The War No One Wants

Congratulations on Fredric Smoler’s excellent interview with Edward Luttwak, “The Strategy of Survival,” in your July/August issue. The important thing to keep in mind with respect to NATO is deterrence. No one in Europe—and few in America—is interested in fighting a prolonged conventional war in Europe. Europe has already been through that twice in this century. Our current military posture in Europe is designed to maximize deterrence. A shift to a “defensive defense” would only invite the very war that we want to avoid.