tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512669.post112453176310218810..comments2023-07-21T06:38:14.648-04:00Comments on Shadow of the Hegemon: Sealing the DealDemostheneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14552994996411944134noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512669.post-1124609126557878872005-08-21T03:25:00.000-04:002005-08-21T03:25:00.000-04:00America left Vietnam because it was an unwinnable ...America left Vietnam because it was an unwinnable war. America stayed in Vietnam as long as it did because its leaders believed they could "stay the course" (like Scott) and weren't willing to listen to anyone who thought differently. It's not about the 50%- it's about the accountability that that number is supposed to represent. <BR/><BR/>(And if you don't have accountability, war's negative side will never filter up to those who choose to engage in it. That's not exactly a good place to be.)Demostheneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14552994996411944134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3512669.post-1124567715935259322005-08-20T15:55:00.000-04:002005-08-20T15:55:00.000-04:00A few thoughts:Democracy and War are not a very go...A few thoughts:<BR/><BR/>Democracy and War are not a very good fit. I think that a lot of Republicans and/or supporters of the war would like to see, even if they haven't expressed it, a one-time decision to fight the war, and that having been decided, and end to the debate. Ideally this would leave open the debate as to <I>how</I> to fight the war, or whether it's being fought well. But the decision on whether to have the war would be ended.<BR/><BR/>Much of the left and a lot of the Democratic Party is still engaged in reversing the decision to have fought the war in the first place. This is the pull-out-now faction, which would like to see a repeat of Vietnam to the degree that the US public ended that war, and thus, some argue, caused the US to lose it. Is it better to have a disenchanted and disillusioned public cause the US to outright lose the war than to limit democratic impulses and possibly come out of Iraq with a better outcome than defeat?<BR/><BR/>If the rule is that any war being fought must have at all times over 50% of the population approving it, otherwise the US must pull out and lose it, then the goal of anyone opposed to the war would then become to depress the public support by any means necessary. That this has happened, with the suport if the MSM, is the view of many who support the war.<BR/><BR/>Not coincidentally, the goal of the "resistance" in Iraq is the same. They also believe that if the domestic support for the war in Iraq gets low enough, they can get the US to leave and therefore lose. I don't believe that there's any kind of agreement between them, but the terrorists in Iraq and much of the US MSM and others, including Sheehan, are both working towards the same goal using a mechanism in which each understands their role.<BR/><BR/>One can argue, with credibility, that the US should <I>not</I> engage in any war if there's a probability that support for the war will dip below 50%. Of course, there's no way to really <I>know</I> this beforehand. And this contributes to the view of some US enemies that the US is in fact a paper tiger, likely to run at the first signs of trouble.<BR/><BR/>Another related argument is the centrality of democracy. Maybe it's right that the US should behave this way, with 40% forever supporting, and 40% forever opposed, not just war, but any federal endeavor. This makes the federal govt weak, which I generally support, but isn't exactly a good thing when it comes to the military. I generally disdain the more-democracy-the-better arguments. The Bill of Rights, for example, is quite undemocratic, and that's a good thing. Arguments really ought to go beyond "it's good because it's democratic" because democratic decision-making is not an unmitigated good.<BR/><BR/>I'm not pretending to have the answers here. It just seems to me that there's something a bit unhealthy about the way the anti-war movement and its allies have been going about it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com