Mr Hill:
Perhaps the reason why you don’t hear much talk about a political settlement is because the media is blinded to any success in Iraq. All the military folks know that only a political settlement will work, and that they are only providing stability in Iraq until Iraw can provide its own security and develop its own political settlement.
We military types know that war is the use of force to help achieve political objectives, as Clausewitz first put into words two centuries ago. Contrariwise, if the use of force won’t help achieve political objectives, then don’t use force! (or the military)
So has anyone ever stated what the political objectives are in Bosnia or Kosovo that the military is aiding? Or how the military is aiding any political objectives? At the time, after we went in, John McCain correctly identified maintaining the credibility of NATO as a reason for REMAINING, but to my knowledge, no one has ever identified how the use of force would aid any specified political objective.
