A time for reconsideration
AntiWar.Com
by Alan Bock
10/28/05
"From a military or strategic standpoint, to be sure, there's not that much significance to the figure of 2,000 U.S. military personnel -- Staff Sgt. George Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, was the sad milestone, although some will dispute whether he was # 2,000 or 'only' #1,993 -- who have died in Iraq. However, if, as the famed Prussian philosopher of war Karl von Clausewitz famously said, war is simply politics conducted by other means (and vice versa, I might add), the number might have genuine significance. Insofar as wars are inherently political, in a regime with vestiges of democracy, public opinion matters. ... Given that two-thirds of Americans now believe the Iraq war was a mistake, the milestone, especially inasmuch as it was reached the same week officials announced the approval of a draft Iraqi constitution, is likely to have some resonance. The challenge for those who do not relish future wars of conquest or imperial housekeeping is to move the conversation beyond the wisdom of this war to a discussion of a future foreign policy in which war is viewed as an absolute last resort instead of the first-reach option for political leaders with neither military experience nor much interest in the world beyond our borders. Reconsidering the wisdom of this war is the first order of business, of course...
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=7815
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
by Alan Bock
10/28/05
"From a military or strategic standpoint, to be sure, there's not that much significance to the figure of 2,000 U.S. military personnel -- Staff Sgt. George Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, was the sad milestone, although some will dispute whether he was # 2,000 or 'only' #1,993 -- who have died in Iraq. However, if, as the famed Prussian philosopher of war Karl von Clausewitz famously said, war is simply politics conducted by other means (and vice versa, I might add), the number might have genuine significance. Insofar as wars are inherently political, in a regime with vestiges of democracy, public opinion matters. ... Given that two-thirds of Americans now believe the Iraq war was a mistake, the milestone, especially inasmuch as it was reached the same week officials announced the approval of a draft Iraqi constitution, is likely to have some resonance. The challenge for those who do not relish future wars of conquest or imperial housekeeping is to move the conversation beyond the wisdom of this war to a discussion of a future foreign policy in which war is viewed as an absolute last resort instead of the first-reach option for political leaders with neither military experience nor much interest in the world beyond our borders. Reconsidering the wisdom of this war is the first order of business, of course...
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=7815
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
Starmail - 28. Okt, 17:39
