In Waging Peace, aptly subtitled "The Art of War for the Anti-War Movement," Scott Ritter bemoans the obvious fact that the peace movement lacks an effective strategy to win peace. As a well-versed military man, Scott quotes warrior Sun Tzu:
1. All war is based on deception.
2. The supreme excellence is to subdue the armies of your enemy without fighting a battle.
3. He wins who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
Scott, a disgusted one-time Republican, then critiques the peace movement, Democrats, and progressives, by noting how they too often want to:
· Push a multiplicity of non-focused, self-absorbing issues.
· Act as chiefs on the battlefield of healthy policy implementation.
· Divert their time and energies into activities that have little effective strategic value.
Ritter's book and talks call on the peace movement to fight like smart armies do. To do that, they need leadership and a strategy, not a series of ineffectual tactics. He calls on them to OODA, observe, orient, decide, and act.
The later half of his book is a copy of the Constitution. The Constitution, opines Ritter, is from whence the anti-war movement ought to develop a strategy that wins the war for peace.
That last half of the book may be a good way to get more Americans to think more about how to:
"...form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..." Unfortunately, restating the Constitution does not provide anti-war activists, political parties, progressives, etc., a strategy that produces a character-rich public policy, which would only rarely include warring.In mid-April at Mill Valley's Throckmorton Theater, Scott Ritter and Elizabeth de le Vega reiterated how we were conned into a stupid Iraq War. Barely fifty true believers each plopped down $15 to hear Marine Ritter and former federal prosecutor de le Vega give a talk chock-full of sad information. That evening 280 people jammed the theater, shelling out $40 per head to hear Robin Williams' view of the world. Neither talk offered a strategy that would engrain into our character a better public policy. But, without a service draft, crowds will probably always choose to laugh.
Lacking an effective strategy has produced the Iraqi quagmire and has kept peace-wagers stuck in the mud. Here's the root of the problem behind stupid wars and quagmires ... and a solution.
War's roots
Too few Americans have the indelible learning and knowledge experiences that allow them to understand international cultures, policies, and how that lack of knowledge affect our domestic policies. Consequently, too few Americans have the common sense to trust character-rich Americans who serve in those settings. Instead, Americans are conned into believing trite phrases that revolve around simplistic rah-rah superficial patriotism is an effective policy.
The result? Too few Americans knew, or learned quickly enough, that it was dangerous and dumb to trust:
