A bunch of scholarly buttoned up types are getting together at Chapman University tomorrow to consider the question……. Are we really at war?

It would take a bunch of lawyers to come up with a question like that. (with apologies to my daughter who just passed her bar exam)

The interdisciplinary symposium will examine the question of whether the United States is really “at war,” and will challenge participants to think anew about global conflict and insecurities by questioning some of our basic premises and assumptions. What is war? Is it simply the absence of peace? What does war look like – and what should it look like – in an age of globalization that is marked by fragmented power, privatized resources and proliferating threats of terrorism and mass destruction?

So, I know that Hurley is wondering if victuals and drink are an illusion of his senses but I am beginning to think the fictional character on Lost has a better handle on reality than the big “global” thinkers who are meeting at Chapman University tomorrow. One of the three keynote speakers is retired General Joseph P. Hoar, a Kerry man if I ever saw one….very anti-Bush. I know his premise will be we can’t be at war, we didn’t commit enough troops therefore “we’re looking into the abyss.”

And is this “age of globalization” really so unique? I can remember other ages during world history where the shipment of goods and trade around the known world influenced geo-political movements and governments. Cultures moved, changed and assimilated. What does that have to do with whether our nation is at war today?

Privatized resources are resources owned by business interests as opposed to governments….we have seen all that before: during the middle ages in Europe, the privatization of India by the East India Company during the Colonial Age, the Opium Wars, and many others throughout history.

Fragmented power? Well, yes, the U.S. has been a power in the world since 1776 and others have risen and fallen…..mainly fallen. But our nation still has allies in Europe and nearly every place in the world and through this “War” that lawyers think is not really a war Lebanon is emerging from its bondage to Syria, Iraq is struggling to form a democratic government, Arafat is still dead, and Moammar Gaddafi has given up his weapons of mass destruction……

That’s a good fragmentation of power.

And as to the proliferation of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, if the global experts really want to consider whether we are at war why were guerilla and anti-insurgency experts not invited to the symposium? In fact, this global war on terrorism is a superb example of guerilla warfare carried to the extreme. Any insurgency is a war stressing political ideas as the weapon instead of the use of the military as a mere adjunct to a political goal.

The evolution from Clausewitz to Mao has given us a lesson in the subtlety of the use of terrorism as a primary force. It is sad that our society today refuses to acknowledge this fact. This symposium provides us with an insight into how the so-called experts still look to World War ll and Korea as a blueprint of how to protect our nation.

The insane notion of discussing how to fight terrorism with the weapons and ideas of yesterday provides us with a great opportunity to investigate our nations ultimate defeat. Again, our elite intelligensia are making the same mistakes they made in Vietnam.

So the symposium at Chapman University is to dig deep to discover if we are really and truly at war? Or not? If they really want to know why is only one individual with military credentials (who really hates President Bush) invited to address the crowd of deep thinkers? (except one visiting panelist, Dr. Joseph Morrison Skelly – Assistant Professor of History, College of Mount Saint Vincent, U.S. Army Reserve, Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran)

Chapman University would do better to let Dr. Joseph Skelly give the keynote address but I suppose that wouldn’t do. Skelly actually served in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Hopefully he can provide a slide show so the ivory tower types can view the photos never carried in the MSM.

I think we are at war. In fact, I know we are at war. I actually have family members preparing to go to war or at least to the remnants of the war. I pray that it becomes less of a war every day. That’s what most people of good will want.

Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt