How Wars End
Yesterday I went to a very interesting discussion at the United States Institute of Peaces. One of the perks of living in D.C. is there is always someone bring in a lot of intelligent and very experienced people to talk about their work.
This particular discussion was about how wars end, and in particular how the Iraq War ended. One of the staff here at the National Center for State Courts in Arlington suggested we attend. Even though were don’t really work in this area explicitly it is actually much more related than initially thought. Particularly in the case of Iraq where the expectation of what the diplomatic and international NGO community could do in Iraq once the US and coalition forces left Iraq was not very realistic.
The overall tone of the conversation from most of the experts was very pessimistic. I supposed colored largely by what has happened in Iraq in the last several months. Few had hope for what could be done to ameliorate the current volatile situation. As it turned out, it was not the most optimistic way to start my week. However, since the discussion was first thing in the morning it did alter my commute to work, and I was treated to this lovely view.
