In the images of falling statues, we have witnessed the arrival of a new
era. For a hundred years of war, culminating in the nuclear age, military
technology was designed and deployed to inflict casualties on an ever-growing
scale. In defeating Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, Allied Forces destroyed
entire cities, while enemy leaders who started the conflict were safe until the
final days. Military power was used to end a regime by breaking a nation.
Today, we have the greater power to free a nation by breaking a dangerous and
aggressive regime. With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve
military objectives without directing violence against civilians. No device of
man can remove the tragedy from war. Yet it is a great advance when the guilty
have far more to fear from war than the innocent.