New Laws

While reading Bob Kerrey's confusing and idiotic op-ed on Iraq, it occurred to me that we need a new version of Godwin's Law. Perhaps you can indulge my ego a bit and call it A.E's (or Elkus's--whatever has a better ring to it) law.

Godwin's Law:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

Godwin's law as commonly understood prohibits you from comparing a political opponent to Hitler and/or the Nazis. My law is much different.

A.E.'s Law:

As a political discussion involving war and foreign policy grows longer, the probability of a comparison to World War II and/or pre-war appeasement at Munich and /or the reconstruction of Western Europe and Japan approaches one.

Bob Kerrey compares the Iraq war to the reconstruction of Germany and Japan. Neoconservative pundits (most notably Charles Krauthammer) call any policy that isn't hawkish enough for them a new Munich. The President's famous "Axis of Evil" speech deliberately cast Iran, North Korea, and Iraq as an alliance equivalent to the old-time axis of the World War II, posing a massive threat to American interests. Other conservative pundits call the French "ungrateful" for not supporting the Iraq war because America liberated them from the Germans. "Pearl Harbor" has been a shorthand for surprise attack, and some tech experts warn of an "electronic Pearl Harbor" by terrorists, hackers, and cyberwar units of hostile nations. Some left-wing pundits have called for a "New Marshall Plan" for the Third World, and pundits of all ideological stripes declared after 9/11 we were in a great war for civilization that mirrored the Second World War.

Comparing your opponents to the Nazis is regarded as poor debating form. But our politicians and commentators lavish us with facetious and misleading WWII comparisons all the time without bothering to back up them up. While it may be tempting to reach for the largest war in human history (instantly recognizable to any audience), World War II has little relevance to present conflicts, the vast majority of which are "small wars" that pale in intensity and scale compared to the conflagration of 1939-1945. Additionally, anyone from that era observing our international system, through, say, a crystal ball would most likely regard it as a work of science fiction. And pundits have, again and again, falsely compared various Third World militaries to the developed and fearsome German Wehrmarcht in order to drum up support for armed subversion or war.

The sooner we do away with these facetious comparisons, the better.