The Case For War

Deborah Venable

02/09/03

As Americans struggle with the BIG issues facing us today, it seems that we can’t do any better than a fifty/fifty split on anything we are called on to decide. With a margin of error factored in of course, and considering that if there are two courses of action, that means that approximately half of us are continually choosing the wrong path. Sometimes over half of us coerce the other half to live with decisions that are, well, to be kind about it, unwise to say the least. What’s more, there doesn’t seem to be ANY kind of consistency in these giant boo boos! We no longer have any one group of people who can be counted on to make these choices with the guidance of consistent wisdom. If anything can be blamed for the total undoing of the American Dream, perhaps we should question the wisdom of the indecisive keepers of that dream. It is, after all, what our enemies have always counted on – that we would be the architects of our own destruction.

Take the current question in all the polls now – do we support the upcoming war with Iraq? There is no consistency in the philosophical beliefs of Americans on both sides of that issue. No matter what the polls show at any given time, a fifty/fifty split exists in American opinion on that one. Ladies and gentlemen, wars are not won with an even split! War is much too horrible a human endeavor to be undertaken without a more decisive percentage than that, and we should never go into a war that we do not demand to win! We have already seen what happens when we do. The anti-war and war protestor crowd needs to examine its reasons for sending our soldiers off to fight a war without their support. Where were they before the decision was made? Were they searching their souls for answers or being led around by the nose ring of opinion makers?

There is a fine line between being a rugged individualist and a dangerous loose cannon. An indomitable spirit directs the former while the latter is misdirected by stubborn or accidental ignorance. Loose cannons down through history have obviously done more harm than good, while rugged individualists consistently blazed the trail to progress. People who followed these leaders caused all the events in history – not the leaders themselves. They would have been ineffectual had they not first been influential enough to gather the masses that supported them. Mistakes in the course of history have been laid at the doorstep of leaders because followers seem to have a hard time with taking the blame for anything.

Military mistakes happen because they are directed not from the battlefield but from the sterile environment of safety far removed. Ask any soldier. It is a problem that has been repeated many times in history. The kings who road into battle with their soldiers were the ones who earned the respect of their kingdoms. It isn’t practical nowadays, though, is it? So military mistakes have been and will continue to be a very large part of the human condition. That does not excuse giant errors in judgment of those who elect their leaders and refuse to support the decisions they have already made!

Let’s look at Iraq on a very personal level for this president. Saddam Hussein is said to have attempted a hit on this president’s father. This all happened BEFORE the son ran for or was ELECTED to his office. How stupid do we have to be to believe that George W. Bush would not have as a highly prioritized goal the desire to at least dethrone Saddam Hussein? Ask yourself how any of those ancient kings of history would react. They would probably gather their armies, saddle up the First Horse, and lead them off to battle, right? All the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not have persuaded this king to be satisfied with anything short of removing the offensive leader from power – preferably via killing him outright. This is simple stuff, folks. Of course in today’s “free government” environments, interrelated various national interests, prior stipulated mutual interest concerns and agreements for cooperation, the king must make a public case that withstands the question of world benefit feasibility before giving the order to “ride” into war. Well! That case is hardly one that can be logically defended past blind faith in the one making it - certainly not to the satisfaction of more than half the public at any rate. So, personally, the king stews in his own juices while deciding just how important public opinion of his kingdom or the rest of the world is to his ultimate decision. He gloms on to any smidgeon of proof that the deed needs doing for the benefit of National and world security. But it wouldn’t matter how much proof he had – he would still have the power to order war and the public would still have the power to follow him into it or protest.

Let us look at the ramifications of each course of action, shall we? The most effective war machine will eventually break down without the oil of support. Let us not lose sight of just who the “mechanical” parts of this war machine consist of. The brave young soldiers and the wise old warriors who actually have to put their lives on the line and their bodies in the battlefields – that’s who they are! When you protest against your country fighting a war, what do you think the results of your actions are on those prosecuting that war? Your protests amount to sabotage of the machine. Once committed, the king cannot back down without irreparable damage to the future of his kingdom. He can, however, make fatal errors in judgment. Based on the fact that he is not on the battlefield, but is being negatively influenced by his own people, his heart and soul may not stay committed t the battle plan. Lack of the necessary oil of support will eventually cause the destruction of the machine – in plain language, the death of many soldiers. Who will be more at fault for those deaths? A king who never hid his intentions, or his subjects that refused to support the interests of the kingdom? On the other hand, if the war is won by a well-oiled machine, how can the kingdom not benefit?

Now, you are probably thinking, what is this old broad talking about? Kings and kingdoms – this is America! Right, damn it! This IS America, and whether you like t or not, the people of America ELECTED George Bush as their president. Forget the garbage about the Supreme Court appointing him – that is a lame argument at best and an evil lie at worst! He is in office because of one thing and one thing only – half of us either made the best decision we could at the time or we made the gravest error we have ever made – but we MADE the decision none-the-less! Once that decision was made, we were stuck with it for four years unless the man makes serious mistakes enough to be removed from office. Judging from the last time that was attempted - and failed due to a less than united effort to right a wrong – any attempts at that will be little better than spitting in the wind. Anyway, the mistakes of past presidents have been soundly placed at their doorsteps – but their supporters should have shouldered those mistakes at the time, if they were to have strived for a better future. We, in this country, deserve what we get. If we are a nation of wimps and whiners, how can we hope for strong and righteous leaders? No doubt about it – this leader was the lesser of the evils when we elected him, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination – but we handed him the scepter, saddled his horse, and we are stupid to think he deserves all the blame for history going wrong if it does.

That brings us to this “brink of war” question. War is the most ungodly horror that man can inflict on man. War happens when law fails. You simply cannot try to apply the law to war – even though it’s been tried many times before and human ignorance will not see the attempt as the cop-out that it truly is. War crimes and war criminals are oxymorons, folks. Anyone who believes that war can or should be governed by law is playing in a dream world of fantasy! All bets are off when soldiers are sent to kill the enemy! The only thing that stops a war and brings peace at that point is victory or defeat. How hard is that to understand? Once a nation finds itself in a war, there can be only two choices – win it or lose it!

This old broad has a few other things to add. For all you well-intentioned folks who would oppose the United Sates fighting a war with the Iraqs of the world – and yes, there are several more of them – know this: Iraq is not innocent of deserving our wrath. Given a chance, the leaders and most of the people of Iraq and countries like it, would destroy us. It has nothing to do with any notion of justice. It has to do with a deep-seated evil intent to see America fall. Period. You may rail about them being justified in hating us all you want – you are just playing into their hands when you do. Nations deserve the wars they bring on themselves – always! The people – not just the leaders or kings – DESERVE the wars when the rule of law fails. The time to whine about it and make a case for law and peace has long passed on this one. Iraq and a handful of other nations have brought this on themselves, just as we have. The leaders are ruthless, the people have chosen them and/or continued to leave them in power, and human law has failed. Our leader has chosen to try and rid the world of their evil threats. Of course, Iraq might not be the only target, but it will probably be the first. Will you continue to show your ignorance and oppose them all?

If we take a look at the argument being made about the importance of oil in the cause of this particular war, we cannot deny that it does play a part. Oil has played a big part on the world stage for decades now. To deny that is to show much ignorance. So, who gets the oil? Do you honestly think the Iraqi people have benefited from sitting on top of such a large percentage of that region’s oil reserves? Would their neighbors leave them in peace and they do so in turn with those neighbors if there were no oil in the region? Hardly. Wars have raged there for longer than America has been a name on the globe. The causes of those wars have been land, religion, and position. America has no interest in influencing those things unless it benefits our ability to acquire the oil. So – yes, it is about the oil then. Because we need the oil, and we have the money to pay for it, we have a national interest in who rules the whole region of the oil-rich Middle East. Not a good enough reason to go to war you say? Right! That alone is not a good enough reason for one sovereign nation to invade another. But what if we discover that by us and everybody else paying for the oil, we have provided the means for war and destruction the world over – including right here in America? Ladies and gentlemen – THAT is exactly what we HAVE discovered. Now, do we have a just cause, a legal reason to invade a sovereign county? Hell no! But, we DO have a moral imperative to win a battle that will make us victorious against a foe that, if unchecked, will one day succeed in causing mass destruction. These people do not maintain their armies for defense – they groom them for conquest and control. They rule by fear with no honorable intentions what so ever. They have their eye on the “Great Satan” and intend to destroy us. Just because you may happen to agree with them, or you think America is unjustly prosecuting a war for oil, or you think we have no interests in the Middle East, or you think we are only pursuing a defense of Israel, (an entirely different can of beans I won’t open here), or you think Al Gore would have never brought us to the brink of war, or you just think war is wrong so we should never be a part of it – you have no right to hold yourself blameless for the outcome of this or any other war your country fights.

Come down off your self-constructed pedestal and have a look at reality. There are a lot of things wrong in America, but none of them justify backing away from this battle. It is too late. Short of our enemies’ throwing up their hands and quitting, this war will be fought and it should be fought. If you want to do something to prevent a future brink of war situation, fine! I’ll make a few suggestions. Get off your duff and learn some history. Be a part of the election process in this country instead of a sideline whiner. Work on a few of the social ills here that make us targets of tyrants – internally and externally. Teach your kids about war and what causes it. Stop looking for a legal prosecution of war – it won’t happen! Examine your heart and soul for an understanding of human nature and spiritual influence. If you are ashamed of the immorality of war, consider the immorality of legalizing the slaughter of innocents, the slander of God, and the punishment of success. You have been an active or silent part of all those things, just as surely as you have been breathing air. If war is something you can never stomach, consider why you can stomach the ripping apart of unborn human beings for convenience, or the persecution of a small child for his religious training, or the plundering of honest wealth by jealous envy - all aided by immoral legality that YOU have supported! War is not a question of legality – other human interaction is.

In every war you hear those in America who say, “We are no better than they are if we go to war.” I’ve heard parents tell children that to keep them from fighting. “Don’t bring yourself down to their level,” they say. Flawed logic if I ever heard it. It is not about justice at this point – there is NO justice in hurting and killing people – there is only a winner and a loser. When all else fails, that is what you are left with. There is no legal right or wrong in determining a win or a loss; there is only strength of will and what will follow the outcome. Are we to send a well-oiled machine into this war, or will we try to justify our loss if we don’t? It is simply kill or be killed. Which do you wish for our soldiers? You cannot fix what is wrong in America by opposing this war – but you CAN be “better than they are.” The soldiers know it. They have to believe it in order to fight and win, and you and I do NOT have right to destroy their strength of will by comparing them to the senseless cruelty of our enemies. We do not wish to destroy an imaginary Great Satan – we wish to eliminate ruthless human beings from the face of the earth. There IS a big difference.

I think it is long past time to declare America a decisively better nation with a decisively better public opinion than a mealy-mouthed even split – don’t you? Half weak and half strong, half good and half evil, half right and half wrong is not the culture, the motto or the original ideal of this country. That is no better than riding the fence, and fence riders have never contributed a single thing toward human progress.

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