"White Guilt" Loses Wars?

The wingnuts are buzzing about how “white guilt” keeps Americans from waging effective war. My wingnut conspecifics sometimes argue that America is “too nice” in its war making and that the US “government” ought to kill everyone in Iraq and Afghanistan if that is what it takes to accomplish the mission, whatever that is, and reduce risk to US personnel.

If “white guilt” causes the US to exercise any restraint, then I say bully for white guilt. We clearly need even more white guilt than we already have since the US appears all too willing to rain death and destruction on civilians when it suits its purposes.

In my view, it is not white guilt that restrains the US “government”. Rather, it is that most Americans have some vestige of Christian morality, and not just the ersatz Christianity of the religious right. The population restrains the state to some degree, and politicians are still obliged to justify war and how it is waged in the public’s name. This is what the wingnuts secretly decry. If only Christianity could be eradicated, then the US could get down to some real war fighting.

If only the American people would get over their silly scruples about death camps and genocidal reprisals, then the insurgency could be put down.