Tolstoy's War, what is it good for

May 30, 2006 2:27 PM

White Guilt and the war in Iraq :“Possibly white guilt’s worst effect is that it does not permit whites–and nonwhites–to appreciate something extraordinary: the fact that whites in America, and even elsewhere in the West, have achieved a truly remarkable moral transformation... This is a fact that must be integrated into our public life–absorbed as new history–so that America can once again feel the moral authority to seriously tackle its most profound problems. Then, if we decide to go to war, it can be with enough ferocity to win.”
posted by Smedleyman (4 comments total)

The “politicians holding us back/not enough force” idea has been around for a while. First time I’ve seen it coupled with white guilt.


But Huntington’s The Clash Of Civilisations also addresses cultural identity and war:
“‘There can be no true friends without true enemies. Unless we hate what we are not, we cannot love what we are. These are the old truths we are painfully rediscovering after a century and more of sentimental cant. Those who deny them deny their family, their heritage, their culture, their birthright, their very selves! They will not lightly be forgiven.’”


Sen Chuck Hagel recognizes that there is a paradox in American power that limits it’s ability to achieve some of it’s international goals, but said military might is not enough .


And MLK had an entirely different take on winning and war: “Enlarged power means enlarged peril if there is not concommitant growth of the soul. Genuine power is the right use of strength.”
posted by Smedleyman at 2:30 PM on May 30, 2006

The "white guilt" link is a double.
posted by you just lost the game at 2:36 PM on May 30, 2006

Shelby Steele advances one of the most truly incoherent and just plain inane arguments I have read in a long time.... Many pro-war Bush defenders are drooling with reverence and praise, and for some reason, are viewing Steele's piece as some sort of license to unleash some of the truly ugly impulses which they usually have the decency, or at least political sense, to hide.

The crux of Steele's argument is that ever since World War II, the United States just doesn't fight wars the way we used to, and ought to. We don't use enough force because we suffer from excess restraint. And the reason we are too restrained is because we are laboring under an unwarranted sense of "white guilt," whereby we are too eager and desperate to escape from our distant racist past and prove that we aren't trying to subjugate the "brown people" anymore. As a result, when we fight wars against countries predominantly composed of other races, we are too nice and don't use enough military force, and as a result, we don't win anymore. -- Glenn Greenwald

The End of the End of Racism -- David Neiwert

See also: Dolchstosslegende
posted by dhartung at 2:38 PM on May 30, 2006

What the fuck.

This screed reads like the propaganda at your local "White Power" meetings. Um, right. This is rather repugnant.

Remind me not to throw up the next time I hear more ignorant crap like this coming from a white person.

Pride is a sin, kids. All religions (except Satanism, but you know, whatever) preach that. Shit on your family. That's why you leave home when you are old enough. If they sucker you into coming back and paying "respect" to them after you can stand on your own, that's your own damn fault. (I'm only half kidding)

"White Guilt" my ass. Ignorant bigotry in all forms is ugly.
posted by daq at 2:43 PM on May 30, 2006