Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
The American Revolutionaries wore brown clothes and hid behind trees and rocks to shoot at British soldiers wearing red jackets marching in straight lines. This was a violation of the “rules of war” of that time period. The familiar Geneva Convention “rules of war” were crafted after World War I to protect draftees compelled to fight for nation-states. Modern military theorists talk of 4th Generation Warfare in which large formations of men and machines are useless against small, agile teams of mobile warriors, like trying to kill a swarm of mosquitoes with a sledge hammer.
Iraq War I, with Stormin’ Norman’s giant lines of tanks encircling armies in Kuwait, was 3rd Generation Warfare, as was much of Iraq War II. Some parts of America’s military have been learning to fight 4th Generation Warfare, notably the SEALs who fought in Afghanistan. But they’re still America’s warriors, they serve the nation of the United States.
But what is the United States? A geographical location? A shared belief? A place where groups struggle against each other: rich against poor, Black against White? Barack Obama seems intent on transforming the United States into something different from what it was then Bush The Elder was President. What if President Obama is ahead of his time? What if nation-states are obsolete? What if the United States is obsolete? Nations arose out of tribes, what comes after nations? Maybe by transforming the United States into a collection of factions contesting against each other, he’s moving us toward 4th Generation Society.
Question is: would that be a good thing?
Joe Doakes
Good for whom?
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