The Paradox of Post-Heroic Warefare

The Century of the Holocaust and Hiroshima has ended with a humanitarian milestone: The intervention of the world's mightest military alliance against a sovereign state in the name of human rights. For once in history, might did right.

However, the condition for doing the right thing set down by the consumer democracies of the West was clear: Few, if any, casualties. Herein lies the paradoz of "post-heroic" warefare: Those societies most likely to wage war over human rights are also the least willing to suffer losses precisely because they are liberal and democratic. Because of their humanitarian ehtos, they are also unwilling to inflict too much damage on the enemy.

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