War & Clarity of Purpose
It has been noted many times that WWI was a great tragedy. Not only did untold numbers of people die in the trenches, but ultimately there was no purpose, no goal to the war. Even the sides in the war were in many ways unclear -- if the war had been held ten or even five years earlier, Britain would have sided with Germany against France. This would have created a very different world than the one we live in now. The war didn't end with victory, but exhaustion, nothing of note having been accomplished other than to throw a generation into the meatgrinder
Looking at WWI, the question comes "Why?" What was the purpose of the war? What goals were being fought for? Why did it have to happen, especially at the cost of so many lives?
And, of course, I mean this as an indirect parallel to what is now being referred to as "the long war".
What is the ultimate goal of The War on Terror(ism), the War on Religious Extremism, "the long war"? Can we say we have a specific target, a point where we can say, "Now the war is over"? Apparently not. This creates a huge problem. We obviously cannot end terrorism (much less terror!) -- if it ends in one place, it will crop up in another. We cannot end religious extremism -- look at our own country! We are not fighting a specific enemy. We are not out to take a capital or a piece of land. We cannot even truly way when the Taliban/al Quaeda/Hamas is or will be defeated because these are not organizations with rigid command structures -- even if we kill off the leadership, the attacks will continue to take place; equally, as we have already seen in action, there are so many splinter groups and subsets of these groups that we cannot simply stomp them all out at a go. Are we going to impose democracy on the Middle East? How is that any better than imposing communism on an area? Who are we to dictate what government another group of people may or may not have? Is our goal to end repressive regimes? Not only is this impossible but, in comparison, Iraq was not that bad. Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt are just as bad, if not worse.
In other words, if we go into a war with no clear goal, we cannot achieve a clear victory.
We have no clear goal. Instead, the administration has shifted the reasons and rationale for the war on a nearly monthly basis, never settling on reasoning or purpose.
So we have lost the war.
If you cannot win, you lose.
Looking at WWI, the question comes "Why?" What was the purpose of the war? What goals were being fought for? Why did it have to happen, especially at the cost of so many lives?
And, of course, I mean this as an indirect parallel to what is now being referred to as "the long war".
What is the ultimate goal of The War on Terror(ism), the War on Religious Extremism, "the long war"? Can we say we have a specific target, a point where we can say, "Now the war is over"? Apparently not. This creates a huge problem. We obviously cannot end terrorism (much less terror!) -- if it ends in one place, it will crop up in another. We cannot end religious extremism -- look at our own country! We are not fighting a specific enemy. We are not out to take a capital or a piece of land. We cannot even truly way when the Taliban/al Quaeda/Hamas is or will be defeated because these are not organizations with rigid command structures -- even if we kill off the leadership, the attacks will continue to take place; equally, as we have already seen in action, there are so many splinter groups and subsets of these groups that we cannot simply stomp them all out at a go. Are we going to impose democracy on the Middle East? How is that any better than imposing communism on an area? Who are we to dictate what government another group of people may or may not have? Is our goal to end repressive regimes? Not only is this impossible but, in comparison, Iraq was not that bad. Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt are just as bad, if not worse.
In other words, if we go into a war with no clear goal, we cannot achieve a clear victory.
We have no clear goal. Instead, the administration has shifted the reasons and rationale for the war on a nearly monthly basis, never settling on reasoning or purpose.
So we have lost the war.
If you cannot win, you lose.