To John Lewis Gaddis: Not a Passing Grade
Professor Gaddis, A fundamental weakness is your paper’s failure to ask whether the administration’s Iraq adventure has served to de-legitimize the doctrine of preventive war. In the next draft you need to consider whether, by choosing a poor test case (since no-one outside the USA believed that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to anyone other than his own people), the administration has gravely if not fatally compromised any chance of gaining international support for preventive war when a genuine threat does present itself. This result will be all the more upsetting given the international community's near unanimous agreement that preventive war is justified when a genuine threat does present. More generally, your paper suffers because you seem to be preaching to the Battell Chapel Choir, without offering non-believers any arguments as to why they should come to church. I know you can do better. Please see my comments below, and make an appointment to discuss with me d...