ISIS Coming To A City Near You

You can't be serious. EVERY war is prosecuted both on the battlefield and through public opinion.

Bush's pitch to begin both wars was 100 percent about convincing the public, and by extension Congress and the UN, that they were just causes and necessary to protect American lives.

Vietnam was probably one of the most poorly "marketed" and unsupported wars in history. How did that work out, with all our focus on waging war instead of PR?

 

Hey neighbor let me give you some advice
The Russians are about to pulverize us
In our sleep tonight
That is if the crazy Arabs
Or the riots don't get us first
And the fire will rain down from the sky
The fire will rain down from the sky
People will die--People will die
People will die--People will die
But go ahead sleep tight in your beds
Remember what the wise man said

 

I understand the marketing aspect and its importance in the run-up to war. But the actual prosecution of a war suffers greatly when marketing is the primary goal. Obviously, propaganda can be an effective tool, but to crossthread a bit, war in the information age has just become another political tactic without any real goals. That is where the Bush administration failed miserably, and that is why the "effort" failed.

I don't really have any faith that war can be waged effectively in this day and age, and that's a scary thought because at some point it will have to be. Do you have faith that it can be?

 

It was going fine in Afghanistan, where it rightly should have been, until Cheney decided to go into Iraq.

 

You could never do anything like that today, because it would be considered mean and inconsiderate. How un-PC of us! We need to understand our enemies better. Vox just told me that violence is not the answer against evil.

 

Nothing has ever gone fine in Afghanistan.

 

Yes, I do, especially as we move away from conventional warfare in fighting an unconventional enemy.

And, while some put more emphasis on it than others, I don't think there's a war in history during which "marketing" was the primary goal.

 

War as politics. That's what America does now. It's unfortunate.

 

It's funny you say that. One of my taxi drivers in D.C. this weekend grew up in Kabul -- before the days of the Russians -- and said it was one of the great places on the planet with world-class learning institutions and art and the whole beautiful scene.

Astonishing Pictures Of Afghanistan From Before The Wars - Business Insider

We talked about this and that. Kind of heartbreaking to hear him describe Afghanistan then, and now.

It will never, he said, be the same Afghanistan.

 

That is, of course, if you referring to "ever gone fine" in terms of war.

 

It's what America has always done.