A guerra perpétua justificada em nome da paz perpétua

Escreve David Henderson:

At a speech that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey yesterday, I posed the following question:

Good morning, Mr. Secretary. I'm David Henderson, an economics professor here in the Graduate School of Business and Public Policy.
Ohio State University professor John Mueller stated in a recent article in Foreign Affairs:

an al Qaeda computer seized in Afghanistan in 2001 indicated that the group's budget for research on weapons of mass destruction (almost all of it focused on primitive chemical weapons work) was some $2,000 to $4,000.

In your previous job [I made a mistake here: he was already Defense Secretary when he said it but it seemed clear that these data were ones he got as CIA Director], you yourself pointed out that there are fewer than two dozen key operatives left in al Qaeda. Given our huge budget deficit, when do you say, "Enough is enough. Let's end those wars because the costs are so much higher than the hypothetical gains."

Here's his answer from Larry Parsons' report in the Monterey County Herald, which agrees with the one I remember hearing:

Responding to an NPS faculty member's question about winding down the costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Panetta responded sternly.

"Those wars will end when the individuals who have threatened this country are no longer there to threaten our country," he said.

The goal is to leave Iraq and Afghanistan stable, secure and "in a position to build on the sacrifices that have been made," he said.

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