Preemptive Strike

[Classical_Liberal]

For maybe 40 minutes Kiesling sipped coffee and, speaking in fluent Greek, pleaded his government's case. This was to be a necessary war, a war of self-defense, he argued, and in the end, Father Thomas agreed to keep the church out of the demonstrations as much as possible. His mission accomplished, Kiesling left the meeting with a feeling of triumph. "In this narrow professional sense," he recalls, "I thought it was a masterpiece of persuasive diplomatic -- I guess hypocrisy is the only term. But the thing is, when you're saying it, you believe it."

Yet at the same time, he was thinking: What have I done? Because, in truth, he didn't believe the coming war was justified at all.

The conflict between duty and belief had made him miserable for months, but he hadn't known what to do. That night, lying sleepless in bed, the answer became clear. He would end his nearly 20-year career in the Foreign Service, and he would use the occasion to state publicly what he did believe: that a unilateral, "preemptive" strike against Iraq would be not simply wrong, but harmful to the United States as well..........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36972-2003Jul23.html

[NickDanger]

1. excellent article on the diplomatic aspects of this misbegotten war

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