What's Worse Than War?

Dave at Garfield Ridge recently had a good post about how an American defeat in Iraq is unacceptable. (I can't link to the post because his site appears down).

I am re-reading John C. Wright's The Golden Age trilogy, which is some of the most mind-blowing sci-fi I've read in a long time. I just started the second volume, The Phoenix Exultant, and came across a passage that summed up Dave's argument.

In the book, the main character Phaethon is talking to the very last remnant of the Bellipotent Composition, once a powerful, warlike mass-mind that ruled much of Earth.

Phaethon stepped over to the hatch, but turned, and spoke over his shoulder. "You said there was one thing even worse than war, a thing so terrible that even war is tolerable by contrast. What is it?"

"Defeat."