General Anthony Zinni, the former commander in charge of U.S. Central Command, was on Meet the Press a week ago, speaking about the Iraq war and his new book, The Battle for Peace. He said many things on the program that resonated good sense, and Tim Russert shared the following quotation from his book:
“The ‘Battle for Peace’ is not a battle in the classical sense - a battle that follows the sudden crisis blow that triggers a military conflict. The battle is the constant struggle to develop and build the measures, programs, systems, and institutions that will prevent crisis. The battle is the constant struggle to shape and manage the harmful elements in the environment that generate instabilities. The ‘Battle for Peace’ is the battle to achieve a stable world.”
This is the orientation I believe all of our military leaders should adopt. I think Eisenhower would have agreed.