Hungry for War

Since I am no longer in school, I have taken it upon myself to keep my education going. This quest has been relatively easy for someone like me who has a mind that needs new stimulation constantly. One of the myriad of themes I have chosen to focus on is War. After five years of studying political science, I still do not feel that I have been taught enough about the U.S.'s involvement in a number of wars such as Vietnam, Korea, the Philippines, the Spanish American War, Japan, etc...

There is no one definitive text that spells out why, when, where, and how the US got involved in these wars (arguably A People's History of the United States does just that, however, it is more focused on the people that participated in the war). War has always seemed like a rather silly concept to me. Why would you fight another country to achieve the eventual goal of peace? Most wars are fought under the banner of peace and democracy but achieve the exact opposite.

The two wars that have peaked my curiosity most recently are Vietnam and Korea. I think the reason I have been so interested in both of these conflicts is because the public was largely in the dark about both of them. The reporting was nothing like it is today and the United States government spun the majority of intelligence that came down from the Armed Forces anyways. Along those same lines, Korea and Vietnam seem to me to accurately represent what the Iraq War is to our generation. This time, however, there is no excuse for supporting the war.

In my crusade to come to terms with why the government will not come clean to the American public, I stumbled upon the following two quotations which made my heart pound. The first is from I.F. Stone, the influential American Journalist who dedicated his life to uncovering Secret History.

On the Korean War: " While the arms race and the attendant inflation were ruining America's allies, American leadership was still gripped by the dread of the consequences of peace upon the economy. This dread was dictating the actions of the politicians and business leaders. An economy accustomed to ever larger injections of inflationary narcotic trembled at the thought that its deadly stimulant might be shut off. The road to war was more than ever the path of least resistance in 1952...The dominant trend in American political, economic, and military thinking was fear of peace. General Van Fleet summed it all up in speaking to a visiting Filipino delegation in January 1952: 'Korea has been a blessing. There had to be a Korea either here or some place in the world." - From The Hidden History of the Korean War.

For some odd reason, I had never thought of this. If the Iraq War were to end today, the American public would see the horrible state of the economy, social programs, environmental funding, etc... This is certainly why the Bush administration has adopted the "Stay the Course" rhetoric since Day #1. If we did pull out, George W. Bush would be likely to be tarred and feathered in a public square. I guess I'll have to accept a 29% approval rating instead.

Switching gears now- I recently picked up "Fugitive Days" by Bill Ayers, a one-time leader of the activist group the Weather Underground. This book is a memoir about being on the run from the FBI but mostly about what it felt like to eat, sleep, fuck, and dream PEACE. The group's main goal was to bring about the end of the Vietnam War by showing the state that passive resistance was no longer an option. In the last pages of his book, he inadvertently lays out a thesis statement that is so powerful, I literally jumped out of my seat when I read it.

"No government in power sanctions dissent, none relishes a mobilized, politically active citizenry. Every government encourages obedience and conformity, docility, dependence, consensus. Each deceives its own people, opposes initiative, courage, or anything that smacks of citizens with minds of their own. Our government is no different."- From Fugitive Days.

Once again, I was unsure as to why this simplistic statement hit me so hard. After weeks of thought, I think I figured it out. From our earliest days of education, we have been taught that America is something monumental and mystical. We are not a state, we are a conglomeration of unique entities that came together over hundreds of years of peace, which began that thanksgiving day in November. We are taught to believe that our great nation is one too young to be guilty of any major offenses.

For me, this is a case of nature v. nurture. I have been nurtured to believe my government is inherently good. Luckily it is not in my nature to trust blindly. I would hope that anyone who actually reads this would think twice about the status of his or her country. We accuse others of being terrorists, while we stick guns up womens vaginas and blow them away (Vietnam). We drop gallons of liquid napalm on enemy villages filled with civilians (Korea). We shoot innocent civilians on crowded highways in an attempt to kill killers (Afghanistan). We destroy cities in the name of democracy and drive people from their lifelong homes to give them a better life (Iraq).