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Pacifist Generals

Added: July 12, 2007

One of the most common misconceptions among liberal folks is that military people like to fight wars. Not exactly. Military people like to win wars - an extremely important distinction. They also hate losing them with a passion that few civilians can understand. Most of our senior military commanders were opposed to the Iraq war, not because of moral apprehension, but simply because they saw the scenario as un-winnable.

These guys study war folks, day and night, for years and years and years. Take a look at some of these course selections from the curriculum at West Point:

HI372 1972-1 HISTORY OF U.S. FOREIGN RELATIONS IN THE 20TH CENTURY 3.0
SCOPE This course examines American foreign relations from the nation's entry into the world arena as a major power in 1898 through both World Wars, and the Cold War, to its station in today's multipolar world. It is a study of the forces, events, personalities, and principles that have shaped America's role in the world and provided the framework for the development of current foreign policy.

HI386 1981-2 KOREA, VIETNAM, AMERICAN MILITARY EXPERIENCE 3.0
SCOPE Focusing on the Cold War years, this course highlights how the American military system has accommodated itself to changes in national power and policy. Cadets study in detail the emergence of a new military policy following World War II; the Korean War and the subsequent modernization and enhanced readiness of the Army; and the political, strategic, and tactical dimensions of the Vietnam War. Special attention is accorded the theater commander's role in transforming government policy into military strategy and the challenges facing the field commander in translating this strategy into military operations. The narrative is punctuated by a number of "digressions" to explain how the previous experience of the U.S. Army in wartime influenced these recent military experiences.

HI388 2002-2 THE HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II 3.0
SCOPE This course examines the Second World War from a global perspective while using a thematic approach to compare the different experiences of each of the major belligerents. Whether covering the home front or the Holocaust, the cadets in the course will examine the social, political, cultural, and economic factors that contributed to how belligerents waged war, and, in turn, how war affected each of these four factors across the globe. The course covers how and why the belligerents planned and executed particular strategies and operations in the European, Pacific, and China-Burma-India theaters in order to achieve their coalition and national goals. Finally, this course examines the interrelationship of sea, air, and land forces, and the complexities of providing logistical support to joint and combined operations on an unprecedented scale.

GRAND STRATEGY IN 20TH CENTURY 3.0
SCOPE The course examines the process whereby major powers have coordinated military force, diplomacy, economic resources, and other instruments to achieve political goals in war and during periods of international crisis. Emphasis is given to the experience of Germany, Britain, and the United States. Topics include the nature of strategy in World War I, the ends and means of Blitzkrieg warfare, Anglo-American strategic planning in World War II, and the theory and practice of strategy in the nuclear age.

HI396 1990-1 MAKING OF MODERN AMERICA 3.0
SCOPE Between 1877 and 1945 the United States fought three major wars, experienced dramatic economic growth, suffered the Great Depression, underwent significant social change, and emerged as the premier world power. This course analyzes these and related issues, emphasizing how and why the United States developed during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, and stressing the promises and problems that accompanied the making of modern America.

HI368 2008-1 MODERN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE 1896-1989 3.0
SCOPE Between 1896 and 1989, Central and Eastern Europe experienced two world wars, at least three major revolutions, and radical industrial and environmental dislocations. The region witnessed everything from the birth of its modern culture to the creation of new post-World War I nation-states, to the Holocaust, to massive forced population shifts, to the creation of the communist Eastern Bloc, to the popular overthrow of Communism in 1989. Radical regimes on the right and left brought incredible change, quashed hopes, and produced both progress and suffering of unprecedented proportion. This course will examine life in late-19th and 20th century Habsburg Europe and its successor states of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. It will do so comparatively, highlighting themes of nation-creation, everyday life, social transition, war, revolution, and ethnic cleansing.

Any one of the classes listed above would make a pacifist out of anybody - dang! While Dubya and his boys were staying up late getting wasted and trying to corner females in the basement of Skull & Bones, our military commanders were at West Point living with mandatory lights out at 9p.m. (every single night!), running 4 miles before breakfast and spending all day in class getting it drilled into their heads that aggression doesn't pay.

The result?

The unlimited carnage and spectacular military disasters of the 20th Century have created an American military culture that is very aware of the hazards involved in launching a major land invasion of anywhere. On the other hand, our freewheeling education system has created an entire generation of civilian leadership with virtually no knowledge of history at all. The President, installed at the top of the command structure by the framers to protect us from hot-headed generals, railroaded us into a clearly unworkable scenario in Mesopotamia while the military establishment was backstage waving their hands in the air and mouthing "NO!...NO!...NO!". In the end, there was nothing they could really do about it, so they just saluted, said "Yes Sir" and took a crack at it as best they could.

And here we are.

Yike.


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