> There's quite a difference between a deception in support of a
> war and a war that is based entirely on deceptions. Again, I'm
> not familiar with anyone who is arguing the latter, other than
> some nameless folks I've seen protesting, who claim it was all
> about oil.
> Nick
Except that no one has even approached proving either
case. So what, other than pure partisanship, is this
about?
I don't follow. One the major successes of cybernetics was that it
provided a basis for understanding why US President Wilson was so
wrong in his failure to uphold the `14 points' that he promoted for
ending World War I: after some persuasion, he and others treated the
14 points as a ruse of war, like an ambush, and did not follow them.
But the Germans understood them to be a peace proposal.
Through cybernetics, people learned to distinguish between an event
within a system and an event within a larger system incompassing both
the first system and another. In this case the first system is war
and the larger system is war and peace.
An ambush, being within the ambit of war, is not considered by either
side as an indicator that those who conduct the ambush are evil. On
the other hand, someone who violates a truce is considered evil, since
only though a truce or other equivalent mechanism can the issue of war
and peace be discussed.
The saying is that `all is fair in love and war'. This does not say
that `all is fair when talking about war and peace'. Some actions are
perceived as not fair when you talk about whether to continue a war.
In particular, if one side handles a truce or peace talks as a ruse,
then the other side must come to conclude that there is no way to talk
about reaching peace.
Wilson's 14 points were abandoned and as a consequence many Germans
felt tricked by an immoral enemy. They felt they had lost in 1919
much of what they had won earlier by fighting. Hence it was easier
than it would have been otherwise to persuade them to favor a second
world war a generation later, after rebuilding.
(By the way, I think the 14 points would have been a reasonable basis
on which to create a peace ending WWI and wish they had not been
abandoned.)
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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