THE NEWSPEAK OF WAR AND THE CHALLENGE TO DEMOCRACY

Mary L. Dudziak, War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 2012) ("Even as Obama announced that the American combat mission in Iraq had ended, he also said that troops would remain--'with a different mission.' Just how different the mission would be was clarified when practical questions surfaced, such as, if combat was over, would American troops no longer be eligible for hostile fire pay, or for combat service medals? The army responded with a message to all troops: The 'end to combat operations in Iraq' was effective September 1, 2010. However, the army added, 'combat conditions are still prevalent,' and so wartime awards would 'continue to be issued in theater, until a date to be determined.' Other combat-service benefits would also still be available. 'It is unusual for the Army to come right out and say the emperor has no clothes,' noted the journalist Thomas E. Ricks, 'but I think it had to in this case, because soldiers take medals seriously.' An internal memo from the Associated Press simply rejected the White House message. 'Whatever the subject, we should be correct and consistent in our description of what the situation in Iraq is.' read the AP memo. 'To begin with, combat in Iraq is not over, and we should not uncritically repeat suggestions that it is, even if they come from senior officials. The situation on n the ground in Iraq is not different today than it has been for some months.'" Id. at 130. From the bookjacket: "When is wartime? In common usage, it is a period of time in which society is at war. But we now live in what President Obama has called 'an age without surrender ceremonies,' where the war on terror remains open-ended and presidents announce an end to conflict in Iraq, even as conflict on the ground persists. It is no longer easy to distinguish between wartime and peacetime." "In this inventive meditation on war, time, and the law, Mary L. Dudziak argues that wartime is not a discrete or easily defined period of time. . . . Yet policy makers and the American public continue to view wars as exceptional events that eventually give way to normal peace times--a conception that Dudziak believes has two significant consequences. First, because war is thought to be exceptional, 'wartime' remains a shorthand argument justifying the extreme actions like torture and detention without trial. Second, ongoing warfare is enabled by the inattention of the American people. More disconnected that ever from the wars their nation is fighting, public disengagement leaves us without political restraints on the exercise of American war powers." "Articulately exposing the disconnect between the way we imagine wartime and the practice of American wars, Dudziak illuminates the way the changing nature of American warfare undermines democratic accountability, yet makes democratic engagement all the more necessary.").