Herzog+

In your recent article in the New York Review of Books "Manifest Destiny: A New Direction for America," you assail American militarism, the stupidity of waging war to accomplish things which should be achieved by other means or not at all, and the idea that the world needs America (or anyone else) to be its superpower. While agreeing with most of this, I think it is useful to distinguish between those of America's wars that cannot be justified, and those that can . When is war justified? Here is my answer: An American war can be justified if the purpose is to defend the Homeland, or to oppose states that commit crimes against humanity, which include wars of aggression, sponsorship of terrorism, and extermination or enslavement of the state’s own people. War for the purpose of advancing American ideology, influence, or economic advantage, or to champion one side in another country’s civil war or revolution, is almost never justified. When there is or might be a threat ...