Monday, September 11, 2006
How to wage war
According to the American Conservative's James Pinkerton, this is how we should be dealing with our enemies:
Be ruthless. We might consider, for example, the Effectiveness Lesson in the Book of Samuel. God said to Saul: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." But while Saul mostly followed the Lord's commandment, he spared a few folks and critters. God was outraged at this insufficient ruthlessness. As future-king Samuel explained to soon-to-be-ex-king Saul, "Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." So Samuel had to mop up, completing the earth-scorching. Now that's Effectiveness.
Similarly, when the Romans wanted to be rid of troublesome Carthage once and for all, they flattened the city and plowed the leveled ground with salt. Carthago was truly delenda, and it hasn't been heard from since. More recently, when white Americans and Australians wanted to Manifest their Destiny over their respective continents, they mostly massacred the aboriginal peoples, occasionally deigning to miscegenate with them. The Chinese are using equally Effective tactics in Tibet today.
In geopolitics, possession-by-domination is nine-tenths of the law; demography is political destiny. In the meantime, after 213 years of attempted subjugation, the Russians are still Ineffective in Chechnya. Vladimir Putin might be asking himself, WWSD? -- What Would Stalin Do? And the answer to that question might well be: total wipeout, by any WMD necessary. Note to other countries dealing with uppity populations: it's genocide, but it's been proven Effective.
Indeed.
Be ruthless. We might consider, for example, the Effectiveness Lesson in the Book of Samuel. God said to Saul: "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." But while Saul mostly followed the Lord's commandment, he spared a few folks and critters. God was outraged at this insufficient ruthlessness. As future-king Samuel explained to soon-to-be-ex-king Saul, "Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." So Samuel had to mop up, completing the earth-scorching. Now that's Effectiveness.
Similarly, when the Romans wanted to be rid of troublesome Carthage once and for all, they flattened the city and plowed the leveled ground with salt. Carthago was truly delenda, and it hasn't been heard from since. More recently, when white Americans and Australians wanted to Manifest their Destiny over their respective continents, they mostly massacred the aboriginal peoples, occasionally deigning to miscegenate with them. The Chinese are using equally Effective tactics in Tibet today.
In geopolitics, possession-by-domination is nine-tenths of the law; demography is political destiny. In the meantime, after 213 years of attempted subjugation, the Russians are still Ineffective in Chechnya. Vladimir Putin might be asking himself, WWSD? -- What Would Stalin Do? And the answer to that question might well be: total wipeout, by any WMD necessary. Note to other countries dealing with uppity populations: it's genocide, but it's been proven Effective.
Indeed.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, September 11, 2006 
