At least if you *choose* to go in, or stay out, you are forced into a rational assessment of the pros and cons. If you maintain your present course by default, then eventually you are going to hit the rocks, and you won’t know it before it’s too late.

On balance I was against the war, but I view the default anti-war attitude of most of Europe as an extremely worrying head-in-sand attitude that will eventually cause a hell of a lot of problems in the long run. They have basically become unthinking “inertialists” i.e. at all costs don’t act to destabilise the status quo, no matter what the arguments for doing so, or how dire the consequences of inaction. Very reminiscent of the 1930s.

America and the UK (also the Spanish leader, and Australia), on the other hand, at least recognise the need for *decision*. Even if they had decided not to invade Iraq, it would have been for specific, not general reasons.

The Stockholder law suit makes American corporations the most accountable to share holders on the face of the planet. As the ELF scandle in Europe and the bank crisis is Japan (compared to the American S&L scandle) show that the American system addresses with corruption far better than any other market system on the planet.

In the specific case of the American military’s use of cluster muntions, Iraq showed that the combination of the tactical munition dispenser cluster bomb and the wind corrected muntion PGM kit made for the deadliest weapon of the war. Post war analysis showed it was inflicting _40% casualties_ on selected Iraqi air defense and Republican Guard units.

At best, the US military will use fewer cluster bombs and more thermobaric weapons to achieve the same sorts of precision guided area affect kills.

Is (Dave’s phrase) “modern American nationalism” imbued with an inability to admit systemic error?

I don’t think so. My impression is that many Americans are critical of their country, and that as a society we eventually, in most cases, correct gross mistakes.

Social critiques like the Body and Soul post, on a variety of topics, are frequent and AFAIK have always been.

Also, note that the Body and Soul post cites mainly journalists and military people who are cited by journalists. There may be a sampling bias here.

I think it would be helpful to ask also whether modern Islamic civilization and, to a lesser extent, that of European socialism, are “imbued with an inability to admit systemic error.”

Your general points about risk management are good.