War, that is.
America's current relationship with war started after WWII, the last time the constitution was respected and war was declared. Since then, "war" has been redefined and very war-like activities and control of military actions have been delegated, by congress, to the executive branch. Over several recent administrations we've seen the executive branch taking military action without prior congressional approval and increasingly without notification. Arguably, America's use of military force has been more brazen of late, but this is a difference in degree rather than kind.
Ever since the advent of the all-volunteer military, society's relationship with "war" has been transformed. After a few generations without a credible threat of a draft, many segments of our society, particularly the "elites" have personal experience with the military, or even near adjacency. There are lots of folks, not just Gronk, who cannot get USAA insurance. Men no longer burn draft cards nor women their bras (wasn't America great back then?) and our use of the very word, war, has been transformed. Diluted. Eviscerated.
We apply "war" to damn near anything, without having body counts recited every evening on the evening news...Goodnight Chet. We've had a war on terror, which did involve "kinetic actions" but more dangerous is applying the term "war" to non-military situations. We've had a "war on poverty." A "war on hunger." And when "just say no" fell flat and "your brain on drugs" reminded folks of a post-party WaHo breakfast, we now have a "war on drugs."
Is anyone really surprised that the combination of concentrating power in the executive branch and the hyperbolic rhetoric this "war" resulted in military action? Really?
Now we're confronted with deja vu, An Operational Necessity, the book, not the mission concept in OpNavInst 3710.7Q. The recent engagement in the Caribbean faintly resembles the situation in the book, with some key differences. There is no declared war. Only one participant is bringing military power to bear, though the French freighter was unarmed. In the war, the real war, the attackers were brought to justice, such as it was when the defeated faced the victorious, with the Germans fairing poorly.
Today there will be no Nuremberg. No trials. But going forward maybe we should be a bit more careful when conflating the merely important with the truly life-threatening.
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