Another war in the name of humanitarianism: we don’t fight men, we fight monsters | Jeff Sparrow | Comment is free | theguardian.com
In 1941, Bertolt Brecht remarked to his diary that “strategy has
turned into surgery, an enemy country is ‘opened up’ after it has been
anaesthetised, then it is swabbed down, disinfected, sewn up, etc all
with the greatest of ease.”
That was the old style of war. These days, invasions are more like
social work. Western nations today always fight in the name of
humanitarianism, so that contemporary wars possess a distinctive
vocabulary and grammar.
Yazidi regugees take shelter under a freeway overpass in Dohuk. Photograph: Zuma/Rex
