23 December 2020 - Secretary of Defense

The military knows the downsides of war better than others, but still lies to itself about it. Consider “shock and awe”, a term for pretending to understand Clausewitz; it says “we’re doing this to break the enemy’s will.” In reality, though the fear of getting stuff blown up may deter people from fighting, the fact of getting stuff blown up only makes people angry. “Shock and awe” is part of a mythology about decisive battles and wars won by bold strokes. In fact the U.S. military acts to destroy the enemy’s ability to fight, not their will, and tries to achieve it by attrition, not by decisive battles which cannot be arranged, so serious wars must be long and baleful. That’s why you don’t appoint a general as Secretary of Defense.