2 big warnings from Gen. McChrystal: War in Europe is possible & we’re going to have to give up rights for our security

Best Defense is on summer hiatus. During this restful spell we offer re-runs from the past 12 months. This item originally ran on Jan. 25, 2017.

In the new issue of Prism magazine, General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Army (Ret.) offers two warnings. Both are kind of hair-raising.

First, he offers the thought that, “A European war is not unthinkable.” He goes on to explain that, “People who want to believe that a war in Europe is not possible might be in for a surprise. We have to acknowledge great power politics; we can’t pretend that they are gone.”

And if that whiff of August 1914 isn’t enough, he goes on to speculate that technological progress is so empowering individuals that Americans will have to give up some of our civil rights. “We are beginning an era in which our ability to leverage technology to track people and control populations is going to create a lot of tension; I think we are going to see a lot more population control measures. We are going to have to give up a lot more of our precious civil rights than most of us imagine because we want security.”

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