It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.
— William Tecumseh Sherman, Union General in the American Civil War (1820-1891)
The last three words may be the most famous ever spoken regarding the nature of war. This morning (courtesy of Word-a-Day), I finally saw the statement in context. Naturally, I would apply it to the current administration, most of whom worked mightily to avoid military service.
Sherman certainly created his share of desolation. As anyone who has watched Gone With the Wind knows, his name is a stronger curse word than Satan in Atlanta.
The bottom line is the notion of a civilized war is a contradiction in terms. That is, if we have any sort of ideals about what the word "civilization" means. I know expecting the human animal to live in peace, or at least non-aggresive accord, may be a fantasy or naive, but that's one of my criteria for civilization.
Again, at the least one would hope a civilized society would attack only as the very last resort. This is not a "global test", to be graded by the U.N., this is a notion of simple decency and fairness.
Once you do choose to attack, Sherman would suggest, you fight to win. Don't tie one hand behind your back in order to appear "civilized"; like football in some parts of England, war is not a civilized sport.
I'm no military strategist, but it seems to me that it's important to secure all potential weapon supplies as soon as possible. Doesn't matter if they're WMD or not. Anything from a pistol to explosive powder is a weapon which could be used against our troops.
I would think that thoroughly inspecting potential weapons' stockpiles was at least as important as protecting oil wells. Seizing goverment offices, and insuring rapid delivery of simple necessities (e.g. food, potable water) would also seem important.
The current administration, for reasons it has not explained to my satisfaction, decided the oil wells were top priority. When your VP is the former CEO of a major oil producer, and a subsidiary of that producer just happens to win construction contracts in the same country, it looks at least mildly suspicious.
Yes, I am referring to the ~350 tons of material that IAEA has reported went missing sometime after the fall of Saddam. And, yes, I know administration apologists want to pretend there is some question about when, precisely, this material has gone missing.
Josh Marshall, who has focused almost exclusively on this topic at Talking Points Memo, makes a pretty persuasive case against those arguments. Bottom line: between Hans Blix's inspection team and constant American fly-overs, it's unlikely something like 350 tons of anything could be shuffled off without notice.
Oh God, please vote next Tuesday. Oklahoma is a winner take-all state, so my little vote for John Kerry will be buried in an avalanche of conservative lemmings voting for the Chimp. But you could be in one of those battle-ground states. Your single vote could tip the scale in that state so it goes for the Democrat.
War is hell, but it doesn't have to be an unmitigated disaster run by the Hardy Boys. It's time to put grown-ups back on Pennsylvania Avenue.
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