The ‘war’ news is really strange. For example, from an article in the NY Times:
Washington, on the other hand, is trying to resolve the issue of Iraq’s compliance with inspections as quickly as possible so that if it comes to war, military action can be taken this winter. If the inspections are stymied, as the White House expects, the United States would be able to attack when the cooler temperatures make it easier for American troops to operate in bulky chemical gear and the longer nights enable them to take advantage of their night vision equipment.
It just points out how this is more like a gang dispute rather than a ‘war’. Bush and the rest of Hell’s choir spout slogans and belligerence against Iraq, but yet they engage in this invasion as if it were part of their business plan. Isn’t the nature of war that something presents itself as an immediate danger to your people and you fight that threat? As Clausewitz wrote, “War is politics by other means.” It is all power politics and economics.
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. – George Orwell, 1984