Fabius Maximus on the neoconservative vision to remake the world in our image - militarily:
These are the most radical recommendation for use of American power since the Air Force adopted nuclear genocide (up to and including suicide) as our preferred form of combat (also know as Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD).
Like MAD, these proposals violate a thousand years of western moral codes from the medieval definitions of a “just war” to the UN Charter.
Perhaps it’s appropriate that the birth of the American Empire begins with adoption of a Roman practice, that of inter arma silent leges (in time of war, the law falls silent). More recently this has been expressed as Kriegsraison geht vor Kriegsmanier (”the necessities of war take precedence over the rules of war”). At Nuremberg we hung quite a few people claiming this as a defense.
Just as you don’t need to be a pacifist to realize that nuclear annihilation as a defensive strategy is immoral, likewise the recognition of the immorality of “pre-emptive” warfare is not reserved for those of us who renounce violence out of religious conviction.
Whether one reserves the use of force as a last resort to protect people from aggressors, or one renounces it entirely, it is clear that “pre-emptive war” violates all moral norms and must be opposed.
Via John Robb
