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November 10, 2009

Without Having Their Skulls Split, as a General Thing

One way to mitigate Pat Buchanan’s concern would be for the United States to not constantly involve itself in wars around the globe.

Truth be told, from the practical standpoint of running an empire, violent outbursts by the likes of Major Hasan aren’t even grit in the gears. This is probably the most evil thing about his actions: he didn’t just murder people, which is a sin, he murdered people to no effect. He ended quite a number of ordinary lives and ruined a larger number of lives connected to them, but his having done so won’t delay even a single supply shipment to the wars he hated.

Still, if anyone in government cared more for ordinary lives than Major Hasan did, they might shy from continually warring on someone somewhere. It wouldn’t just do the people at the sharp end of those wars a lot of good; it would ease strains at home too.

Posted by Jim Henley @ 9:17 am, Filed under: Main

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One Response to “Without Having Their Skulls Split, as a General Thing”

  1. Comment by Kolohe —
    November 10, 2009 @ 2:11 pm

    Well, Buchanan has advocated for a long time, since the end of the Cold War, for the US to not involve itself in issues around the globe.

    Still, if anyone in government cared more for ordinary lives than Major Hasan did, they might shy from continually warring on someone somewhere

    It must be quite precarious to be on such a moral high horse. The US Govt, both collectively and as comprised of indvidual members is no better than Hasan? Really?

    You didn’t have a problem with collective punishment without end back in the day:

    http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2001/10/30/41

    Not just our mission but our declared mission should be, “We are going to destroy the Taliban because they turned their country into a platform for violence against us. That done, Afghans can do as they like with the mess the Taliban’s actions left them. Our own interest is at an end. But if the next Afghan government makes itself an enemy of the United States, we’ll be back.”

    Ironically (or whatever) we’re following your peacenik friend’s advice now. Equally ironically (or not) GWB essentially listened to your advice.

    And here we are today.

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