THE MADNESS THAT IS WAR
Within all the media chatter it is so easy to lose sight of
what really matters and what doesn’t.
When a Canadian organization representing business almost casually
recommends that Canada increases its defense spending to 5 percent of GDP when
we currently barely touch the 2 percent mark, you kind of wonder what sparked
this remark. Are they hungry for
potentially lucrative government defense contracts? Genuinely concerned about the state of our
armed forces? Alarmed by a potential
takeover threat? In other words, were
these comments inspired by a boost in Canadian awareness and identity? Canadian vulnerability?
I will be very honest with you, and up front from the start. As a writer, a student of philosophy, history and the humanities, I cannot support squandering precious tax dollars on conflict resolution through the use of armed forces and war. It is time for humanity to grow up. Once more we’re pandering to elected and non-elected psychopaths running their countries as if they own them. The recent uptick in re-armament is due to the growing number of conflicts sprouting up all around the world like mushrooms. We’re once more getting ready for battle and a bruising. If eventually some form of sanity returns we will be faced with yet another massive cleanup. Wars and conflicts are a colossal waste of time, energy and resources. Human casualties will be replaced in record time. Despite alarming reports of falling birthrates we’re still adding an additional 300 million people every 4 years. World War I and II saw nearly one hundred million people killed and they were replaced within a few years. So, culling the herd through war and disease doesn’t seem to work. It only kills off our youngest and brightest.
Why spent trillions of dollars each year on weapons of mass
destruction when all that cash could be used to foster a greater sense of
global cooperation and on population reduction strategies that don’t include
war and conflict. Conflict resolution
through peace, diplomacy and mutual cooperation. Reaching out with an open hand, rather than a
closed fist. How refreshing that would
be. Psychopaths like Trump and Putin and
a bevy of likeminded autocrats and dictators need to be put back into the
asylum where they belong.
What’s wrong with us?
Why do they even get elected? Why
let them run in the first place? Why do
we continue to move forward with military strategies and a general staff coming
up with potential war scenarios and who to select as a target and how to best
beat them? What is the matter with our
military and politicians when they seem obsessed and focused on making or
creating enemies? Doesn’t history teach
anyone anything?
The nature of conflicts
has changed and so has their lethality
Due to the long and ongoing conflict in Ukraine weapons
development has accelerated to combat new technologies: hypersonic missiles and
attack drones. The technology of warfare
has changed dramatically, but not the impact on the ground. Increasingly civilian targets bear the brunt
as military strategies and objectives appear to focus on undermining morale and
civilian vulnerability: hospitals, transportation hubs, cities, infrastructure
and power generating facilities.
Military madness appears to ignore that the immense destruction on the
ground doesn’t win over the hearts and minds of those affected.
You can’t stay where
you are not wanted
You can’t keep what
doesn’t belong to you
Ever since humanity started to track war and battles records,
anthropologists and historians estimate that more than 14,000 battles and wars
have taken place with more than a billion casualties. And the casualties continue to pile up. Not a single war or battle has ever
accomplished anything that was durable and lasting. All nations and tribes eventually move back
within their original borders and lands.
Which begs the question I posed early on: why even bother?
There are a couple of
truths politicians and generals consistently ignore:
Boots on the ground is a hopelessly outdated strategy:
Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, just to name a few recent wars and conflicts
most of us are familiar with.
Every battlefield improvement or advance in speed, lethality,
destruction and detectability is counteracted within record time. No matter how big or small or how fast the
object. Bigger is not better. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is a
glaring example of how big objects like naval frigates and destroyers are like
sitting ducks waiting to be plucked off.
Pounding the enemy into submission; a strategy Israel is
using in their efforts to undermine any attempts by Palestinians to establish a
Palestinian state, is starting to resemble the infamous Chinese torture of
death by a thousand cuts: painful and protracted and at a horrendous cost. The only thing they’re harvesting is a deep
and long lasting hatred.
Even the most jaded and ignorant psychopathic president or
dictator realizes that starting an all-out global war will only invite mutually
assured self-destruction, such is the lethality of the weapons at our disposal.
And for those people who still believe that a robust
armaments industry will boost a nation’s GDP, think of why we build this stuff
in the first place and what we plan to do with it. Hugely expensive aircraft carriers, nuclear
submarines, naval destroyers, fighter aircraft, bombs and missiles and their
delivery systems, tanks and all the equipment used to transport soldiers and
supplies, guns and bullets, field hospitals, maintenance, repair and
replacement of all of the above and for what?
Most of it will never be used and gathers rust and dust. Deterrence?
Balance of power? Protecting
spheres of influence?
When Boeing produces a jetliner it builds a products that
safely transports millions of people during its lifetime and it delivers a real
measurable profit. Millions of people
benefit and private sector dollars are stimulating the economy, not tax dollars. When Boeing produces a jetfighter it only
delivers a profit to Boeing and its shareholders. The taxpayer gets stuck with the bill. The entire infrastructure needed to support a
jetfighter, all the jobs, from crews to maintenance and replacement is borne by
the taxpayer. It is a net-negative
enterprise.
The way we fight wars is outdated and increasingly it is
obvious that bigger isn’t better. The
bigger the object, the greater the target.
Big is also costly. A one hundred
thousand dollar drone can take out a multi-billion dollar aircraft carrier.
Afghanistan and the Middle East are prime examples that
conflicting ideologies and religions will never be resolved by armed
conflict. Superior armaments and hundreds
of billions of dollars spent and we left with our tails tucked in between our
legs. We didn’t even put a dent in their
resolve. They would have fought us with
their bare hands, clawing out our eyes.
You can’t stay where you are not wanted!
Propaganda; crowd
manipulation, crowd morality and crowd mentality
And yet, time and time again, we’re willing to follow the
siren song of demented leaders who seem hell-bent on beating the drums of war
and we follow. Crowd manipulation in
times of upheaval takes on unprecedented heights, especially when we tune in to
the war footing mode. War propaganda is
so powerful. Duty calls. The good old God, King and Country rallying
cry. And . . . if you are able and don’t sign up you’re
labelled a coward. The lure of battle
ignites base human emotions, a primordial instinct, to serve and protect. Personally I am convinced that for most young
males it’s a convenient excuse, hankering for a sense of adventure and a great
opportunity to leave hoe and shovel behind; hoisting a battleax into the air
instead, standing shoulder to shoulder with mates, screaming and shouting. It’s got to be better than working the field
or getting stuck in boring jobs. Leave
women and children behind and let them fend for themselves. They’ll manage, they always have. Who needs responsibility?
Things change in a hurry when they’re caught up in actual
battles and the reality of death and destruction sinks in. The trauma of war leaves lasting scars and
some will struggle with the aftermath for the remainder of their lives. PTSD replacing the lure of battle.
In bad times we elect
the worst and silence the best
Remote killing may have replaced the real combat experience
for those pushing buttons and manning remote killer drones, but the carnage and
death inflicted on the ground is as real as ever. It must be self-evident from what we witness
around the globe that crowd mentality is easily manipulated. There has to be a reason as to why we elect
and follow the worst.
We like to be led and fed, it’s that simple. Why think for yourself when others will do
the thinking for you? And we shouldn’t
worry too much about the consequences of our obvious foolishness in supporting
the worst. After the fact and the dust
settles down on a conflict, crowd
amnesia is a given.
In recent decades Canada has spent hundreds of millions of
dollars on unfinished and unused artic ports and army facilities. It started out with a lot of fanfare of
protecting Canada’s frozen North and all that jazz, only to see it quietly
peter out, running out of funds and ambition.
Unfinished, abandoned facilities.
And we’re about to go that route again.
And why would anyone in their right mind contemplate an invasion along a
route that has literally nothing to offer except for a lot of ice, snow and
cold weather. Protecting a sea route
that might be open for navigation for a few months of the year? Drilling for desperation oil that may or may
not be there and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it won’t destroy and
pollute the North?
All this talk about increased military spending is nothing
but a political distraction to divert our minds away from a multitude of
problems that is hitting humanity like an avalanche. Beside our horrendous numbers we have created
a consumer nightmare that can’t be satisfied.
We’re blind to our excesses. Our
numbers! The more is better scenario has
hit a brick wall. There is no more
and what is left in energy and resources, in food, land and production
potential, is either too expensive or out of reach for most. The disparity between haves and have-nots is
no longer bridgeable. Group discontent
and despair is fueling global political and economic unrest, acerbated by a
flood of migrants and refugees crossing borders in search of a better life.
Not a single nation is in a position to sustain and maintain
accelerated military spending. It is a
ludicrous concept that turns all of us into losers. If we were to spend as much money on peace as
we do on military spending, what a wonderful world it would be.
For those of you who think me naïve, misguided, willing to
invite enemies in and ignoring how we’ve always done ‘things’, I have the
following to propose. If you’re truly
serious about an ‘enemy’, why waste billions on conventional warfare and the
dubious and costly prospect of occupation?
Boots on the ground don’t work. You
could annihilate an enemy at the fraction of the cost by using biological or
chemical warfare. All you do is mop up
after the fact and everything is yours for the taking.
All of a sudden I am heartless psycho. Think again!
The first casualty of war is our humanity and we’ve lost that a long
time ago.
So, grow up and reach out with an open hand and a willingness
to try peace and mutual cooperation.
It’s got to beat the alternatives.
Don't look for answers, be the answer.
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