Caveats for the next war/intervention temptation
Since tomorrow is the 3rd anniversary of what is looking increasingly like a misbegotten war, there's no time like the present to start thinking about how to avoid, or at least manage, the next round of shock and awe. Some thoughts, timely and untimely:
1) If war is inevitable, can we make sure that any friendly fire goes in the direction of Phelps Military Funeral Profanation Corps?
2) Don't break fake states. Let them die a natural death. The chaos from a natural death will be bad enough.
3) Push the eject button on any members of the leadership clique who speak of pre-emptive strikes and effusive welcomes in the same breath. Their intellectual predecessors promised British troops that "all the Germans will be long dead" after the 7-day bombardment at the Somme" and then that saturation bombing would break the backs of the Viet Cong. Etc., etc., ad nauseum.
4) Is there an exit strategy? is there an entrance strategy? is there a plan at all? A point to do more with than ponder, maybe?
5) The pottery barn rules apply immediately. Do you really want to skulk around as an occupier, making enemies when you have to turn people's houses upside down, harass and kill them, like the British army in northern Ireland?
6) Is it possible just to say no? In l9l4, everyone wanted to say "yes" to a six-week war that would win everyone a medal and "teach those people in(Russia, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, you choose)a lesson they won't forget! What they got instead was four years of industrial-strength slaughter, four dead empires, the middle East peace settlement--the peace to end all peace!!--and 9 million casualties. A broken world. "No" should always be the first response when someone talks war. Let's do everything we can to avoid rolling those dice.
7) Let "cheerful skepticism" be your guide when evaluating the records of those who actively advocate war first, and practice ruthless re-selection when election time comes for those who fail the test.
I don't want the security of the slave or the peace of the grave. I'd settle for some more responsible stewardship of this superpower.
1) If war is inevitable, can we make sure that any friendly fire goes in the direction of Phelps Military Funeral Profanation Corps?
2) Don't break fake states. Let them die a natural death. The chaos from a natural death will be bad enough.
3) Push the eject button on any members of the leadership clique who speak of pre-emptive strikes and effusive welcomes in the same breath. Their intellectual predecessors promised British troops that "all the Germans will be long dead" after the 7-day bombardment at the Somme" and then that saturation bombing would break the backs of the Viet Cong. Etc., etc., ad nauseum.
4) Is there an exit strategy? is there an entrance strategy? is there a plan at all? A point to do more with than ponder, maybe?
5) The pottery barn rules apply immediately. Do you really want to skulk around as an occupier, making enemies when you have to turn people's houses upside down, harass and kill them, like the British army in northern Ireland?
6) Is it possible just to say no? In l9l4, everyone wanted to say "yes" to a six-week war that would win everyone a medal and "teach those people in(Russia, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Serbia, you choose)a lesson they won't forget! What they got instead was four years of industrial-strength slaughter, four dead empires, the middle East peace settlement--the peace to end all peace!!--and 9 million casualties. A broken world. "No" should always be the first response when someone talks war. Let's do everything we can to avoid rolling those dice.
7) Let "cheerful skepticism" be your guide when evaluating the records of those who actively advocate war first, and practice ruthless re-selection when election time comes for those who fail the test.
I don't want the security of the slave or the peace of the grave. I'd settle for some more responsible stewardship of this superpower.
posted by buckarooskidoo at 11:02 PM
2 Comments:
I'd settle for an administration that just asked one of those questions. At least I would know that somebody on board was ruled by their head and not their testosterone level.
OH I love that last line. That is good. :)
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