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July 8, 2006
WB: World Wars of Choice
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Ex-CIA director: U.S. faces ‘World War IV’
Former CIA Director James Woolsey said Wednesday the United States is engaged in World War IV, and that it could continue for years.
In the address to a group of college students, Woolsey described the Cold War as the third world war and said “This fourth world war, I think, will last considerably longer than either World Wars I or II did for us. Hopefully not the full four-plus decades of the Cold War.”
Woolsey has been named in news reports as a possible candidate for a key position in the reconstruction of a postwar Iraq.
He said the new war is actually against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the “fascists” of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda.
You see, North Korea is not on his list.
from this past may’s CNBC interview w/ the guy pretending to be the president of the united states
MR. KUDLOW: Scott Beamer, the late Scott Beamer’s dad, David, was on our program. He wrote a great article in The Wall Street Journal, and he said essentially, that when the passengers retook that plane [flight 93], he called it the first counterattack for World War III.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah.
MR. KUDLOW: I didn’t know if you saw that. I don’t know if you have a thought on that–
PRESIDENT BUSH: I believe that. I believe that it was the first counterattack to World War III. It was, it was unbelievably heroic of those folks on the airplane to recognize the danger and save lives.
You know, it’s been one a the–war is terrible, but war brings out, you know, in some ways, it touches the core of Americans who volunteer to go in to combat to protect their–so it touches something unique, I think about our country.
Posted by: b real | Jul 8 2006 4:53 utc | 2
This whole ‘world war’ thing is so fucking ego-centric it just blows me away. Like when alla the white people go to war its a world war yet when the browns, blacks, and off-whites resist that’s a ‘rebellion or an insurgency.
In fact these labels mean nothing For example when the white fellas were fighting world war one did they call it world war one? If they did how did they know there was going to be more than one?
I reckon they called it the “Great War”. Now dragging that terminology out again in 1939 might have made a few volunteers head for the hills, since about 20% of males between 18-45 got wasted the first time, plus the womenfolk might have been reluctant to hand out white feathers once more. I mean to say western countries were chocka with librarians, schoolteachers and nurses so what would the next big mob of spinsters get up to?
Admitting that this was part two of the same war would also have meant that they hadn’t won the first one. A bit like ‘mission accomplished’ only more so. So we got “World War 2” and ‘The Great War’ became “World War One”.
I mean to say the “Great War” never worked for me anyway. What was so great about it?
But World War that’s a whole other thing. That began toward the end of the 17th century and hasn’t ever looked like ending. I suppose it will one day but not before everyone is dead and or there is nothing left to steal, sorry I meant to say nothing left to develop.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 8 2006 7:48 utc | 3
Reading Robert Fisk’s _The Great War For Civilization_. Another first-person report — he starts with his first foreign correspondent assignment in war-torn Beirut, flying out to Afghanistan to cover the Soviet invasion. Flashes forward to the same road, this time visiting Osama Bin Ladin. Then back to British colonial stories about the same land. Or so.
It’s really quite good.
Posted by: jonku | Jul 8 2006 11:17 utc | 4
I’m laughing, |. The utter absurdity of it all, don’t forget they called some of it “The Good War.”
Speaking with my dad recently, he described work in the coal mine. A battery powered lantern, so many tons of coal per day expected from each man. The system to follow each seam of coal, drag it out and shore up the ceiling where other crews were working above, only coal not hard rock — living and working inside the damn thing.
Tonight I thought that his later stoicism might not be just a character trait but a product of the times, where labor is the order of the day. Today’s workers don’t labor, we simply spend time; thought and careful action, while always success skills, pay higher dividends today as we are now “knowledge workers.”
Last thought, maybe we should call you “pipe” since that is the computer slang for the character “|” that, like the mark of Zorro, is your only signature.
Posted by: jonku | Jul 8 2006 11:26 utc | 5