There is nothing funnier than a sibling who was in full flight on a mission to control another child being brought up short by a parent, especially to the one escaping control for the moment. I thought it was funny, everyone I ever asked thought it was funny, but neither my mother nor the nuns thought it was amusing at all. Laughing at another child's pain was forbidden so I eventually learned to stifle laughter, although the memories of those moments remain the funniest left from that long ago childhood. Someone, anyone else, being punished brought on laughter because of the profound relief I felt that it was not me. Only much later did I discover that I was supposed to learn from their pain, learning from someone else's pain is a profoundly adult experience, and few of us ever get really good at it.

Nations often act like children. Perhaps that is because of the complex rules nations use to guide their conduct. Perhaps it is because inside every national leader there is a child yearning for freedom from rules, any rules imposed from outside. But it is often the case that nations squabble like untrained children and sometimes behave like there are no rules at all. When that happens we are left with the rule of force. This leads to war as often as not, as it has once again in the case of Iraq.

Now we do have a sort of an UN standing by unable to enforce rules that most nations have agreed are sound. It is the n UN who has lost control of this classroom of unruly children because the biggest child in the room has decided that they will make the rules. That would be US. It is somewhat embarrassing to say that we are acting like a giant child with too much power since I am part of this nation that I love. It is also as unpopular to express patriotism that differs from that of your classmates as it ever was in school. But one of the rules that those women taught me so long ago was to stand by what you thought was right no matter what others might be doing. My knuckles would sting and I would be ashamed not to uphold the version of a rule that I was taught so long ago as a child. Start no wars unless you are truly threatened by the opponent you are going to fight. Don't beat up a weaker kid in order to teach one of the stronger kids a lesson. It won't work based on two facts; few children learn from another child's pain, and fighting the fewest battles possible is smarter than picking a fight every lunch hour because the adults will eventually intervene. What if there are no adults? Then one of the older kids or two or three together will gang up to stop you but you will be stopped.

We are more powerful than any other nation on earth and it is now our expressed policy to remain more powerful by use of military force if necessary. There are a few people who have thought long and hard about this position but most of us are still reacting with our emotions. The time is coming when we will have to put aside the emotions that patriotism engenders. We must look at whether or not this position is sustainable and right for the nation based on the real world we live in, not the one we would like to live in. In the world we would like to live in all people would see the wisdom of letting us dominate since we are the only nation on the planet that has everyone's interests at heart. We do don't we? Well, maybe some of the time some of us actually do, but most of the time we are only concerned with our own lives and what will make them better. That is because we humans all operate from unenlightened self interest most of the time. It is clear that most of the rest of the world believes that is what we are doing in Iraq, operating from crass unenlightened self interest.

President Bush is leading us down a path that most schoolchildren would never think was a sound one with the doctrine of preventive war. Especially when this doctrine is applied to this world, in which we are a small percentage of the population, but in which we use an increasingly large portion of the resources. Preventive war used to retain the power to dominate the world by means of force will eventually fail. Alliances we never dreamed of will form to keep it from working. The other children out there are afraid of us and they will gang up together until they can counterbalance our power. That is going to have the exact opposite effect that the doctrine was designed to create in the world. It is going to make this world a decidedly less safe place for US, all of US. It will become less safe in two ways; economically because we are going to have to increase military spending substantially in order to sustain this unwise rule, and physically because we are going to be a big fat target as long as we try to face down the whole world unilaterally. This doctrine says we don't need no stinking allies, especially if they think for their selves. That is profoundly unwise and physically unsustainable.

Is preventive war effective? We shall see but I would bet on the lessons of the classroom and the playground every time over an excessively doctrinaire theory of how to behave internationally. Particularly one promoted by a cabal of un-elected ideologues none of whom has borne arms in the defense of this nation. The war in Iraq is over for now, but the nations that have conquered parts of Iraq must number in the dozens if we account for all of human history. That part of the world is possibly where war was invented, peace will not likely last long there based on our power alone. Lots of wars have been fought to end war. We have just fought another one of them. In the process of getting to that war we have created a doctrine that requires us to control so many forces that are outside of our real control that it is almost funny. It is like a first grader taking over the school because they have a gun. That will only last so long before it turns into just one more disaster.

I am more skeptical of this doctrine with every day that passes. I know we can win the wars, I just don't believe that we will be able to keep the peace no matter how many of them we win. Not without the whole world agreeing to be bossed by the biggest kid in school, even if he is barely out of the first grade. That will happen when pigs become angelic, not only will they have to fly but they will have to be enlightened, how likely is that? God bless and keep you, our troops our protestors and our ideologues safe in these trying times.