Ukraine (closed; covers till August 2014)

[JMA]

Luttwak has it just about perfectly right:

The paradoxical logic of strategy contradicts the logic of everyday life, it goes against all normal definitions of intelligence we have. It only makes sense if you understand the dialectic. If you want peace, prepare for war. If you actively want war, disarm yourself, and then you’ll get war. Virile and martial elites understand that kind of thinking instinctively.

And for the yanks by the yanks...

"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace."
- George Washington

"I never advocated war except as a means of peace."
- Ulysses S. Grant

"Peace, above all things, is to be desired; but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms."
- Andrew Jackson

Mark, There's a million more such as

Not that I agree with that one, rather this one considering where we are with the Ukraine and American admin...