Obama, ISIS, Kissinger and Clausewitz: American Military Force in Religious Conflicts

[rug]

Posted:
09/09/2014
7:59 am EDT
Updated: 2 hours ago
Richard Brodsky Become a fan
Senior Fellow, Demos
http://www.demos.org/

It took Henry Kissinger to articulate the sense of chaos and anarchic violence that is spreading across the world: The World Order is crumbling. Beheadings, mass murder of civilians, international borders vanishing, and the inability of political institutions to manage conflict are smashing the carefully constructed post-WWII universe.

There's a reason, and historical precedent, and neither bodes well for a swift return to manageable conflicts.

Humanity's recent efforts to reduce war and violence have been based on the faith that political institutions could contain and mitigate violence. Two hundred years ago Clausewitz shrewdly defined war as"politics by other means." We could negotiate and politic our way out of war, if we were smart about it. We reversed Clausewitz and successfully used politics as "war by other means."

But it's a rationalist, somewhat Western model. And it is no longer accepted in many quarters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-brodsky/obama-isis-kissinger-and_b_5788136.html

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Wow, is that vampire still hanging around?

@$*@ing Kissinger.

Herp derp, Obama's drone program has killed more people than I have derpy doo...