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Deleted ScenesDeleted Scene #20Chapter Five: The New Ordering PrincipleSection: The Rise of System PerturbationsCommentary: This twentieth "deleted scene" was how I ran out the argument at the end of the section. I think Mark Warren found it a bit too long-winded and fiery, but I still like it. You can see that what Mark basically did was end the section by cutting short the first sentence in this sequence. Deleted Scene: The Original Ending to the Section[TEXT BEGINS] I want nothing less than a revolution in not just how the Pentagon thinks about war and peace in the 21st century, but how this entire country approaches these debates. You may counter, as others have over the past decade, that I am trying too hard to make the world fit my definitions instead of making my definitions fit the world -- that I refuse to see the world for what it is. And you would be absolutely right. I want a future worth creating. I want globalization to become truly global. I want my profession to make the world a better place, not just America a safer place. I want war to be understood within the context of everything else, not just some cynical extension of politics by "other means." I want all the old idols of warfare and grand strategy and "national interest" destroyed. And like the spoiled-brat Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka, I want it all now! I want it all now because I know that if America does not get off the couch soon and demand better from both political parties, then the real lessons we need to learn about 9/11 will end up having to be revisited -- all the more painfully -- at future dates. I feel like we have been given a serious glimpse of the future with 9/11, much like World War I showed us everything we needed to know about World War II, and so I worry that "gift" is being wasted. I believe we need to commit this country to shrinking the Gap right now, because it will take decades. I know that once a grand strategy is set in motion, like containment after World War II, it becomes very hard to challenge the national security orthodoxy without looking like a pacifist wimp -- no matter what your party. I want that sort of lock-in now because the further we move from 9/11, the quicker we will forget those lessons. [TEXT ENDS] |
Putnam, 2004 |
