[Peace-discuss] casus belli

[C. G. Estabrook]

As the war began, members of the House of Representatives gave speech
after speech praising our soldiers, and passed a resolution declaring
their support for the troops. Then they voted to slash veterans' benefits
...  What that scene demonstrated was the belief of the Republican
leadership that if it wraps itself in the flag, and denounces critics as
unpatriotic, it can get away with just about anything. And the scary thing
is that this belief may be justified.

For the overwhelming political lesson of the last year is that war works
-- that is, it's an excellent cover for the Republican Party's domestic
political agenda. In fact, war works in two ways. The public rallies
around the flag, which means the President and his party; and the public's
attention is diverted from other issues.

As long as the nation is at war, then, it will be hard to get the public
to notice what the flagwavers are doing behind our backs. And it just so
happens that the "Bush doctrine," which calls for preventive war against
countries that may someday pose a threat, offers the possibility of a
series of wars against nasty regimes with weak armies.

Someday the public will figure all this out. But it may be a very long
wait.  --Paul Krugman, NYT 4/15/03