Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Maps Are Small, Actual Places Are Large

I have to assume some degree of expertise among military planners whose job it is to achieve some sort of goal (??) with freedom bombs, but I imagine most of our policymakers know about as much about strategic aerial warfare as I do, which is not much. I've started to think that flawed spatial perception underlies the apparent belief that a few well-placed freedom bombs will solve our latest Hitler of the week problem. Unless - and probably even if - it's just a really expensive means of assassination, the idea that some aerial bombing is really going to do whatever it is we were meant to do in Libya (does anybody know?) is really dumb. It's a big place. I suppose we could level a city if we really wanted to, but supposedly we don't, so...?