Outside the Beltway

1LT Andrew Bacevich Killed in Iraq

James Joyner · Tuesday, May 15, 2007 · 2 comments

First Lieutenant Andrew J. Bacevich, Jr. has been killed in action.

The son of a Boston University professor who has been a critic of the war was killed in Iraq, the Defense Department said Monday. First Lt. Andrew J. Bacevich was the son of Andrew J. Bacevich, an international relations professor who has said that the United States is mired in a war it cannot win through military might alone.

[…]

The younger Bacevich was killed Sunday when an improvised device exploded while he was on a combat patrol in Salah Ad Din Province, Iraq, according to the military. Bacevich, 27, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

[…]

The elder Bacevich is the author of The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, published in 2005. In an article in The American Conservative magazine last September, he wrote: “It’s past time to re-examine the post-Cold War assumption that military power provides the preferred antidote to any and all complaints that we have with the world beyond our borders.

Truly a shame. The loss of any soldier is equally tragic, of course, but those we know personally or “know” because they are public figures or sons and daughters of public figures will naturally touch us more deeply.

While we don’t see eye-to-eye on everything, I respect  Bacevich Sr.’s work. My condolences to him and his family on their loss.

Other reflections: Jim Henley, Jules Crittenden, Josh Marshall, Steve Clemons, Dan Riehl, Juan Cole, Sean-Paul Kelley

Some more political than others but all are respectful. The politics of war is inextricable from its tragedy. Wars are fought for political ends, after all, and human tragedy is the cost. It’s quite proper to measure the two against one another.