Aggressive Defense

Our army is just for defense. Our country would never attack another country. Let’s assume that is an honest and well-intended statement. Let’s assume the politicians of your country always believe they abide to that maxim. It still doesn’t mean much.

No one is aggressive in his own eyes, for no one thinks himself to be unjust. Whatever is in the best interest of my country, that honest leader reasons, is also best for the world and what is good and just cannot be aggression, it must be defense. In a way it is logical, but as a principle of right action of course it amounts to nothing. It is just a rhetorical exercise eminently suitable for deception since it even deceives the speaker himself.

Whatever military action America performs in the world, it is self-defensive, as it is ultimately designed to remove future threats to the homeland. Russian bombs in Syria to defend its position in the world. North-Korea is out to defend itself building its nuclear arsenal and threatening to use it. Even the ultimate aggressor, Nazi-Germany, becomes a defender by a slight twist of words, as it did try to defend the perceived natural living space for the German people.

There is no aggression in the world that could not be justified by the right to self-defense.