Why Adverse to War?

Atrios brings up a good point via a childhood experience, which illustrates a thought I've had. We on the left, for the most part, are quite adverse to war for all the oft discussed reasons, not wanting to kill people or destroy things, all that stuff. But is also the case, that the wingnuts oddly don't seem to understand, that when words are being exchanged, even very harsh words, you can take them back, if later you decide you went to far in what you said. Bullets, however, don't give you that option (with the possible exception of friends of Dick Cheney).

If you get into a quarrel with a neighbor, you might call him all sorts of terrible things, and yet still be able to make up with him if later you discover that he was not so much the source of your injury as you had originally thought. That option is most likely not available, however, if in the course of your quarrel, you shoot him.

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Pro-War novel

Mark Kleiman is wondering if there are any recent (well post 1700) pro-War novels. The phrase pro-War novel might be considered ambiguous, but Mark offered up Starship Troopers as an example so we have a pretty good idea what he means. He's looking for a novel which promotes the "virtues" of war. That having people go to war and fight for the country creates a population of individuals who have virtues valuable to the nation, which would be absent were we to go without war for several generations.

The problem is that this notion that war promotes virtues in and of itself has long been pretty much abandoned by mainstream thinkers. Or at least, it is thought that the evils of war far outweigh the virtues that might be instilled. The warmest regard that anyone has for war today is perhaps best expressed by Robert E. Lee's comment that "It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it." Given that sentiment from someone such as Lee it is hardly to be expected that there are many authors promoting the virtues of war as a good in itself. Indeed this is in part why Starship Troopers is such a striking novel.

At the risk of falling prey to Goodwin's Law, might I suggest that the most significant group who has promoted the virtues of war for its own sake were the national socialists in Germany. Perhaps Mein Kampf would meet the request.

War like invasive surgery

One of the major problems Democrats have at this point is our perceived weakness on defense. There are a number of reasons for this appearance, but one thing I want to discuss here is that we regularly describe war as an option of 'last resort'. Kerry used that phrase regularly in the campaign. Now most of us democrats understand what is meant by this, but our opponents have been very successful at portraying this as meaning that we will avoid war at all costs, we are afraid to go to war, we are weak at protecting the country, etc. So, I've been trying to come up with a better way to describe our position that might speak to a wider group of people.

My attitude toward the use of war is similar to my attitude toward invasive surgery. I am certainly willing to undergo, or have family members undergo, surgery if needed, I am not in favor of returning to 19th century medicine. On the other hand, before I have my 11-year old go under the knife, I want to make sure that:

a) All other non-surgical therapies that could treat the problem have been tried

b) This is indeed needed and the problem the surgery is intended to solve is serious

c) The surgery has a high probability of success and a low probability of failure

Similar standards should be applied to our country going to war.

Also, the reason for this caution is not personal fear, but my understanding as to what is the best way to maintain security. One of the most valuable assets we can have for maintaining our security is control over the international situation. Control is very hard to maintain once shooting starts. One of the clearest lessons from history is that once the fighting starts events take on a life of their own, and no one can have much control of the situation. That is true at all levels from the squad to the entire nation. The grand-daddy of all such situations is, of course, the decision in 1914 by Austria to settle some problems of Serbian nationalism by military means. That got out of control. I think that here too the analogy holds. Simply being put under anesthesia for surgery is a huge risk.