When A Nation Goes To War

Chait argues that Joe Klein has over-learned the lessons of the Iraq war:

Klein's argument that "we should never go to war unless we have beenattacked or are under direct, immediate threat of attack" is a prettyextreme position. It would rule out not just the intervention in Bosniaand Kosovo, but also the Gulf War, the Korean War, and going to waragainst Germany in World War II, not to mention obviously Vietnam andWorld War I. Probably the only wars such a standard would permit wouldbe...