Thanks for your comments.
In any war, there are neutrals. Clearly, the EU and China are positioning themselves as neutrals, who try to avoid "collateral damage", and make money trading with both sides. India and Russia are already fighting their own permanent wars against intractable insurgencies (Chechnya and Kashmir), as the US is in Afghanistan and Iraq, and as Israel is in Palestine. Perhaps Russia and India, if they see our ambitions as too vast, will try to separate their wars from our more global effort. Or perhaps they will find it useful to ally with us.
It is difficult for those of us in the Peace Camp to admit, but the War Policy is popular. They don't win elections and polls entirely through trickery and fear-mongery. There is a core, deep, basic instinct in humans, to lash out at anyone who hurts us, to solve problems through violence, to huddle with the local tribe and glare out at the Others. Used strictly for self-defense, this instinct helps us survive. But if we don't tame and leash it, if we let it escalate without limit, it becomes self-destructive. |
