Stop The Madness!
By Ron Forthofer
22 October, 2012
Countercurrents.org
It's disappointing that recent U.S. wars of choice and the possible attack on Iran were not a focus during the recent debates for the major party candidates for president. Even though these debates were to focus on domestic issues, war costs certainly impact our budget deficits and long-term debt in a big way as well as affecting the family life of those who serve. More importantly, have we reached the point that widespread killing is so acceptable that it does not even merit any discussion?
Almost 2000 years ago, Seneca the Younger said: "We are mad not only individually but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders, but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?" Appallingly, it appears we still accept this madness.
For example, consider U.S. wars just this century. Since 2001, the U.S. has led or participated in aggressions against Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. The short-term results of these U.S. aggressions are very discouraging to put it mildly.
Let's first examine the effects of these wars of aggression on our nation. Our attacks will eventually increase U.S. long-term debt by several trillion dollars. These wars of choice have also done tremendous damage to our already battered national reputation and destroyed any claim to our having the moral high ground. Perhaps more importantly, thousands of our troops have been killed and tens of thousands more wounded. Thousands of the wounded have been disabled for life and hundreds of thousands of families have been severely impacted.
The nations we attacked have suffered far greater losses. For example, the illegal U.S.-led attack on and occupation of Iraq, combined with over 10 years of harsh sanctions, resulted in appalling numbers of dead and incredible devastation. Note that before these U.S. actions, Iraq was a relatively thriving and modern country despite Saddam Hussein's brutal rule that denied political freedom. After the sanctions and the attack, Iraq became a nation rife with horrific sectarian violence and huge deprivation and suffering. The general shortage of the necessities of life combined with a devastated infrastructure make life a hell on earth for millions of Iraqis today.
Before the overthrow and killing of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya had the highest standard of living of all African nations. Libya is now struggling to recover from the devastation caused by civil war and the extensive bombing campaign of the U.S. and a few allies.
Similar to the Iraqis, the Libyan people finally have political freedom, but they are also paying a steep price in terms of a decrease in living conditions. Libyans are especially fearful about the lack of security due to presence of a large number of heavily armed rival militias. Rivalries among tribes, among cities and between the east and west in Libya are a threat to any Libyan central government.
The situation in Afghanistan under the cruel and misogynistic Taliban was already horrendous before the U.S.-led attack in 2001. However, eleven additional years of warfare has hardly been a recipe for improving the living conditions for Afghanis. The U.S.-led NATO forces also armed warlords to aid the campaign against the Taliban, thus setting the stage for additional years of civil war after western troops leave the country. For more info, see http://www.rawa.org/rawa/2011/10/07/ten-years-after-u-s-invasion-afghan-war-rages-on-with-no-end-in-sight.html.
Robert Jackson, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice and the chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazis addressed wars of aggression when he said: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime…." Justice Jackson added: "If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us."
Unfortunately, despite Jackson's powerful words, the hypocritical U.S. political class routinely uses wars of aggression as a policy tool without much consideration of the illegality of their actions. Making matters worse, the U.S., in dealing with the concocted crisis with Iran, has said that no steps are off the table, including the possibility of another unnecessary and illegal attack.
It is long past time to end the madness of war. Let us work to turn the U.S. into a nation respected for its support for the rule of law instead of a nation feared due to its illegal attacks on far weaker nations. President Eisenhower expressed a similar view in a 1953 speech. He said: "A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."
Ron Forthofer, Ph.D. is a retired Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, Texas; former Green Party candidate for Congress and for Governor of Colorado
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