Clausewitz...

If War is politics by other means, and politics is an extension of the national will, then what can we say about the American way of waging war?

The past century has seen the United States involved in conflicts great and small, all around the globe. Yet, there is no consistent thread of reason behind this involvement. Sometimes, the exercise of force is purely on the basis of national interests, at other times, moral or ethical issues motivate the deployment of soldiers to fight. Yet American soldiers have been withdrawn, some say due to political cowardice, in situations like the Beirut bombing, or in Somalia. America has also refused to deploy troops even when there is a overwhelming moral imperative, as in Darfur.

The American military, then, can be seen as a raging wildfire, with no lasting purpose, no long term direction. It takes the direction of the blowing winds of popular opinion, ever-changing. Although wildfires devastate the land, some seeds need a fire before they can germinate. Similarly, military intervention is not uniformly bad.

Therefore, for better or for worse, the world is currently held hostage to the domestic concerns of the American public. Is the oldest surviving democracy the best leader of an increasingly multi-polar world?