"Being fond of the truth, I am an admirer of antiquity." --  Confucius

"Breaking the continuity with the past, wanting to begin again, is a lowering of man and a plagiarism of the orangutan." --  Jose Ortega Y Gasset

"The greater the disregard of history, the greater the delusions regarding the future." -- Robert D. Kaplan 

OMED: there is dispute about this book, particularly with respect to Kaplan's seeming belief that the spread of Western democracy is not necessarily a good thing across the globe.  Here is a quote from Steven Alford, in a Houston Chronicle review:  "Despite careful readings of Machiavelli and Hobbes, however,  Kaplan fails to distinguish between  selfishness and self-interest. While selfishness ignores the interests of others (Hobbes' idea of human nature), self-interest, in action, is a much more complex idea and one that distinguishes Machiavelli from Hobbes." 

Peggy says that it is Alford who has misread Kaplan, not Kaplan who has misread Machiavelli.  Click here.  Now to Peggy's review, which deals with the central theme of the book:

   Through centuries of oral and written history, men who want to be wise have studied the past.  Knowledge and technology expand and change our world continually and our understanding of it, but human nature and the full range of human passions are an unchanging constant.  That is both the warning and the promise of history.

    The focus of Warrior Politics is foreign policy, and that focus determined for Robert  Kaplan which of the writers of the past -- historians, statesmen, warriors and philosophers --  he chose to  reference in this book.  He gives us the stories, the observations, the hard-learned lessons and wisdom of such men as Churchill, Livy, Sun-Tzu and Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Tiberius.  Kaplan insists that ancient history "is the surest guide to what we are likely to face in the twenty-first century."  He urges not specific policy but "policy as an outgrowth of thinking -- not feeling,"  And he also warns that  "Behind the errors of Marxism and other follies lay the error of reading from the past too narrowly into the future." 

  What becomes clear while reading this book is that today's Democratic Party leaders are inadequate in recognizing, or formulating effective policy for, the dangers facing America.  Their ideological loathing for one of the most vital tools of  foreign policy and  defense of the country -- the intelligence community -- reveals their irrelevance to our leadership requirements.  From Sun-Tzu we learn that  "[F]oreknowledge cannot be had from ghosts and spirits...It must come from people who know the enemy's situation."  Kaplan says: "A society like our own, which often heaps scorn on espionage and thus fails to attract its best people to the intelligence profession, is a society destined to stumble periodically into unnecessary wars."  Could September 11 have been avoided had our intelligence agencies not been reduced over the past decades by Democrats in Congress and a scornful liberal media, to risk-averse, chair-bound, blind-folded bureaucrats?

  History offers us many examples to show that appeasement of deadly enemies is not a durable protection.  Referring to World War Two, Kaplan reminds us that Chamberlain believed Hitler could not be stopped, that the rest of the world would have to find a way to get along with him.  Today, much of Europe as well as  liberals in America  believe that radical Islamist terrorists  have to be appeased or "understood" because they are too widespread to be eliminated.  Kaplan recalls Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address: "I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do.  I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing."  Churchill and Reagan were 'blessed with a 'moral passion' -- more effective than pragmatism and fatalism," as President Bush is blessed, today.

  Kaplan also warns that a problem for America in the coming century is "the media becoming a world power in its own right. The power of the media is willful and dangerous because it dramatically affects Western policy while bearing no responsibility for the outcome."  They are accountable to no one. The liberal media assumes a moral high ground based on feelings of righteousness and being nice. "The more the barons of punditry demand morality in complex situations overseas, where all the options are either bad or involve great risk, the more virtue our leaders may need in order to deceive them."  Machiavelli's  virtue is the opposite of righteousness; it is "a manliness in action for the public good".  "[W]hile suspicion of power has been central to the American Creed," argues Kaplan,  "presidents and military commanders will have to gain breathing space from media assaults to deal with the challenge of split-second decision making in future warfare."

History ancient and modern is over-full of examples of depraved men visiting sudden and violent death on unsuspecting innocents. It happened in America to over 3,000 people in September 2001; it happened again in October2002, leaving 9 dead and many thousands in fear of their lives -- merely to shop for groceries or to allow their children to attend school. There continues to be a litany of death by Muslim terrorists, the "future enemies" Kaplan describes so presciently in his book, and likens them to the monsters of the past. 
 

Kaplan tells of  Rome attacked by Hannibal in the third century B.C., wrecking havoc and  laying waste to farmlands and villages.  Livy describes Hannibal's "nihilistic craving for violence and turmoil..."   Even by the standards of his time he was heartless: "he confiscated land and burned children alive...he requires continuous war to legitimize his rule."  This is an apt description of Saddam Hussain or bin Laden or murderous Islamic religious leaders today.  Hussain has deadly chemical and biological weapons and is working furiously to obtain nuclear weapons to share with the others. 

The Romans argued and debated over how to deal with Hannibal, even as such debate rages in the world today, but then determined to fight back.  Men left their farms and businesses; in the long struggle many lost their lives.  But  Hannibal was defeated. The courage and relentlessness of the Romans continue to inspire us today, even as future generations will be inspired by our war today  to preserve our civilization

 "Livy shows that the vigor it takes to face our adversaries must ultimately come from pride in our own past and achievements.  Romantcizing our past is something to be cultivated, rather than ashamed of." 

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was applauded by Americans when he announced to the world following the September 11th massacre: "We should be conscious of the superiority of our civilization, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it and guarantees respect for human rights and religion.  This respect certainly does not exist in Islamic countries."  (OMED: a longstanding quote on the Oregon Magazine editorial page.) Berlusconi was denounced by the Left around the world for presuming to make a value judgement.  Kaplan would agree with him, and also says that only America has both the economic and military means and the moral passion to wage war successfully against these "future enemies" --  who are already upon us.

Kaplan believes the ancient Chinese, Greek and Roman philosophers and war leaders would  have little difficulty, despite the advanced technology,  grasping the human issues facing us today. Civil government regulates how men may go about obtaining the possessions and power they covet, but there will always be men who choose to destroy civil societies in order to simply  take what they want.  The twenty-first century's  new warrior class "is as cruel as ever -- and better armed. Defeating [these] warriors will depend on our speed of reaction, not international law." 

                                             -- Peggy Whitcomb

© 2002 Peggy Whitcomb  Photos often link to their source, or to related subject information.