Who will build our wall?

Plover has a magnificent post over at 3Bulls. Read it, read it all.

Then compare it with this piece of tripe by the self-so-called Socrates at Redstate, via Alicublog.

The erstwhile philosopher attempts to convince us that the purpose of war is "Victory!". How utterly fucking ridiculous. Victory might be the short term objective, but as any third grade student of history can tell you, the purpose of war is POWER. Pure, unadulterated power over the subjugated populace of the defeated and their land and natural resources.

Which is why a good and decent democracy has no business engaging in any war unless attacked. Period.

Which is why we had and have no business in Iraq. They did not attack us. We have no right to attack Iran or Syria. They have not attacked us, nor declared war upon us. Not even Korea.

Do I want Iran or Korea to possess nuclear bombs? Hell, no. Did I want the Soviet Union or China to develop nuclear weaponry? Obviously, no. Have any of these countries attacked us or declared war upon us? No. Which is why we never waged war upon them, save for the deplorable and largely unsuccessful proxy wars of the Cold War. Not even when the Soviet Union threatened us directly with the missiles in Cuba, though we came dangerously close to a mutual confrontation.

Holy mother of crap, can you imagine it if Bush and his neo-con madmen had been at the helm of this country in that time? No, because you wouldn't have ever existed or be long evaporated.

Should we negotiate with these entities on a diplomatic level? Absolutely. Diplomacy is war by other means, as someone, don't remember who, once said. And the diplomacy should be backed by the full power of our military capacity, had we any left. Bush and his ne0-cons have squandered our power by using it up, for true power lies in it's being held in abeyance. Once wielded, it becomes might. We have lost our might, wasted on an unnecessary and unjustifiable war. Therefore, we are a weak puppy, unable to even engage in beneficial diplomacy.

The Romans were no fools. They knew when to draw the line on their empire. They knew when the cost of conquest was not worth the expenditure. That is the lesson of Hadrian's wall. You would think that we would have learned that by now. There is no shame in knowing your limitations.

PS - I, too, cried for the elephants in Plover's post. It's too bad the Dems and Pugs can't switch mascots. The elephant's are dreadfully misappropriated, while stubborn jackasses couldn't be more apt for them rather than the Dems.