Micha
Active member
I often hear these allegations. And then I can’t help but make some provocative answers. But what do you think. How would you respond to such statements?
War does not change anything!
War does not change anything? This slogan contradicts all of human history. Over thousands of years, war has been the last resort - and all too often the first resort - - the tribes, religions, dynasties, states and demagogues driven by grievance, greed or quest for greatness. I don’t think that war is a good thing, but it is sometimes a necessity. It is not necessary to agree with how a given war is prosecuted, but we can’t allow ourselves to be misled into believing that if we put down our weapons, then all others will do the same.
Wars change, indeed, often everything. Who would argue that the American Revolution or the American Civil War did not change anything? Would the world be better today if we had been pacifists in the face of Nazi Germany or imperial Japan?
Naturally, not all changes that have occurred through war, through the centuries are positive. Even a just war may generate undesirable results, such as Soviet tyranny over half of Europe after 1945. But one of the things which we can be sure of is that there are people in this world who believe that war or terrorism could change the world. And they will not be deterred by bumper stickers.
Victory is unattainable!
Victory is always possible if one is willing to do what it takes to win. But victory is obviously impossible if our troops come under impossible restrictions, if their leaders refuse to be brave, if every target must be approved by lawyers, and if people are discouraged by a constant barrage of negativity from the media. We don’t need generals who appears on television to apologize for every mistake our soldiers are making. We need generals that can win.
And it is impossible to win if you don’t want to fight. I fear that we are at the beginning of a violent struggle that will wave back and forth for decades, yet our current generation of leaders, both in and out of uniform, are worried about the enemy's feelings. It's an iron law of warfare that if you are not prepared to pay the bill in advance, you will pay it with compound interest afterwards. We don’t want to pay the bill, and our leaders think that they can become friends with our enemies before they have been totally defeated. We have started something that our leaders don’t have the courage to finish.
And in the words of General Douglas MacArthur: "It is fatal to enter a war without the will to win it."
There's no military solution; only negotiations can solve our problems.
In most cases, the reverse is true. Negotiations solve nothing until a military decision has been reached and one side recognizes a peace agreement as its only hope of survival. The only negotiations that produce lasting results are those conducted from positions of indisputable strength.
When we fight back, we only provoke our enemies.
When dealing with bullies, either in the schoolyard or in a war, the opposite is true: if you don't fight back, you encourage your enemy to behave more viciously. Passive resistance only works when directed against rule-of-law states; it doesn't work where silent protest is answered with a bayonet in the belly or a one-way trip to a political prison. We've allowed far too many myths about the "innate goodness of humanity" to creep up on us. Certainly, many humans would rather be good than bad. But if we're unwilling to fight the fraction of humanity that's evil, armed and determined to subjugate the rest, we'll face even grimmer conflicts.
Killing terrorists only turns them into martyrs.
It's an anomaly of today's Western world that privileged individuals feel more sympathy for dictators, mass murderers and terrorists than they do for their victims. We are told, over and over, that killing Osama bin Laden or hanging Saddam Hussein would only unite their followers. Well, we haven't yet gotten Osama and no one is fighting to avenge Saddam. The harsh truth is that when faced with true fanatics, killing them is the only way to end their influence. Imprisoned, they galvanize protests, kidnappings, bombings and attacks that seek to free them. Want to make a terrorist a martyr? Just lock him up. Attempts to try such monsters in a court of law will turn into mockeries that only provide public platforms for their hate speech, which the global media is delighted to broadcast. Dead, they're dead. And killing them is the ultimate proof that they lack divine protection. Dead terrorists don't kill.
If we fight as fiercely as our enemies, we're no better than them.
Did the bombing campaign against Germany turn us into Nazis? Did dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan turn us into the beasts who conducted the Bataan Death March?
While we must be as humane as the path to victory permits, we cannot shrink from doing what it takes to win. At present, the media and influential elements of our society are obsessed with the small immoralities that are inevitable in wartime. Soldiers are human, and no matter how rigorous their training, a miniscule fraction of our troops will do vicious things and must be punished as a consequence. Not everyone in uniform will turn out to be a saint, and not every chain of command will do its job with equal effectiveness. But obsessing on tragic incidents obscures the greater moral issue: one of the jobs that a soldier have, is to defeat enemies.
When all this being said; then what makes me the maddest is when our leaders throw us into something which they do not intend to implement 100%. Then we end up in deadlock again and again.
War does not change anything!
War does not change anything? This slogan contradicts all of human history. Over thousands of years, war has been the last resort - and all too often the first resort - - the tribes, religions, dynasties, states and demagogues driven by grievance, greed or quest for greatness. I don’t think that war is a good thing, but it is sometimes a necessity. It is not necessary to agree with how a given war is prosecuted, but we can’t allow ourselves to be misled into believing that if we put down our weapons, then all others will do the same.
Wars change, indeed, often everything. Who would argue that the American Revolution or the American Civil War did not change anything? Would the world be better today if we had been pacifists in the face of Nazi Germany or imperial Japan?
Naturally, not all changes that have occurred through war, through the centuries are positive. Even a just war may generate undesirable results, such as Soviet tyranny over half of Europe after 1945. But one of the things which we can be sure of is that there are people in this world who believe that war or terrorism could change the world. And they will not be deterred by bumper stickers.
Victory is unattainable!
Victory is always possible if one is willing to do what it takes to win. But victory is obviously impossible if our troops come under impossible restrictions, if their leaders refuse to be brave, if every target must be approved by lawyers, and if people are discouraged by a constant barrage of negativity from the media. We don’t need generals who appears on television to apologize for every mistake our soldiers are making. We need generals that can win.
And it is impossible to win if you don’t want to fight. I fear that we are at the beginning of a violent struggle that will wave back and forth for decades, yet our current generation of leaders, both in and out of uniform, are worried about the enemy's feelings. It's an iron law of warfare that if you are not prepared to pay the bill in advance, you will pay it with compound interest afterwards. We don’t want to pay the bill, and our leaders think that they can become friends with our enemies before they have been totally defeated. We have started something that our leaders don’t have the courage to finish.
And in the words of General Douglas MacArthur: "It is fatal to enter a war without the will to win it."
There's no military solution; only negotiations can solve our problems.
In most cases, the reverse is true. Negotiations solve nothing until a military decision has been reached and one side recognizes a peace agreement as its only hope of survival. The only negotiations that produce lasting results are those conducted from positions of indisputable strength.
When we fight back, we only provoke our enemies.
When dealing with bullies, either in the schoolyard or in a war, the opposite is true: if you don't fight back, you encourage your enemy to behave more viciously. Passive resistance only works when directed against rule-of-law states; it doesn't work where silent protest is answered with a bayonet in the belly or a one-way trip to a political prison. We've allowed far too many myths about the "innate goodness of humanity" to creep up on us. Certainly, many humans would rather be good than bad. But if we're unwilling to fight the fraction of humanity that's evil, armed and determined to subjugate the rest, we'll face even grimmer conflicts.
Killing terrorists only turns them into martyrs.
It's an anomaly of today's Western world that privileged individuals feel more sympathy for dictators, mass murderers and terrorists than they do for their victims. We are told, over and over, that killing Osama bin Laden or hanging Saddam Hussein would only unite their followers. Well, we haven't yet gotten Osama and no one is fighting to avenge Saddam. The harsh truth is that when faced with true fanatics, killing them is the only way to end their influence. Imprisoned, they galvanize protests, kidnappings, bombings and attacks that seek to free them. Want to make a terrorist a martyr? Just lock him up. Attempts to try such monsters in a court of law will turn into mockeries that only provide public platforms for their hate speech, which the global media is delighted to broadcast. Dead, they're dead. And killing them is the ultimate proof that they lack divine protection. Dead terrorists don't kill.
If we fight as fiercely as our enemies, we're no better than them.
Did the bombing campaign against Germany turn us into Nazis? Did dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan turn us into the beasts who conducted the Bataan Death March?
While we must be as humane as the path to victory permits, we cannot shrink from doing what it takes to win. At present, the media and influential elements of our society are obsessed with the small immoralities that are inevitable in wartime. Soldiers are human, and no matter how rigorous their training, a miniscule fraction of our troops will do vicious things and must be punished as a consequence. Not everyone in uniform will turn out to be a saint, and not every chain of command will do its job with equal effectiveness. But obsessing on tragic incidents obscures the greater moral issue: one of the jobs that a soldier have, is to defeat enemies.
When all this being said; then what makes me the maddest is when our leaders throw us into something which they do not intend to implement 100%. Then we end up in deadlock again and again.
