Legal War Doctrine

Tuesday: You can't throw a dead cat without hitting some statement about "war crimes". With Trump's threat (empty) about destroying civilian infrastructure, the world was suddenly up in arms. illegal, immoral, just not cool. We know such hypocritical bullshit will fly right past most Americans, but it is worth noting a few examples of unpunished "war crimes". For instance, the fire bombing of cities by Allied forces in WWII. Dresden, as written about by Kurt Vonnegut. Beginning in 1945, the US military led by Curtis Lemay used napalm to burn 67 Japanese cities, constructed with wood, killing 26,000 civilians and making 13 million homeless. That's before we dropped atom bombs on them. Pick a war; Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. In, as Trump puts it, "the long and complex history of the world", targeting civilians and infrastructure was always part of the strategy. But of course, this is not the dominant narrative. Instead, all of that history goes down the memory hole and we are fed endless statements like these: “Our nation has always conducted military operations for just causes and through just and moral means. This must continue in the future; otherwise we forfeit our legitimacy to lead the world. So, let me be clear: I do not support the destruction of a ‘whole civilization.’ That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America,” Moran wrote. Lisa Murkowski: “This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years. It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home,” Blah, blah ,blah. Wednesday: Packistan managed to broker a ceasefire, so no "war crimes" or civilizational destruction for now. There are plenty of questions left unanswered but the main thing is that Markets are happy and the price of oil dropped. People can go back to TicToc or go enjoy a burger (unless you happen to be in Lebanon). We have a two week reprieve in "the history of the world", a history which, as Benjamin noted, is simply one huge pile of wreckage piling up higher and higher. I also enjoyed this little bit, an article on the perils of "growing inequality" in the New York Times today: "For any society in which this much wealth gets concentrated in so few hands, and is then so easily parlayed into political clout, the question becomes one not just of economics but of basic civic standing. At some point soon, we are no longer sharing in self-government." A liberal warning that we citizens might be losing our ability to determine our own fate! Wouldn't that be tragic! Along with the wreckage of history we have mountains of ideological rubble. And now this slop. So it goes.