tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post6742633043884326484..comments2024-03-27T21:12:31.654-04:00Comments on Politics and its Discontents: A Good QuestionLornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-85998380398011314522016-01-26T15:19:11.245-05:002016-01-26T15:19:11.245-05:00Long may such fearless commentators live, thwap.Long may such fearless commentators live, thwap.Lornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-6590363550324376592016-01-26T15:18:03.415-05:002016-01-26T15:18:03.415-05:00Of course, Orwell wrote about this permawar most p...Of course, Orwell wrote about this permawar most presciently, Mound, in 1984. Shifting alliances, shifting enemies and allies all seem to be part of this diversionary phenomenon that the writer seemed to know so well.Lornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15741324981120408977noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-27603148946822053412016-01-26T12:22:01.103-05:002016-01-26T12:22:01.103-05:00But like you, I found them excellent.But like you, I found them excellent.thwaphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15399550285738440669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7884128379999766348.post-72186792010630815352016-01-26T11:14:09.172-05:002016-01-26T11:14:09.172-05:00A harbinger of the decline of our civilization is ...A harbinger of the decline of our civilization is the phenomenon of "permawar." War without end, war without result, war without even much meaning. The state does its talking at the fuse end of a 500-pounder. If we're really pissed, it'll be a 2,000 pounder.<br /><br />It's a display of strength that morphs into a display of our weakness, vulnerability, incoherence. States have reduced themselves to mere assassins and no one parlays with assassins. <br /><br />If only we were achieving something, anything meaningful with all this butchery but we're not. They've got our number. They know that we come, lay waste, get bored and then we leave.<br /><br />I remember reading Andrew Bacevich's brilliant analysis of how military violence came to displace diplomacy as his country's preferred instrument of foreign policy. To some in Canada that seems to be an appropriate path. Whack-a-mole as foreign policy.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.com