"Let's see if we can't get this war behind us now. Certainly, the man in the street, the common person there, wants to have this war behind him. I think a lot of the soldiers are very war-weary too"
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The line isn’t a trumpet blast; it’s a pressure-release valve. Warren Christopher, a diplomat by temperament and trade, frames war not as a contest to be won but as a burden to be set down. “Let’s see if we can’t” is classic Christopher: tentative on the surface, coercive underneath. It invites agreement while quietly narrowing the options. Who wants to be the person arguing to keep the war in front of us?
His real move is legitimacy-shopping. By invoking “the man in the street” and “the common person,” Christopher drapes policy in popular exhaustion. It’s a democratic alibi: whatever comes next (ceasefire terms, negotiated settlement, a reluctant compromise) isn’t elite retreat; it’s what regular people supposedly already want. The repetition of “behind us” is doing moral work, too. It recasts war as a past-tense problem, even if the facts on the ground are still present tense. The phrase implies closure, as if geopolitics can be processed like grief: acknowledge it, move on.
Then comes the sharper edge: “soldiers are very war-weary too.” That’s an appeal to the emotional center of gravity in any conflict. It signals urgency without naming blame, and it subtly rebukes war’s cheerleaders by positioning fatigue as the authentic frontline truth. Contextually, this is the language of post-Cold War American statecraft: sell diplomacy not as idealism, but as triage. The intent is to make ending the war feel less like a choice and more like the only sane next step.
His real move is legitimacy-shopping. By invoking “the man in the street” and “the common person,” Christopher drapes policy in popular exhaustion. It’s a democratic alibi: whatever comes next (ceasefire terms, negotiated settlement, a reluctant compromise) isn’t elite retreat; it’s what regular people supposedly already want. The repetition of “behind us” is doing moral work, too. It recasts war as a past-tense problem, even if the facts on the ground are still present tense. The phrase implies closure, as if geopolitics can be processed like grief: acknowledge it, move on.
Then comes the sharper edge: “soldiers are very war-weary too.” That’s an appeal to the emotional center of gravity in any conflict. It signals urgency without naming blame, and it subtly rebukes war’s cheerleaders by positioning fatigue as the authentic frontline truth. Contextually, this is the language of post-Cold War American statecraft: sell diplomacy not as idealism, but as triage. The intent is to make ending the war feel less like a choice and more like the only sane next step.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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