Speaking of McCain & Kosovo and Chechnya and such-like, a thought has occurred to me that will probably not be well received (to put it mildly).
It seems to me to be very cowardly to wage long-distance wars, in which one "puts up with" civilian casualties, in order to minimize casualties among one's own military.
Anyone who joins the armed forces is, by implication at least, declaring his willingness to risk his own life. Civilians -- the ones subsumed under the category of "collateral damage" --have made no such commitment. So I see no reason to sacrifice the life of a Serbian or a Chechen baby in exchange for the life of an American or a Russian or a French serviceman who made a conscious decision to embrace a military career, knowing full well what the risks would be.
(Actually, I should exempt most Russian servicemen from this stricture, since most of them are draftees, who would rather be anywhere else on earth than on the battlefield. And that, of course, is why the Chechens beat them the first time round.) |
