Making a Friend of Horror

Thanks to tim for pointing out this excellent article by (the somewhat erratic) Ralph Peters, providing an opportunity to discuss the pertinence of Clauswitzeanism - and the 'Western way of war' more generally - to the harsh and frustrating landscape of WWIV.

This challenge (also singled out by tim) is worthy of slow, excruciating attention:

We discount the value of ferocity —as a practical tool and as a deterrent. But war's immutable law —proven yet again in Iraq—is that those unwilling to pay the butcher's bill up front will pay it with compound interest in the end.