[Politics] Robert Kaplan on Faith and War

This will only be a brief entry today as my main purpose in riting this blog is to get people to pick up a copy of this month's The American Interest, or, at least, to get them to read Robert Kaplan's article "On Forgetting the Obvious." In it, Kaplan, using his literary, historical and philosophical expertise in a profoundly synthetic manner, describes how faith, in both a religious and non-religious sense, informs our ability to effectively fight wars. In short, Kaplan proves the importance of faith in fighting, though his deliberation on the topic is far more interesting than the concept, and he concludes that the most important facet to future armies is not size, nor technological advancement, but rather the military-civilian relationship.

Below I have posted a series of questions, prompts really, to keep us thinking about what Kaplan says:

- To what extent do in-between wars create in-between faiths?

- What is the grey area between the warrior society and the humanitarian society in the 21st century? To what extent must our humanitarian goals be part of our warrior mentality (and vice versa)?

- How has our increased emphasis on the value of the private sector (and the de-emphasis on publicly-funded works) affected not just the number and class of people in the military, but the faith-driven warrior society as well? How does military privitization effect the mentality of the faithful warrior?

- To what extent has war technology (drones, smart bombs etc.) blunted our faith (or our perceived need for it)?

Please feel free to post thoughts, responses and comments. I'd love to hear what everyone has to say about Kaplan's ideas.

[Also, in further support of The American Interest, General David Petraus, the Commander of Multi-National Forces in Iraq, wrote a very good article on the need to support military leadership, military officers specifically, through civilian graduate programs.]