By all means necessary ...
December 5, 2001 ~ 11:44 a.m.
When is war appropriate and when is it not? I asked myself this question the other day.
Chandonnet, in one of her recent entries, mentioned the Vietnam War Memorial and how devastated she was at the tragic number of soldier�s lives lost. She also reflected sadly on the current war in Afghanistan and her regrets that it all had to come to this.
I will agree with Chandonnet that war is a tragic thing. It is something only the most bloodthirsty among us in society actually desire. Normal folks�the great bulk of society�are peace-loving. The list of peace-lovers would include me. That may seem to contradict what I wrote on November 11 (�Make War, Not Stupidity�), but there is a huge difference between wanting war and thinking that it is necessary.
Americans could be said to have truly wanted war during the initial seventy-two hours after the attacks on New York and Washington. Any sense of restraint became clouded by the red that we saw. But once we began to think rationally again, we were able to distinguish between the enemy and the means of force necessary to take revenge against them. Thus, we engaged a necessary war. (Notice I didn�t say that we launched the war. We didn�t�bin Laden�s Taliban-funded Al-Qaeda did. Important distinction.)
Some may argue that revenge is the point. If only someone was willing to let it go, to be the bigger person�or nation�then war might not exist. This is an understandable way of thinking but not very logical. I paid attention to my history classes and the one thing I took from them was this: the best way to study history is by studying military history. History always revolves around wars. The rise and fall of nations, the changing of a nation�s borders, and the political outlook of a nation�s citizenry, always was and still is dependent upon the outcome of wars. Look at Afghanistan. While battles continue to rage there, talks are taking place to decide on the future government. That is how Yugoslavia formed�after lengthy battles by warring factions in the Balkans, negotiators hammered out a government, drew up (arbitrary) borders and stuck General Tito in the center to govern all. Now, Yugoslavia is no more. Important lesson to be learned here! We can approach Afghanistan as carefully as we like and fret that the fate of Afghanistan is largely in the hands of us Americans. But that won�t ensure that twenty years down the line, things won�t dissolve into madness again. As goes Yugoslavia, so goes Afghanistan.
Ironically enough, Yugoslavia was formed in the aftermath of World War I, dubbed �the War to End All Wars,� at the time. Didn�t exactly live up to its billing, did it? Just goes to show the fallacy behind the pleasant but na�ve thought that war can be eradicated.
You can�t force people to live together. Even more to the point, you can�t force them to move. Israel is dealing with that lesson. A look at the 12 o�clock news will bear that out in vivid detail. The lines in the sand of the Middle East couldn�t be more deeply drawn.
In any situation, allegiances are strong and will always prevent people from turning the other cheek. Furthermore, what sense of restraint people might show would very likely be paid back with another attack. Always bear in mind the bloodthirsty members within society and the frightening potential they possess to woo others to their twisted ideology. Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot or bin Laden�the motives are different, but the end result the same: Go our way or be eradicated.
If America does not continue to fight what has been proven beyond doubt to be a necessary war, we will only fall victim again. Even if we had it in us to forgive and look the other way�a foolish generosity of spirit that we should not be expected to display (and never mind what the sissy socialist Europeans say)�it would prove even more encouraging to the terrorists. They�re not suddenly going to love us if we showed restraint.
This is why the peaceniks have it all wrong. They would endanger a great many more lives if we were to follow their ideology of peace and love. We can be peace loving, but we also need to be sensible. Furthermore, when a belief in peace is used as a weapon of propaganda against the war, it harms our soldiers. They enlisted to protect us, as they are now doing. We owe them a debt of gratitude. The simplest way of paying that debt is to support them. The peaceniks destroyed the effort in Vietnam because their belief in peace turned into pure-blind aggression against our soldier�s efforts. It is interesting how the home turf of the peaceniks�college campuses�always seemed to resemble a war zone at that time. These kids were ready for a rumble, but not in defense of those who fought for their country.
You don�t have to love war. I certainly don�t. But you must recognize the necessity of it. And, at this point in American history, this war couldn�t be more necessary. It is for the survival of our way of life. Political correctness would ban me entirely from saying that it�s the best way of life (which it is), but at the very least, it�s a very good one. Americans have every reason�and right�to fight this war.
Postscript:
I was looking through old newspapers, stacking them up for recycling, when I came across this letter, which appeared in the November 20 edition of the London Metro:
The anti-war protestors who gathered in London at the weekend did so under the banner of peace. They must surely not see, or choose not to believe, that the very peace and freedom of the Western world is at stake�but their treasonable rhetoric continues unquestioned. I have yet to hear a viable and valid alternative course of action. It is easy to say the bombing must stop but how, practically, can Britain and the U.S. put an end to the Taliban ... without the use of force? These protestors clearly dislike this country. Yet, the hypocrisy of this is clear for all to see�were it not for their being here, they would not be afforded the liberty of free speech which is one of the very freedoms for which we are fighting. They say money should be going into Afghanistan ... The Afghan people were starving before September 11, largely as a result of the Taliban blocking international aid. Until an alternative can be suggested�though it is obvious no alternative is required�the holier-than-thou attitude of wayward politicians ... and sadly misinformed protesters will show them up for what they are�loony left-w(h)ingers.
Well said! Have a cup o� tea on me, old chap! Hear, hear!
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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