PROFOUNDWISDOM . INFO (PW)
WAR
"War is hell", said General Sherman—and he know whereof he spoke. It is our sacred duty, if President or not, to prevent another great war among nations or alliances. This calls for diplomacy of the highest order and understanding the history of great wars and future risks that very few of us will ever have. Yet every hour of every day must see us devoted to propositions of this natrure.
Enemies of freedom and civilization are at war with ordinary people. We speak of them as more dangerous than criminals—when we intend to defeat them under the rules of war.
Application of the criminal code of a single nation may not be called for. Although enemies of civilization may commit crimes against humanity, we must now and forever afterward disrupt and destroy their power by acts of war against them.
The legal case for criminal process in place of war can be made. There may be gray areas where either response to what they do makes sense. But the power of WMD's has changed the stakes—and this has changed the responsibility of commanders, lawmakers and the justice system to err on the side of effective action and not on the other side.
This preference for the rules of war over lesser measures does not resolve very much. Prevention of the use of WMD's is required. Punishment has no real value in comparison. Prevention will be predictably very costly in labor, money and use of extremely wise, imaginative and inventive people to staff our defenses against determined evil doers and outright crazy people.
Macro defense call for building a decent world where care of the young is ensured and medical treatment of the ill and evaluation of the merely bad is ever present.
The Unibomber's, Timothy McVeigh's, Osama bin Laden's of this world must all be prevented from possessing future power to do what has been done in the past. We have no right to expect that WMD's will get weaker or that people will all get nicer. We must expect the worst and prevent it from happening once.
This is a matter for science and medicine more than it is for argument. Common sense will not be out of place. Creating conditions favorable for the Golden Rule to prevail is a no-brainer.
Beyond that, people's conduct may have to be observed at all times, perhaps more by machines than by other people.
But the idea that we do not need to be our brother's keeper no longer holds water. Man is a social animal. The time has come to prevent anti-social conduct from doing irreparable harm.