Hyperwar

In the movie, as American troops raced toward the Rhine, a German officer knew it was all over for Hitler when he discovered that the Americans had eaten birthday cake at the front. “If they have enough gasoline to waste taking cake to their soldiers at the front, they have enough gasoline to get to Berlin.” It was the WWII version of hyperpower – being bigger, faster and stronger, and having more resources than the other guys. Star Wars was the 1990s version and it collapsed the Soviet Empire without a shot.

In the movie, as American troops raced toward the Rhine, a German officer knew it was all over for Hitler when he discovered that the Americans had eaten birthday cake at the front. “If they have enough gasoline to waste taking cake to their soldiers at the front, they have enough gasoline to get to Berlin.” It was the WWII version of hyperpower – being bigger, faster and stronger, and having more resources than the other guys. Star Wars was the 1990s version and it collapsed the Soviet Empire without a shot.

The President’s remarks last night were meant to address (real or media-generated) concerns about our plans for Iraq. What they actually did was raise, again, the standards for American intervention abroad. It isn’t enough to defend our interests and protect our friends; it isn’t enough to treat the UN as if it is relevant; it isn’t enough to make a coalition of the willing; it isn’t enough to win; it isn’t enough to minimize casualties through technology; it isn’t enough to liberate a people; it isn’t enough to secure the peace. It simply isn’t ever enough unless we ensure that we’ve done it all before we shoot – and even then, some parts of the world aren’t certain they’re safe with us.

Who could have imagined a decision to remove from civilization the terrible threat of WMD in the hands of a man who has been known to use them being so heavily dependent on whether pundits thought we would know what to do with the civilians after we won? Did Eisenhower ask how he would feed the liberated French after Normandy? It was enough, then, to win the war (birthday cake was a bonus).

In Bosnia and Kosovo, we went into battle to clear the way for humanitarian relief. In Afghanistan, we set the precedent for simultaneous civilian relief and military operations, followed by the creation of a post-war government. This has led to Iraq, for which we’ve already organized the post-war government, and as the President said, already put money into UNICEF and UNHCR, and already made plans to use the “Oil for Food” feeding centers for refugee relief.

The Russians leveled Grozny as the Syrians did Hama. The French had no mandate for the Ivory Coast. The Chinese destroyed the peace of Tibet and mowed down students in Tiananmen Square. Saddam gassed the Kurds and pays Palestinians to blow up themselves and Israeli children eating pizza. The Moslem government of Sudan has killed millions of Christians and animists in its own country, dwarfing even the horror of Rwanda. North Korea starves its people and builds nukes.

But somehow, it’s American hyperpower that worries people. The French say it with a sneer and plot to balance the scales. And America is expected to spend months meeting the requirements of the world and its own people that this war be conducted with standards of evidence that jeopardize intelligence assets and that this war be preceded by plans to feed people. But then again, only a hyperpower would be able to.

We say it with pride because only a hyperpower would be willing to.