Thursday, November 14, 2019
A Cynic’s View of War
War is bad ...well, yeah. War is up there with racism and slavery as a topic to burnish one’s credentials for being opposed to the bad things that humans are capable of. I’m opposed to plagues and pandemics. Does that make me a good person? Am I on the “right side of history?”
I read somewhere recently that an opinion poll saw Donald Trump as the greatest threat to world peace. I wasn’t very impressed as I have seen similar polls before relating to George Bush and Ronald Reagan. In each instance the contemplative public apparently overlooked people like the Kims of North Korea and several other militant dictatorships scattered around the globe. No, the greatest threat to world peace is always the evil hegemon, primed and ready to open another theme park and fast food chain. America is often chastised for seeking the spread of Starbucks franchises around the world - the imperialism of flavorful coffee in a pleasant atmosphere. The former Soviet Union and it clones sought to spread — and the clones continue to seek the spread of — the miserable dictatorship franchise around the world (minus flavorful coffee and pleasant atmosphere).
Barack Obama actually thought that sneaking pallets of cash to the Mullahs of Iran would reduce the expansion of nuclear weapons in the world (for ten years). When a country publicly proclaims its desire to initiate a first strike and “wipe [another nation] off the map” I tend to view them as a great “obstacle to world peace.” It’s probably also reasonable to see anyone who bows to their behavior as an obstacle to world peace as well.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that, more often than not, the very policies that promote a strong military in a free society seem to be rather effective in reining in more bellicose countries. There are also more than a few examples of excessive idealism offering the green light to the real war-mongers of the world.
War and peace are an inseparable dynamic. There is nothing in the universe that does not interact with levels of harmony and dissonance. A hurricane is a war between hot and cold air. The more refined social templates that humans possess are still bound by degrees of harmony and discord in their interactions with others. It’s certainly practical to avoid the conflict that leads to mass-destruction, wanton violence, and grotesque physical harm but peace at all cost is often a very high cost and doesn’t necessarily guarantee peace in the end anyway.
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters sings in his lyrics about how the British government “took my daddy from me” overlooking the fact that Adolf Hitler was a key player in taking his daddy from him. Even when you’re on defense you are still at war and only the most weak-minded of idealists will argue the virtues of not defending one’s self, one’s family, and one’s society from external violence. Throwing flowers at the enemy loses its effectiveness...immediately. Another singer lost in the clouds, Sting, once sang that “The Russians love their children too.” Many people no doubt thought this was a profound testament to the virtues of not recognizing formidable threats (“Hey! They’re just like us!”). No doubt the Russians in the former Soviet Union did indeed love their children but their government was an unelected totalitarian monster that abused it’s own citizens as well as sought to spread it’s coercive authority across the globe. It put up a good fight against Nazi Germany but it’s often forgotten that initially it was allied with Nazi Germany to plunder the innocent citizens of Poland.
I’m always struck by the images one sees in nature specials where a Gazelle tries to outrun a lion but ends up in its teeth. I wish the Gazelle had a gun. Not because I want to see war between lions and gazelles but I think Gazelles should be better prepared to defend themselves from the inevitable actions of predators.
War is stupid, wasteful, unproductive, and horrible. Humans are gifted with the capacity to contemplate their circumstance and on some occasions even act with the refined sense to resist the negative attributes of a biological inheritance.
War is bad...but, keep your military on alert, just in case.
