Fighting over war

Re “A Pentagon battle over ‘the next war,’ ” July 21

After the Holocaust, we said “never again,” and then came Rwanda; after Vietnam, we said “never again,” and then came Iraq. History is its own best prediction. In the Nuclear Age, no able enemy dares challenge the U.S. in what Air Force Major Gen. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. terms a “symmetrical” war. History has shown that the result of symmetry is a cold war that ultimately is fought by proxy in irregular guerrilla conflicts.

The wars that generals get are not the wars they want. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was right to rid the Pentagon of wish-thinking hawks like Michael Wynne. When planning for challenges from hostile powers with conventional armies, Congress would be better served by heeding Gates’ admonitions to invest heavily in our country’s diplomatic abilities.

Kevin T. Freeman

Rancho Cucamonga

The Times mentions Iraq nine times and Afghanistan five times, but China or Russia? Zero.

How can you not mention these countries? You could have minimally written that neither is a threat, but that wouldn’t have sounded right. The reasonable conclusion is that we need to prepare for both kinds of war, symmetric and asymmetric.

Frank Natoli

Newton, N.J.