No Comment (Harper's Magazine)

No Comment (Harper's Magazine): "In the very sage words of Abraham Lincoln’s law of war advisor, Francis Lieber:

Where no discipline is enforced in war a state of things results which resembles far more the [wars of religion] than the regular wars of modern times. And such a state of thing results speedily, too; for all growth, progress and rearing, moral or material, are slow; all destruction, relapse and degeneracy fearfully rapid. It requires the power of the Almighty and a whole century to grow an oak tree; but only a pair of arms, an ax, and an hour or two to cut it down.

Under George W. Bush our nation has entered into a period of frightful relapse and degeneracy. It has turned from its own moral legacy. It remains for those of us who care to speak out and try to stem this damage before it is too late."