[Billthedrill]

The author is a journalist, not a military person, or he might know better. It is the United States, not Europe, who has most recently been scarred by a major conflict, and Vietnam is still very fresh in the minds of my generation of citizens. We were long ago disabused of any naive notions of war, and long ago informed at tedious length of the European experience in turning their beautiful countrysides into charnel houses.

Nor have we forgotten Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and if some Europeans have it is understandable but not forgivable. It is they, and not we, who have presented the world with the central moral dilemma of our time: how much can one ignore in the interest of not dirtying one's hands, and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered? These are not academic questions.

For the author to presume to speak for a country, his own, Great Britain, who has certainly learned these lessons well, and had the courage to defy the stormwinds of European criticism to stand by us, is simply sad. To those British friends reading this I apologize for him - if he doesn't know any better, we do.

[Mr. Mojo]

and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered?

Nice job.

[marron]

". It is they, and not we, who have presented the world with the central moral dilemma of our time: how much can one ignore in the interest of not dirtying one's hands, and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered? These are not academic questions."

Well said.

[gobucks]

Wish I had made the same point .... it's obvious now.

[Keith]

well said...Bush could have used you in the SOTU...

[Bigg Red]

It is they, and not we, who have presented the world with the central moral dilemma of our time: how much can one ignore in the interest of not dirtying one's hands, and at what point do scruples and a preference for the niceties of international order become the handcuffs that allow cowards to oppress the weak unhindered?

***
Most eloquent and so true.