"General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned - Seven Countries In Five Years"

[jts]

[BaalChatzaf]

That is the Forever War unfolding itself. The Forever War is going to bring this country crashing down.

[caroljane]

What is the difference to the almost unbroken string of small and large wars since the US was born of war? Indian wars, civil war, trumped up Spanish American War, world wars, Korea, Vietnam. Always somebody or something needs defeating and subduing. For say what else is West Point for, Annapolis and all before?

[Francisco Ferrer]

"If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

This is the mindset not just of the military, but of everyone inside government.

[Selene]

It is always nice to hear an strategic opinion from Ashley Wilkes.

I propose we trade him to France for a busload of Parisian call girls...and a brothel to be named later.

[PDS]

What is the difference to the almost unbroken string of small and large wars since the US was born of war? Indian wars, civil war, trumped up Spanish American War, world wars, Korea, Vietnam. Always somebody or something needs defeating and subduing. For say what else is West Point for, Annapolis and all before?

In answer to your question: nothing, Daunce, nothing.

America has been nothing but a colossus astride the Earth, searching for yet another war. After all, there is always "somebody or something [that/who] needs defeating and subduing."

Some time, you might want to come out and explain your hatred of our country. I would be curious to know its source. Do you know its source?

[caroljane]

If I deplore the political inevitabilities that are wars then I must also hate my own country, indeed all countries as I know of none who have escaped them. Obviously I am simple-minded and mean-spirited, and am only here to make cheap jibes at the expense of my betters. That must explain it.

[Selene]

If I deplore the political inevitabilities that are wars then I must also hate my own country, indeed all countries as I know of none who have escaped them. Obviously I am simple-minded and mean-spirited, and am only here to make cheap jibes at the expense of my betters. That must explain it.

What is the distinction between the United States of America and Angela's Germany, or, my ancestor's homeland of Italy, in termss of why they have gone to war?

[PDS]

If I deplore the political inevitabilities that are wars then I must also hate my own country, indeed all countries as I know of none who have escaped them. Obviously I am simple-minded and mean-spirited, and am only here to make cheap jibes at the expense of my betters. That must explain it.

So you were merely taking the bold stand that war is deplorable?

Nice try, Daunce, but you didn't merely state that wars are generally inevitable. You made very specific comments about the US, about West Point, about Annapolis, etc., most of which are right out of the Far Left handbook, and most of which are, quite bluntly, bullshit. As for your own country, I thought I had heard (and Canadians are rather proud of the fact) that Canada was not borne of war, and it certainly has nothing in its history approaching our Civil War. I am not buying that you were making a one-size-fits-all comment.

If you don't want to be challenged on these comments, then maybe you should be more mindful about making them in the first place.

[caroljane]

The WP Annapolis comment was a bad Housman parody "..for what are hopyards meant and why sBurton built on Trent" and actually a rumination prompted by post#4. I have never read the far left handbook( (I first heard about it here) and do not hate America, but since you are so willing to impute to me emotions I do not feel, I doubt you will believe these facts anymore than that I stopped beating my husband.

[BaalChatzaf]

"If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

This is the mindset not just of the military, but of everyone inside government.

Also many outside of government.

[jts]

More of the same. Dirty secrets your government doesn't want you to know. 11 minutes.

http://youtu.be/iuVVml5Dp2s

[Guest Anya]

"If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

This is the mindset not just of the military, but of everyone inside government.

Jeffrey Friedman (who is not a libertarian) makes the point that organs of the political means have an inherent epistemic blindspot in that only people who believe in the efficacy of the political means tend to be interested in joining it. Combined with their lack of mooring in economic calculation and ability to finance themselves through extortion, they also have no real means of gaining correction.

[Selene]

"If you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

This is the mindset not just of the military, but of everyone inside government.

Jeffrey Friedman (who is not a libertarian) makes the point that organs of the political means have an inherent epistemic blindspot in that only people who believe in the efficacy of the political means tend to be interested in joining it. Combined with their lack of mooring in economic calculation and ability to finance themselves through extortion, they also have no real means of gaining correction.

Anya [clever handle by the way], is this the Friedman you refered to?

The initial purpose of the journal was to bring critical scrutiny to bear on libertarian scholarship, and to subject mainstream scholarship to similar scrutiny. As part of this effort, Friedman published an article, "What's Wrong with Libertarianism," that prompted wide discussion among libertarian writers. Since then, the journal has evolved into a scholarly forum for critically assessing the realities of democracy and capitalism, emphasizing the actual functioning of democracy in the light of political scientists' findings of "public ignorance" of political affairs, and related questions such as electoral "mandates," media bias, academic bias, and the autonomy of state officials from public scrutiny. Friedman's articles "Public Opinion and Democratic Theory" (1998), "Public Opinion: Bringing the Media Back In" (2003), and "Popper, Weber, and Hayek: The Epistemology and Politics of Ignorance" (2005) addressed these issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Friedman_%28political_scientist%29