forceOfHabit
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

Usually, I find your writing inspiring. This article, not so much. On a technical level, there is the mixed metaphor: do you want to portray war as an avalanche or as a volcano? Either one works, the addition of a second metaphor adds little.

But then there are the substantive criticisms:

“Every great war in history has stagnation as its cause, by either omission or commission.”

WTF does that last part mean? What is the omission of stagnation? And one does not usually “commit” stagnation. In any case, the US has been at war for virtually its entire existence (http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/america-war-93-time-222-239-years-since-1776.html , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States). Are we to believe it has been stagnant throughout its existence too?

“They are called public goods…America’s karma is sealed, precisely because it never built such public goods…”

That is a simply ludicrous assertion. To pick just one example, closest to the example you gave, how about the American road/highway system? A quintessential public good. And the list goes on and on: sewage/water treatment, the electrical grid, public parks, the school system, etc. etc. etc.

You are an excellent writer. This article is nowhere near your usual standard.

    forceOfHabit

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    In time of flood, the well is never deep enough.