Should Ex-Generals Speak Out?

By Ivan Eland

April 18, 2006

Editor's Note: For years now, when anyone of any influence has spoken out against the Iraq War -- whether a musician in the Dixie Chicks or a former U.S. ambassador who served in Iraq -- the critic can expect "The Treatment," a barrage of personal insults, professional retaliation and insinuations about treasonous behavior.

In 2002, during the run-up to the Iraq War, we called this pattern of intimidation the "politics of preemption," a domestic corollary to George W. Bush's international doctrine of waging "anticipatory" or "preemptive" wars against nations that might someday threaten the United States. To make Americans abandon their traditional distaste for aggressive warfare, Bush needed to de-legitimize dissent.