War as Morality
Author John T. Flynn noted in his 1944 survey of fascism that one of the essential elements of that ideology was the portrayal of aggressive warfare as a morally regenerative mechanism for society. Flynn summed up fascist aggression — whether Nazi, Italian, or American — as justified in the following pseudo-moralistic tone: "We are the trustees of the world's progress and the guardians of its righteous peace [and] are chosen as God's missionaries to bring freedom and civilization and three square meals a day to all lands everywhere."If that doesn't sound like Mr. Clinton's fellow war hawks on the Kosovo war, then consider the April 1st Wall Street Journal. The op-ed page ran an opinion piece by its features editor, Max Boot, under the appropriate headline, "When War Is an Act of Charity." The article described the un-declared war by Mr. Clinton against Yugoslavia — blasting the nearly defenseless country to kingdom come — as an act of charity. "The F-16s and B-2s, in short, are being used in an act of international charity on a grand scale." This lends an entirely new meaning to the phrase "giving until it hurts."
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer (CFR) picked up on this phenomenon in a column in which he criticized the Clinton Administration's tactics in the war. Krauthammer argued that the Clinton Administration has avoided the low-flying campaign needed to attack directly the Serb forces engaged in the so-called "ethnic cleansing" in an effort to minimize American servicemen casualties. As a result, the high-altitude bombing campaign has led to accidental civilian massacres by the allies and left the depredations of Milosevic's police state apparatus largely untouched. "This is cynicism," wrote Krauthammer, "fighting not to win, not even to save, but to feel righteous."
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