America takes another step towards the “Long War”
Summary: This report is just a sketch, some thoughts that hopefully spark discussion about America’s rush to war. It proposes the following:
- There is as yet insufficient evidence that America is threatened sufficiently to justify the large-scale mobilization of citizens that we call “war.”
- There is insufficient public evidence that al Qaeda or Islamic jihadists are so serious a threat.
- The war was begun in Iraq and Afghanistan with inadequate analysis and planning, and those errors continue to this day.
- Even if this threat is of sufficient magnitude, war is not necessarily the solution.
- To the extent that force is required, at present we are not equipped to employ it in the manner needed. A scimitar makes a fine weapon, but a poor scalpel.
Introduction
Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis, Chapter 12 (1959)
The flood of information and commentary available today can obscure events of the greatest significance. We see that today, as America takes another step towards the long war. Without thought or reflection, without debate by our elected officials, without our consent. In many ways just like the Cold War.
If the US starts a new long war, it is our war - for good or ill. Congress and the President are our agents no matter how they conduct our affairs. As bin Laden reminds us, following our leaders does not relieve us of responsibility. Wars put all that we that we have, all that we are, on the table to be won or lost. Before we enlist ourselves and our children in a new war, let’s think. Is the wager worthwhile? Are the odds in our favor? Are there alternatives other than war?
In the past we have neglected these questions to our sorrow.
Repeating history
US entered the Cold War with the sending of the “Long Telegram” in February 1946 by George F. Kennan, the State Department’s Minister-Counselor at the Moscow Embassy. In this and later works he presented evidence that the Soviet Union considered itself an enemy of the US, and that our best response was a long-term policy of containment (largely economic in nature). The American people learned of their government’s decision to confront the USSR only in July 1947, when Kennan pseudonymous published “The Sources of Soviet Conduct” in Foreign Affairs.
Similarly, today the US government may have enlisted America in to another long war. Cited here are a variety of official documents, but this paper focuses on a recent work by David J. Kilcullen. Officer in the Australian Army, anthropologist, top expert in counter-insurgency. (See the appendix for a brief biography.)
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