WAR

  
                      War Is Hell.

So said William Tecumseh Sherman, a man who did everything he could to make it so, for combatant and civilian alike.

I have been accused of being a pacifist for my vehement and often outspoken opposition to our current war in Iraq. I want to now set that straight and declare that I recognize the need for war. Humanity needs war like forests need fires. Humans need war like rivers need floods. They bring destruction, but they also bring enrichment. From the crucibles of war come this generation's heros, who will mature into the next generation's statesmen.

Have you ever noticed that our country has never become embroiled in a major war when we have had a military commander at our helm? No force has ever drawn us into a fight with a seasoned general as our Commander in Chief: Civil War – Abraham Lincoln, World War I – Woodrow Wilson, World War II – Franklin Roosevelt. And perhaps more telling, we have never attacked another nation under a C-in-C who has had the experience of having to order men into battle to their certain deaths: 1812 – James Madison, Mexican War – James Polk, Spanish-American War – William McKinley, Vietnam – John F. Kennedy, like Lincoln and McKinley, a line officer, but never a commander. While our major military commanders who served in our highest office all did so through peacetime: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant (who while he may have been a poor administrator, served as a valuable figurehead for unity during the difficult Reconstruction period), and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

And this leads us to todays weekend-warrior.

The events of 9–11 should have been more properly consigned to a fanatic fringe religious cult like the Heaven's Gate group that committed mass suicide when a comet appeared; the People's Temple that murdered a US congressman and others before committing their mass suicide; or the Aum Shinrikyo cult that released nerve gas in a Japanese subway a few years ago, and is still an active threat in that land. But so far the 9–11 events have served as a pretext for two foreign wars that have caused destruction, death, and terror far beyond any that was inflicted upon us, and done so to innocent and guilty alike. Indeed, they may not have really touched the guilty at all – as an independent cell of religious fanatics, the only people that may have really been directly involved in 9–11 were the 19 hijackers who died that day and the one man who financed them, G.H.W. Bush's indirect protegé, Osama bin Laden!

But even leaving the cult issue aside, it seems obvious that we were ripe for war. It's been 28 years since we withdrew in defeat from Vietnam. Since then, our military has been involved a series of brushfire actions. But nothing stirring. Nothing to inspire ballads and legends and sagas. Nothing to generate Heros. And so, with 9–11, we should have gone to war with the country most responsible for it. The country which, of all the Middle East, is most inimical to our way of life. Where our predominant religions, Christianity and Judaism, are circumscribed. Where our women's mode of dress could get them flogged. Where democracy isn't even given lip service, and the people have no say at all in their government. Where 15 of the 19 hijackers came from. And where Osama bin Laden himself grew up.

We should be at war with Arabia.

Right now, it's called Saudi Arabia because the Saud family rules it. Drop one big bomb on the heart of Mecca. Then tell the rest of the Muslim world, "this is how the Sauds defend your shrine," and walk away. Let the rest of them sort it out for themselves. Soon enough, it would be just Arabia again.

If we must go to war, let it be a good war. Let us be open about it, and admit that we are making war on a way of life, a culture, that we find so different from our own that the two are incompatible. That does not necessarily mean Islam, nor monarchy. But it does mean Arab culture, as currently (or recently) practiced in much of the Middle East. The tribalism that has torn apart countries from the Sudan and Ethiopia to Kosovo and Croatia to Kurdistan and Afghanistan. The lack of civil rights, liberty, and representation for every citizen; male or female; black, white, brown, or yellow; Christian, Jew, Hindu, Muslim or Athiest; rich or poor; or anything not covered above.

Wars change nothing. Neither side in any war was ever evil or good. Both sides in every war were made up of sincere men who fought for what they thought was best, even if they were mercenaries who felt the best was their own enrichment. Right or wrong never won any battle. Yet years after the war, whichever side seemed to win, if any real principle was involved, the greater version of it will gain the ultimate victory. It will win with the irresistable caissons and tumbrels of history, against which no enemy can stand, no matter how large its battalions, how fearful its weapons, or how wise its generals.

 

[I began writing this about April 2004, and still don't consider it finished, so if you have comments, I may consider them in revising it or polishing it further. ~okl.]