The most provocative paragraph I read in 2013:

  • What's more, war is obsolete. Most nations don't make war anymore, except when coerced by the United States to join some spurious "coalition." The earth is so small, and our time here so short. No other nation on the planet makes war as often, as long, as forcefully, as expensively, as destructively, as wastefully, or as unsuccessfully as the United States. No other nation makes war its business.

That's from the introduction to They Were Soldiers: How the Wounded Return from America's Wars--The Untold Story, by Ann Jones. I push back at a couple of the descriptions here, but overall I can't say that the author is wrong.

[It would be interesting to see if people would contribute to a collection of monthly "Most Provocative Paragraph" collections online somewhere, by the way.]

12/31/13; 11:57AM

Last built: Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 10:53 AM

By Ken Smith, Tuesday, December 31, 2013 at 11:57 AM.