International security

The Science of Killing Has Become an Impractical Instrument of Political Domination

Surveying the U.S.'s imminent defeat in Vietnam in his 1972 book, Roots of War, Richard Barnet observed, "…at the very moment the number one nation has perfected the science of killing, it has become an impractical instrument of political domination."

Since the 1980s, the U.S. has systematically violated the U.N. Charter's prohibition against the threat or use of military force, carving out a regime of impunity for itself based on its Security Council veto, its non-recognition of international courts, and sophisticated "information warfare" to whitewash its crimes.  But is it possible that our country's decades-long campaign to politically legitimize "the science of killing" has been wasted on something that doesn't work any more? 

Nations wage war to achieve political and economic aims, by militarily defeating enemies and imposing their will on defeated countries and populations.  There are therefore two ways that wars can fail: either by failing to defeat the enemy, like the U.S. wars in Korea and Vietnam; or by failing to impose the victor's will on the enemy's society -- the classical definition of a hollow victory -- as in Iraq and Libya.