s War Room. Certain of the impact of my conclusions this would be the place where such insights should be shared. Humanity hung in the balance.

Methodically, I began to lay out the evidence.

1. December 16, 1773. The so-called “Sons of Liberty” terrorized the East India Company by dumping an entire shipment of tea into the Boston Harbor.
2. Throughout the 1970's the primary source of funding for terrorist acts of the Irish Republican Army were the Irish-American communities of Boston.
3. September 11, 2001. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 departing out of Boston’s Logan International Airport where hijacked by Al-Qaeda operatives and flown into the World Trade Center Towers in New York.
4. April 15, 2013. The Tsarnaev brothers, raised in the Boston Metropolitan Area, detonated pressure-cooker bombs during the Boston Marathon.

As if he was reading my notes, Alex interrupted me asking, “Is Tom Brady and ‘Deflategate’ next on your list?” Had he read my conclusion as well? Seizing the opportunity I laid my conclusion on the table:

Entire campaigns of political violence have emanated from Boston.

Bostonians have reigned terror on the world citing righteous indignation against the likes of King George III, Queen Elizabeth II, President Bush II, The Evil Empire and Boss George of New York, and lately, some guy named “Rog-ah.”

I am not sure I was ready for what followed. I could say there was a pregnant pause as Alex contemplated the depth of this conclusion. There wasn’t. “Your theory is so off it’s not even wrong yet,” exclaimed Alex in a rich, cultivated Bostonian accent. “The only thing politically violent is the [New York] Yankees.” Leaning to my colleague (Boston native @SluggoNet) he inquired, “am I right or what?”

I was stunned. If it wasn’t for the interview we had scheduled, I think I would have gotten up and walked out this nest of terrorist sympathizers. Nonetheless, duty called. I swallowed my pride and pulled out my digital recorder. In addition to his duties as Associate Director at the Scowcroft Center, he’s a columnist at The National Interest and so as part of this series, I wanted to find out about the rituals and routines that contribute to his writing.

[JD] What time do you typically wake up and what does the first hour of your day look like?

[AW] I wake up at 5 am. I start off eating a banana because I am going to work out. Then I wait for it to settle in and get into the blood stream. Then for the first 45 minutes I read the news. I am in a darkened apartment so I am constantly reading a phone with the light illuminating my face. I’m reading news and getting up to date. What it allows me to do when I go to work out 45 minutes later, I can start formulating some of the thoughts in my head like “I just read this,” “I have the facts on the ground, so to speak,” “what does it mean?” So as I’m running or lifting weights that kind of gives me some fuel. It’s not maybe the smartest thing to do because I am thinking deep foreign policy, national security thoughts while Rage Against the Machine is blasting in my headphones. That is the ritual of my morning.

[JD] What is your writing ritual? I’m guessing most of your day is about writing.

[AW] Most of my day is thinking and then more thinking, then organizing. I write part of the thinking process because thinking allows you to turn all of the voices in your head into a chorus. It is an organizational tool because you have so many thoughts, so many facts, so many ideas in your head that at some point you need to come up with the way you view the world or a certain situation. Writing helps you organize that and actually put it on paper and see. It surprises you sometimes. It surprises you what believe based on what you write. Actually what you write is what you really want to get out. Writing is part of my thinking process. It is a clarifying process. Sometimes I actually don’t know what I believe until I start writing.

[JD] Are there any rituals that get you into that writing space?

[AW] I am an avid note taker. I still refuse to read things on my computer. I print out every article. I know I’m killing trees. I print every article and take notes in the margin. Then I go over why I took those notes and compiled them on a certain subject I want to focus on. I read everything I can on that and organize those notes. Then I go “okay, there is an argument in here somewhere.” I wouldn’t have made a comment here unless that was interesting to me. You give the same article to 10 or 20 different people and you will get 20 different underlines, you will get 20 different notes. So there is a reason why I took the notes I did. I look at those notes and decide there is a reason my brain is telling me to focus on these things. That is when I start writing to organize it.

[JD] Is there anything that gets you into the writing space or does your reading and note taking get you there?

[AW] I think the writing is not necessarily just the actual part of putting pen on paper or fingers to the keyboard. Writing is the constant process of thinking through what you want to say. It would be like if you were working out and trying to build muscle there are days where you have rest days, so to speak. You are still building muscle, but that is part of the process. You are still bodybuilding even though you are not doing anything. Just because I am not physically putting pen to paper or fingers to a keyboard doesn’t necessarily mean I am not writing. I’m still thinking through what I want to say eventually. It is formulating in my head or I am giving it awhile to ruminate. For me, the final piece is writing it out. The writing space is always happening for me. I am a think tanker right now so I am constantly in a writing space. That’s how I live. I am always in a writing space.

[JD] How do you choose what you are writing about?

[AW] So there are many people that say you ask the question and then do the research. I kind of does it in an existentialist, opposite way. I let the research drive my question. By example, I am interested in what is going on with ISIS. I hope to read all I can about what is going on with ISIS and the national security space. Eventually, I will find things that are interesting to me. One of the things I wrote about for The National Interest a bit ago was if we [the United States] have that strategy versus ISIS. Of course we are always talking about that, the politicians are saying things, the president is saying things, but it prompted me to go, okay, who is right? I don’t know. I really don’t know. All of this came from reading as much as I could about what we were doing, about what they were doing, moves, and countermoves. I never went into the research thinking I want to know if we have a strategy. It was reading those things that made me ask those questions. I think that is where your best work comes from because it is unbiased. If you ask a question first, your question came from some sort of bias. There is a reason you ask that question. I am sure there is still bias in the reason why things come out of me when I read, but I think there is less. I let the research drive the question.

[JD] You talked about your note taking. How do you gather research for your writing?

[AW] I use online notes. It is the only kind of online thing I do. I use Evernote and other tools. I am starting to use OneNote now because I just got a tablet. My girlfriend doesn’t understand why I don’t want to read on my tablet. I’m starting to use that to organize my thoughts, ISIS stuff goes here, and campaign stuff goes here. It is a way for me to go back and look at what I’ve thought. From there I look at my original thoughts and take a pen and paper out and whiteboard, and outline. From there I go back to the computer and I use that to start writing. It is a three step process.

[JD] Can you describe the actual writing space that you find yourself using? A keyboard, a notebook, an office, writing on the go.

[AW] I have to have a flat surface for the computer or paper and a comfortable chair. I am a very restless person. I also have to make sure I don’t get distracted easily. You may have noticed my eyes wandering while we’ve been talking. It is not a medical thing. I am constantly interested in what is around me. Honestly, if I see someone walk by I literally want to know what is that, why is that, why is someone walking. It is less that I am distracted as much as I want to know why they are walking, what they are doing. I want to know. It’s that syndrome I always feel when I am on a train going by the countryside. I see a person and I want to know why that person is at the supermarket? Why is that person there? What is their life about? See I got distracted! I always have to be in a well-lit, comfortable chair, flat surface with all my notes around me.

[JD] These are quite comfortable chairs!

[AW] Yes, these are, aren’t they? I have to have my notes right next to the computer kind of spread around. I’m not the most organized person but the fact that they are near me and I can touch and feel them makes me feel comfortable.

[JD] Do you shut off things that might distract you?

[AW] I don’t listen to music and I love music, I have it on all the time except when I write. There is something about that. I need to be only involved in the writing. In the actual, physical process of the writing. I need that to be my only focus. Then again, even if I am listening to music or working out or going to the grocery store or whatever, I am constantly thinking of these kinds of arguments. Friends of mine think I am annoying because I am constantly bringing up the arguments, but it is part of my writing style. I need to know what other people think. I need to know what is going on. If not, it dies in my head.

[JD] So what have you been reading lately?

[AW] Right now I went back to reading Confront and Conceal by David Sanger. I remembered there were a lot of arguments that he made in the introductory section that seemed pertinent to discussions we are having now about the way Obama does war and doctrine. It was pretty spot on. Sanger is a good reporter and, of course, there are always issues with certain things. I found it to be somewhat prescient so I went back and I started reading it again. Not only for the history reminder but also for his argument and to see if there was some cohesion. He is a very good arguer. He is a reporter. He knows how to get his sources, but there is a logic train to the book. Whether you agree with it or not, I just think it was good work.

[JD] Anything else that you are reading lately?

[AW] Actually only one right now just because it is a long one and also I try to spend as much time as I can and do my job to read as many articles as I can.

[JD] How do you find what you read?

[AW] First, I have the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and a Spanish News Paper El Pais, because my family is from Spain, all up at once. Then I look in the today’s paper section and I pick what makes sense to me or what I’m interested in. There are tons of great stories and I don’t have time to read them all. I pick all the foreign policy and national security pieces. I read those and then I go to Feedly, my RSS feed, where I start to organize all my blogs and all of the other websites like RealClearDefense, The American Interest, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs, the National Interest, and all of the magazines and websites that I love. I start looking at the analysis of today’s news. From there I eventually have to go back and read the news again because it is mid-day. It is just that constant cycle. I like to read the news, think about what I like about it, see what other smart people have said, agree or disagree, new news is out! Then start the cycle all over again. That happens at least 3 times a day.

[JD] When you are not reading for work? What are the genres of books you prefer?

[AW] I am really into comedic books, I like fiction, but it has to be funny. I don’t necessarily care what the books are about as long as they are just funny. I also enjoy comedian biographies and autobiographies.

[JD]Anyone stand out recently for you?

[AW] I enjoyed Born Standing Up by Steve Martin. Also, this new book by BJ Novak which is a series of short stories, not an autobiography but it seems to give a view into his head. It’s really interesting. In a parallel life, I would love to be a historian of comedy. I tried doing stand up in college to make some money. I failed miserably which is why I am here. When you can’t make it in comedy, you have to be a think tanker. I think that is the rule in DC. I’ve always been interested in where the art form came from like the Greek tragedies all the way through Daniel Tosh. How did we get from there to here? How did we get to YouTube stars being funny? There is something there that is interesting and mostly it would just give me an excuse to interview comedians that I care about. It has to be funny! I’m interested in the art of comedy because comedy for me is writing in its purest form. You are trying to elicit a specific response from someone that is really, really hard to get. There isn’t that much evolutionary evidence as to why we laugh so you are doing something that is incredibly hard. On top of that you are doing something that everyone else is trying to do. Everyone wants to be funny at a party. The fact that some do it better than others means they have a skill that is incredible. I am interested in how you do that. That sticks out to me in the same way that some writers do it when they are making actual arguments in op-eds. We are all thinking about these things. My parents all have opinions about the things I work on and all my friends to do. Everyone is an analyst at the end of the day. Some stick out better than others because they have an innate ability to get to the heart of the matter and argue it well. That and writing a great joke are about the same thing.

[JD] Is there a book you have given as a gift most often or one you’re most likely to give?

[AW] I’m laughing at the wording…The Giver, I think it’s a great book. It is one of my most favorite books of all time. I read it when I was 9. There is something amazing in that book that has stuck with me which is you have to appreciate things you have. Bringing it back to comedy, Colbert did a recent interview with GQ. His basic point was he had some terrible things happen to him. He lost two of his brothers, he lost his father and yet he is still this incredible comic that we have. It is because through his faith and a whole bunch of other things he learned to love the things he lost. I’m not there. I haven’t had that kind of thing happen to me. I’m not at that tragic level. I learned at a young age, through that book, that there are things that will not last forever and you should enjoy them. Even though I worked at TGIFridays for a long time, it wasn’t the greatest thing but I learned to love that experience. I was a bad comic, but I learned from that experience.

[JD] Drink of choice?

[AW] Macallan 18 and I love Belgium beers.

[JD] Most adventurous place you’ve been?

[AW] Tanzania. I wanted to go on safari. I got to see some animals and it was a completely different experience for me. I went with my family, so it wasn’t that adventurous, but it was the most adventurous place I’ve been. It was an exciting time. We were there during the wildebeest migration. We got to see miles and miles of wildebeest heading out in all different directions. It was something I never thought would be the most beautiful thing I ever saw, but a bunch of wildebeests really is something to behold.

[JD] What bold steps would you like the MWG take?

[AW] I don’t mean for this to be a plug for what we are doing here. One of the projects we have going on here involves the Art of Future Warfare Project. It looks at fiction and narrative and how that can help in military planning. One of the bold steps I’d like is for every guild member to start trying to write something fictional to illuminate the things they are working on. That allows you to bring all the voices in your head and allow those voices to be on paper. Again, for me writing is turning all those voices in your head into a chorus. You can do that for fiction and non-fiction but at the end of the day fiction still has a message. You still have a point you are trying to get across with a non-fiction op-ed piece, but no one writes fiction without a point, without a purpose. They are both heading towards the same goal just using different methods. There is a real challenge in making fiction interesting and also getting your point across. Again, it compares to writing a great joke. I think that is a challenge. Everyone in the guild can write a good op-ed. Can we all write fiction? I’m not sure. I think it is challenging. I don’t know if I can. I’m almost sure I can’t, but I’m going to try.

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