The Dissertation: Dhofar Rebellion Part 3

Work on my dissertation continues in earnest. I've finished Arabian Sands, and will go through a couple of chapters today or tomorrow to find some quotes to use in my section about Oman and Dhofar prior to the Dhofar Rebellion. I also went through my list of what I've been calling the "Big Seven", as well as that equation that I outlined in my last post on the topic, and decided that I needed to work on refining my equations. The original system took one of the Big Seven - Control of the Physical and Human Terrain - and split that into two independent items, then filed the rest of the items and a few others under each of them. As I tried to simplify the equation over the weekend, I decided that the whole thing wasn't quite encompassing the connections I wanted to get across. So, I spent the first couple of days this week trying to wrap my mind around the whole thing.

I may do a bit more refining. After the last couple of days - and breaking out the note cards like my eleventh grade English teacher taught me - I've made a little bit more sense of the equations and/or categories. I think there's some work left to do, because it doesn't all fit together as neatly as it ought to. I probably need to come up with some sort of diagram, so I may add some strands of paracord to link various pieces together. Once I have that matrix put together, I can go through my already-too-lengthy(-and-still-growing) list of sources, assign case studies and references to particular sections, assemble quotes, and start stringing it all together.

I don't tend to do much studying in my room, although Sunday was spent screwing around with my sources. I haven't spent much time in the SOC, preferring my nearest Starbucks. I was there on Tuesday (prior to the fawn incident), and a friend snapped a picture of me hard at work with my note cards. It turned out pretty well, and was entirely candid. Depending on how busy Starbucks is, I've found that the dull roar of humanity is actually good background noise for working on one piece of my dissertation or another... Plus they have these really good paninis there.

I'll try to put most of my good quotes together and post them. A lot of them are from one of my heroes, General James Mattis. You folks are in for a treat.