Problem: Mystique (Raven Darkholme) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by artist David Cockrum and writer Chris Claremont, she first appeared in the comic book Ms. Marvel #16, published in 1978. Mystique is a member of a subspecies of humanity known as mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. Mystique is a shapeshifter who can mimic the appearance and voice of any person with exquisite precision, and her natural appearance includes blue skin and yellow eyes.

Anti-mutant sentiment rises and the federal government launches its own covert anti-mutant program, Project Wideawake. Believing that the times have become too dangerous for the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to continue, Mystique goes to Doctor Valerie Cooper, special assistant to the head of the National Security Council, and offers the Brotherhood's services to the government. In return for entering government service, Mystique and her team receive a presidential pardon for all criminal charges, to be revoked if any member of Freedom Force is found committing a crime. Cooper agrees to convey the offer to the President on the condition that the Brotherhood arrests their founder, Magneto. The Brotherhood, now reincarnated as Freedom Force, are defeated by Magneto and the X-Men. When Magneto learns that Freedom Force are official federal agents, he voluntarily surrenders to them.  Mystique leads Freedom Force in capturing the Avengers on behalf of the federal government. She clashes with X-Factor in seeking to arrest Rusty Collins. With Freedom Force, she fights the X-Men in Dallas, and witnesses her foster daughter's apparent demise. With Freedom Force, she battles Cyclops and Marvel Girl. With Freedom Force she seeks to arrest Rusty Collins again, and battles the New Mutants. She finally succeeds in capturing Collins as well as Skids. She leads Freedom Force against the Reavers on Muir Island. On this particularly disastrous mission, Freedom Force loses two of its members, Stonewall and Mystique's lover Destiny. The death of her lover leaves Mystique psychologically scarred.  Mystique is later nearly killed by Dr. Valerie Cooper, who is under the Shadow King's mental control. She then impersonates Dr. Valerie Cooper. Mystique is eventually discovered impersonating Dr. Cooper, and saves Xavier's life by killing the Shadow King's human host, Jacob Reisz. She finally reconciles with Rogue. In time, she comes to terms with Destiny's death. She teams with Spiral and Wolverine in thwarting Mojo's near-destruction of the universe. Mystique later briefly stays as a guest at Xavier's mansion. She begins going insane, and leaves the mansion under the care of Forge.

Did she lose any battles?

Answer with quotes: She leads Freedom Force against the Reavers on Muir Island. On this particularly disastrous mission, Freedom Force loses two of its members, Stonewall and Mystique's lover Destiny.


Problem: Jean Baudrillard (; French: [Za bodRijaR]; 27 July 1929 - 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as simulation and hyperreality. He wrote about diverse subjects, including consumerism, gender relations, economics, social history, art, Western foreign policy, and popular culture.

Baudrillard's provocative 1991 book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place raised his public profile as an academic and political commentator. He argued that the first Gulf War was the inverse of the Clausewitzian formula: not "the continuation of politics by other means", but "the continuation of the absence of politics by other means". Accordingly, Saddam Hussein was not fighting the Coalition, but using the lives of his soldiers as a form of sacrifice to preserve his power (p. 72, 2004 edition). The Coalition fighting the Iraqi military was merely dropping 10,000 tonnes of bombs daily, as if proving to themselves that there was an enemy to fight (p. 61). So, too, were the Western media complicit, presenting the war in real time, by recycling images of war to propagate the notion that the U.S.-led coalition and the Iraqi government were actually fighting, but, such was not the case. Saddam Hussein did not use his military capacity (the Iraqi Air Force). His power was not weakened, evinced by his easy suppression of the 1991 internal uprisings that followed afterwards. Overall, little had changed. Saddam remained undefeated, the "victors" were not victorious, and thus there was no war--i.e., the Gulf War did not occur.  The book was originally a series of articles in the British newspaper The Guardian and the French newspaper Liberation. These were published in three parts: "The Gulf War Will Not Take Place", published during the American military and rhetorical buildup; "The Gulf War Is Not Taking Place", published during military action; and "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place", published afterwards.  Some critics accused Baudrillard of instant revisionism; a denial of the physical action of the conflict (which was related to his denial of reality in general). Consequently, Baudrillard was accused of lazy amoralism, cynical scepticism, and Berkelian idealism. Sympathetic commentators such as William Merrin (in his book Baudrillard and the Media) have argued that Baudrillard was more concerned with the West's technological and political dominance and the globalization of its commercial interests, and what that means for the present possibility of war. Merrin argued that Baudrillard was not denying that something had happened, but merely questioning whether that something was in fact war or a bilateral "atrocity masquerading as a war". Merrin viewed the accusations of amorality as redundant and based on a misreading. In Baudrillard's own words (pp. 71-72):  Saddam liquidates the communists, Moscow flirts even more with him; he gases the Kurds, it is not held against him; he eliminates the religious cadres, the whole of Islam makes peace with him ... Even ... the 100,000 dead will only have been the final decoy that Saddam will have sacrificed, the blood money paid in forfeit according to a calculated equivalence, in order to preserve his power. What is worse is that these dead still serve as an alibi for those who do not want to have been excited for nothing: at least these dead will prove this war was indeed a war and not a shameful and pointless hoax ...

What are some other interesting facts about this article?

Answer with quotes:
The book was originally a series of articles in the British newspaper The Guardian and the French newspaper Liberation. These were published in three parts: