Revolutionary Moderation

"Tell us or we'll kill you"



Isn't that the very definition of coercive force at its most extreme? That, it seems, is perfectly good foreign policy, according to Michael Schrage of MITs Security Studies Programme, in tomorrow's Washington Post.



War to reduce ambiguity seems perhaps a little extreme to me, but I'm no professor of "Security Studies". However, I'm smart enoguh to figure out that the "Security" in that department name doesn't extend to dark-skinned non-English-speaking foreigners, who were cluster-bombed into unambiguous deaths. Whatever happened to "Strategic Studies"? It speaks to the hegemony and arrogance of the Americans, that they no longer need to think strategically, with the idea that others might be working at cross-purposes. Now it's only "security", and that's an end to which any means seem appropriate.



The world exhausts me... I must go buy a copy of Black and White, and lose myself for the rest of the weekend.