One Year Ago Today on GINA COBB: Releasing the Dove of Peace Into the Falcon's Talons

Originally published on June 1, 2007:  Releasing the Dove of Peace Into the Falcon's Talons

Neo-neocon writes insightfully about what happens when a nation "breaks the big stick" -- that is, removes the threat of war in hopes of achieving peace, as America did in Vietnam:

Peace treaties—unless they are negotiated at the end of a war in which one side is so utterly defeated it cannot soldier on—must have some sort of credible threat of force backing them up. But if that proverbial “big stick” is removed, the enemy knows it has nothing to fear.

Congress is once again intent, I’m afraid, on breaking that stick in half and casting it on the waters of an illusory peace.

Neo-neocon has it right.  "Peace through strength" has become a cliche, but it is also a viable strategy that works in the real world. 

Peace through weakness is a non sequitur.  Peace doesn't happen that way.

Or, if I may mix metaphors, if America retreats from a hotly contested battlefield  too soon, and with no serious threat of return, it will be releasing a dove of peace directly into the talons of a falcon.  What happens next will not be pretty, and it certainly will not be peace.

Neo-neocon writes insightfully about what happens when a nation "breaks the big stick" -- that is, removes the threat of war in hopes of achieving peace, as America did in Vietnam:

Peace treaties—unless they are negotiated at the end of a war in which one side is so utterly defeated it cannot soldier on—must have some sort of credible threat of force backing them up. But if that proverbial “big stick” is removed, the enemy knows it has nothing to fear.

Congress is once again intent, I’m afraid, on breaking that stick in half and casting it on the waters of an illusory peace.

Neo-neocon has it right.  "Peace through strength" has become a cliche, but it is also a viable strategy that works in the real world. 

Peace through weakness is a non sequitur.  Peace doesn't happen that way.

Or, if I may mix metaphors, if America retreats from a hotly contested battlefield  too soon, and with no serious threat of return, it will be releasing a dove of peace directly into the talons of a falcon.  What happens next will not be pretty, and it certainly will not be peace.