Social Work and National Interest
Reader comment on item: War as Social Work?

Submitted by William Kinney (United States), May 7, 2003 at 23:01

The war in Bosnia would have spread slowly throughout eastern and central Europe; it actually did spread. We couldn't let this go on for twenty years. Clinton wasn't just a weepy-head here.

Our national interest is not the only factor, but a clear sight of it is necesssary. Colin Powell might not have crumpled under the withering press attack on the damage we were doing to the Republican Guard, and might not have called a halt to our cutting them off entirely, which stranded the Shiite uprising to be butchered while the same press had no answer to this massacre.

People do not seem to grasp Afghanistan. Since Alexander the Great, this land has never been conquered. The Soviets couldn't. We just swept through there in a few months! Defining our presence as in great part social work is helping us stay long enough for stability to be established. But Daniel Pipes is right. We already achieved the most pressing part of our national interest there. Do you realize how amazing this is!?

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