E Pluribus Unum

Somewhere in one of John Rogers' posts I found a link to John Robb's blog, Global Guerillas, wherein Robb discusses the concept of open-source warfare.

There's way too much there to do it justice in a single (or multiple) short posts, but I think Robb nails it in one specific post when he talks about perpetual war and how it enables and strengthens a regime. That's nothing new. What stopped me and made me think was how that it happening here in the US.

A sample:

The privatization of conflict. This is likely the critical factor that makes perpetual warfare possible. For all intents and purposes, the US isn't at war. The use of a professional military in combination with corporate partners has pushed warfare to the margins of political/social life. A war's initiation and continuation is now merely a function of our willingness/ability to finance it. Further, since privatization mutes moral opposition to war (i.e. "our son isn't forced to go to war to die") the real damage at the ballot box is more likely to impact those that wish to end its financing. To wit: every major presidential candidate in the field today now gives his/her full support to the continuation of these wars.

The guy is very perceptive and he is changing the way I look at war and politics -- and this campaign for president.