The more ambitious wars are, the greater the likelihood that they will go awry. Wars usually become nightmares that last far longer than expected, and their ultimate consequences can rarely be predicted. These monumental legacies of failure have shaped the past century profoundly and have altered decisively the existences of countless millions: destroyed their lives, driven them into exile, or traumatized what might have been the joys and cares of normal existence. Innumerable nations that embarked on vainglorious missions to use their military power to attain political goals inflicted unimaginable suffering on other countries but also on their own people, thereby condemning their own destinies: some to social and political disorder or even to revolutions, to the decline of power and prestige, and to fates that were far worse than had they done nothing. Empires have risen, but they have also fallen. The strongest argument against one nation interfering with another does not have to be deduced from any doctrine, moral or otherwise: it is found by looking honestly at the history of past centuries.
The more ambitious wars are, the greater the likelihood that they will go awry. Wars usually become n…
Gabriel Kolko
Gabriel Morris Kolko (17. august 1932 – 19. maj 2014) var en amerikansk historiker. Hans forskningsinteresser omfattede amerikansk kapitalisme og politisk historie, den progressive æra og amerikansk udenrigspolitik i det 20. århundrede. En af de bedst kendte revisionistiske historikere, der skrev om den kolde krig, var også blevet krediteret som "en skarp kritiker af den progressive æra og dens forhold til det amerikanske imperium." Den amerikanske historiker Paul Buhle opsummerede Kolkos karriere, da han beskrev ham som "en stor teoretiker af det, der kom til at blive kaldt Corporate Liberalism...[og] en meget stor historiker af Vietnamkrigen og dens diverse krigsforbrydelser."