![]() ![]() In his famous “Long Telegram” from Moscow in 1946, American diplomat George F. Here are four Cold War lessons for today:Ĭontainment Works. intelligence agencies now reporting that the al- Qaeda threat is growing, it’s time Bush started acting on the lessons of his own analogy. After trying that approach for six years, and with U.S. Bush may speak as though he believes we’re in a battle of ideas, but he wages the “war on terror” as if it were a traditional conflict, in which military force matters more than moral authority and allied support. ![]() ![]() The Cold War analogy has real implications for fighting terrorism, but you wouldn’t know it from observing U.S. We had to maintain our military strength, but ultimately we were able to prevail only when the enemy’s ideology collapsed. It wasn’t about destroying hostile armies but about discrediting misguided dreams. Whereas real wars are won or lost on blood-soaked battlefields, the Cold War was decided in the hearts and minds of those who waged it. The president is right about that, but he doesn’t seem to understand the most important part of his own analogy, which is that the Cold War wasn’t really a war at all. In his efforts to persuade Americans to stay the course in the war on terrorism, President Bush often likens that struggle to the Cold War: The terrorists are like the Communists, “followers of a murderous ideology that despises freedom, crushes all dissent, has expansionist ambitions, and pursues totalitarian aims.” He argues that in the long run, “like the Communists, the followers of violent Islamic radicalism are doomed to fail.” ![]()
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