Editorial

摘要

"Opolicy has always been to work hard for peace but to be prepared if war comes. Yet, so blurred have the lines become between open conflict and half-hidden hostile acts that we cannot confidently predict where ... aggression may arrive," said the Secretary of Defense. "We must be prepared, at any moment, to meet threats ranging in intensity from isolated terrorist acts, to guerrilla action, to full-scale military confrontation." The Defense Secretary quoted here is not Chuck Hagel. It was Caspar Weinberger, and the year was 1984. This call for readiness resonates just as strongly three decades later, as the nation begins to extricate itself from Afghanistan and to think seriously about how the military should-and should not-be used in the future.