I've been reading a book recently called War In Our World. It's actually a series of lectures delivered in 1998 by British historian John Keegan about the nature and origins of war. There are two statements in the book, separated by about half of a page, that seemed to resonate with our current situation:

The decision of the great powers, taken during the struggle against Hitler, to arm guerrilla and partisan forces and to raise civil war as a means of bringing him down set an example easily followed, as it has been by national liberation movements and now by fundamentalists and ethnic extremists around the globe...the encouragement of subversion as a strategy was short-sighted and the long-term price is now being paid. (pg. 71)

War is a protean activity, by which I mean that it changes form, often unpredictably...like disease, it exhibits the capacity to mutate, and mutates fastest in the face of efforts to control or eliminate it. (pg. 72)

These two statements were written three years before 9/11, and they seem eerily prescient to me. I see in them the origin and the future of the U.S. war on terrorism. It's the future part that scares me the most.

Keegan would argue, and I would agree, that terrorism will not be destroyed by our efforts; it will simply change into some other form. Perhaps more important, however, are the changes this war could impose on state-initiated military action. In his book Keegan takes an optimistic viewpoint on the future of war based on the statement that "war is now illegal, except in self-defence or unless sanctioned by the United Nations." What will follow now that the United States has pushed the U.N. aside? If the U.N. did nothing else, it at least provided the perception of authority that most countries were loathe to defy. How can we convince North Korea to respect the forms of international law if we don't do so ourselves? We've set a dangerous precedent, and the nature of war dictates that we won't be able to control the consequences.

I think there were good reasons for our attack on Iraq, especially in light of the new evidence about French and Russian support for Saddam Hussein, but I don't feel that the Bush Administration has taken the time to explore the long-term price of their short-term strategy, just as the Allies failed to do in WW II. I'm not saying that we shouldn't fight back against guerrilla and state-sponsored terrorism, but we have to address both the causes and the symptoms of the problem. If we only address the symptoms, they will simply mutate into something far worse.

  Matrix Fever has a hold on me and won't let go, even after I bribed it with treats and whacked it on the head with a newspaper. To wit: I currently have plans to see The Matrix Reloaded three times. In one day. In a twelve hour period.

It all started with the plan to see the very first midnight show at the Cinerama next Thursday. That show was sold out, so we had to get tickets to the 7 AM show. No big deal; I've been working really hard lately, so I was planning to take the day off anyway. Then somehow the whole thing snowballed, and I ended up agreeing to see shows at 1:30 PM and 7:00 PM. I know this makes me look like the biggest nerd in the world, but I swear I'm not. I live in Seattle, so I'm probably not even the regional champ. I'm district runner-up, tops.

I am very excited to see it, though. I have a theory that everyone in my generation is secretly living in hopes of finding a replacement for Star Wars. Much like the psychological theory that we're all just trying to get back into the womb, my theory states that most of us are trying to get back to the fantastical, magical, comfortable world of Star Wars that we all grew up in. There wasn't really a sufficient substitute until The Matrix came along. Its sexy, stylish, dystopic world appealed to a generation who grew up dreaming of being Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia and instead found themselves spending 15 hours a day tweaking HTML or peddling various forms of high-tech folderol. Or was that just me? *cough*

So here we are. Four years older, four years more dystopic, and ready for more. Will the movie stand up to repeat viewings at the rate of one every four hours? We shall see...


From the Scott Is A Big, Forgetful Jerk Dept.
I made a big deal the other day of adding Peachy to my blog roll, and in the process I completely forgot to add Tony Dowler. Why, you ask? I read him with about the same frequency as I do Peachy, so it can't be that he wasn't on my radar screen. I like his blog, too, so it can't be that I was subconsciously avoiding it.

It turns out that the answer is the same one that applies to so many of my life's questions: I am a big, forgetful jerk. So Tony, please accept my apologies. You get twice as many apologies as Peachy since I forgot about you while I was in the process of remembering her, and also because I can't offer you the prime real estate that she got. You get to be between Sundry and the Quistiltons, though, which is almost as good.

  Just for Pogue:

iTunes Store: More than 1 million sold
"Apple Computer's new online music service sold more than 1 million songs during its first week of operation, the company said Monday."