Monday, September 17, 2007 at 7 p.m.
John Hutson, The Old and New Faces of War
 During his career in the Navy, Franklin Pierce Law Center President John Hutson earned the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit
(with three gold stars), Meritorious Service Medal (with two gold stars), Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal as well as other awards. He is a retired rear admiral and served as Judge Advocate General of the Navy.
President Hutson writes, “Plato said that only the dead have seen their last war. From ancient times, warfare has been both changeless and ever-changing. Nations tend to fight the next war with the tactics and strategies of the last war. The so-called Global War on Terror is unlike any war we have ever fought and, at the same time, like them all in certain important ways. As has been noted by others, it is asymmetric. It didn’t have a clear beginning, we won’t know when the tide has turned, and we won’t know when it is over. We don’t know who the enemy is. He is amorphous and ever-changing himself.
One strategy is constant in warfare—you can’t freely concede the high ground to the enemy. In this war, the high ground is the values which have made us strong and for which we are now fighting. That is our greatest weapon, and if we give those up, if we disarm from those values, we will have lost the war.”
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