Reply #19: "War" doesn't quite frame it [View All]

[Terry in Austin]

The US is in the empire business, and this is what empires do -- they project power beyond their national borders.

Empires use their military to police their spheres of influence, which in the US case, includes Iraq and Afghanistan. Harry Truman's term "police action," which he applied to the Korean conflict, applies here very well -- probably more than the term "war."

War implies an event with a beginning, a middle and an end -- an end that comes with a "defeat" or a "victory." Police action is different, it's a process -- just as civil police never expect to "win" once and for all against crime, our imperial policing is ongoing and endless.

So the lamentable thing here, IMO, is not so much that the US is engaging in failed wars, but that the US is caught up in the folly of empire.