Needed Now: Victory

Horsefeathers ^ | 5-9-04 | Stephen Rittenberg

[ritt]

From Thucydides to Victor Hanson historians teach us that war is deeply rooted in human nature. All utopian efforts to banish it have failed, and trying to do so usually worsens its consequences. Similarly the noble effort to wage war carefully, sparing innocents, also has a downside: it may be perceived as weakness by adversaries. It can, thereby, deepen the horrors it was meant to limit. Harsh and sometimes brutal treatment of war prisoners is a timeless, universal phenomenon. Those who profess shock at what occurred at Abu Ghraib prison are either foolishly naïve or hypocritical. There is something suspect about those who go beyond the understandable desire to see justice done, to demanding confessions of guilt and endless self-flagellating apologies. War is not paintball. It is not the proper realm of therapeutic concerns for the feelings of those who wish to kill us. One wonders what such naïve utopians imagine goes on in domestic prisons, even absent the dangers of war. Human nature has its dark side and that is as true in democracies as in totalitarian thugocracies. The point should be apparent to anyone, that the difference resides, not in our basic human nature, but in our unique Western democratic system that seeks out and punishes such transgressions, rather than applauding them. The admirable efforts of our modern military to limit deaths and minimize collateral damage may have the perverse effect of prolonging war and adding to its toll.

[epigone73]

true enough, but unless we fight a war where nobody gets hurt, everybody's culture, gender, and sexual orientation are respected, affirmed, and asserted, there's going to be whining from the usual suspects.