Given The Lessons Shouldn't War Be Obsolete?
By Arshad M Khan
12 June, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Friday June 6 was the 70th anniversary of D-Day. The beachhead secured at the cost of 10,000 dead and wounded opened a second front against the Germans. Stalin was much relieved for his country had paid the heaviest price. Over twenty million Russians died in WW II -- a horrendous figure; add up the Americans, British, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Indians, other Asians and Europeans plus the simple fact that the vast majority of victims were non-combatants, and one begins to wonder if man, or perhaps our leaders undergo a loss of sanity in playing the global power game. Does the affliction lead to a callousness to wholesale human suffering and death where cities full of civilian women and children and men of non-military age are firebombed and nuked out of existence?
And the end result? Laughably (if one could ever laugh at war), it is what the losers were fighting for -- access to markets and resources for their burgeoning industries. Within a couple of post-war decades both Germany and Japan were among the world's leading exporters (now rivaled by China), and gave the world the ubiquitous Volkswagen Beetle and transistor radio to be added on later with higher and higher value products.
Germany is now the EU's industrial powerhouse expanding into Russia, as Japan does the same for Asia together with China, already its largest trading partner, both suffering the occasional hiccup from territorial disputes.
The history begs the questions: Could there have been a better way than plunging the world into war? Why do leaders opt for war reflexively? The first will be argued upon for eternity despite the case for peaceful resolution as in the example of Germany and Japan above, and the second seems definitely connected to the availability of a powerful military.
Yet, a climate of perpetual war or readiness for war has never left. As Mr. Putin was quick to respond, America has forces or special forces in 124 countries; Russia is in none. The West's and principally America's wars against Communism splitting families through chance and geography, killing and maiming millions now seem senseless as the largest communist state has become a leading trading partner; proxy wars, wars to defend civilians but destroying their countries' infrastructure, leaving chaos in their wake continue as the villain morphs into something else -- wars and organized coups in a perpetual power game.
The results are there for all to see: Tens of millions displaced, flooding refugee camps from Pakistan across the Middle East and Africa. And a constant stream of asylum seekers to the EU through Italy, Greece and Spain, even across the Indian Ocean to Australia. And Ukraine is the latest victim.
In Nigeria, the most populous African country a new force has emerged. Spawning a hatred of Western education (and concomitant cultural estrangement), and facilitated by arms from Libya, Boko Haram is on a rampage killing hundreds in several villages in just the last few weeks and kidnapping around 300 schoolgirls. Originally preaching against western education, which for them equated to government corruption, the group turned to violence after their leader Mohammed Yusuf was killed while in police custody. Now thanks to the Libyan turmoil, they are often better armed than the government forces whose corruption and incompetence have been laid bare.
From wars to the easy solution of killing by drone, including U.S. citizens. Forget a trial, forget the Constitution, the 'war on terror' turns the executive into judge, jury, executioner.
Yes, the easy solution. This 'easy' answer to conflict resolution is not lost on disturbed individuals. Three more mass shootings in the U.S. in two and a half weeks: Sunday, June 8 in Las Vegas targeting policemen; Thursday, June 5 at Seattle Pacific University, a small Christian school in Seattle; and at the start of the Memorial day weekend in Isla Vista near U.C. Santa Barbara targeting women. Mass shootings have become so frequent, they no longer capture media attention for very long, or invite comment from the President unless notably horrendous.
Through wars, often of doubtful legality, and a retreat from adherence to the rule of law, society has undergone a climate change to nobody's liking. Checking this one is easier ... we just have to hold our governments and elected leaders responsible.
Dr. Arshad M Khan (http://ofthisandthat.org/index.html) is a retired Professor. A frequent contributor to the print and electronic media, his work has been quoted in the U.S. Congress and published in the Congressional Record.
Comments are moderated