War is the answer, peace is the result...

A parked car on the Pepperdine campus had a bumper sticker that read, “war is the answer, peace is the result.” At first read, it seems a paradox to think that somehow war and peace can coincide. But isn’t the freedom that we Americans enjoy due in part to the use of force? What good is a superpower if it can’t flex its muscles?

This week the Republicans have praised president Bush for shifting U.S. foreign policy from playing a defensive role to playing an offensive one. While the OAS charter is clear that “no state has the right to intervene in the internal or external affairs of another,” it doesn’t address the question, well, does a state have the right to intervene in the affairs of another if that state is planning or aiding a transnational actor with the intent to inflict harm upon another state? (in this case, the U.S.)

Finally, in the case of Iraq, the point was made tonight in class (and by many others) that the Bush administration justified this preventative war based on a lie that Colin Powell gave to the security council about Iraq’s WMDs and that this war is illegitimate. What really frustrates me with this argument is the fact that we can’t undo what already has been done. I think of Iraq as having a “you break, you buy” policy. In that, we are there, we’ve broken it, and now we need to fix it. Checking out and bringing our troops home (who I am extremely proud of), is not the answer. This war was the answer, it has already delivered, and paradoxically, peace will be the result.