Stoopid Stuff

You can identify a thing by its nature...

War. We know what war is. Intuitively, almost instinctively, the knowledge is as much visceral as it is cerebral.

We know that five years after we invaded another nation, defeated it's military on the field of battle, deposed it's political leadership and occupied it's capital we cannot still be at war with that nation.

We know that it is not possible to be at war with an enemy you can only describe as non-specific and amorphous. We also know that if this enemy does not have soldiers, a conflict with that enemy can be many things, but it cannot be a war.

It is very clear that calling it a "war" as an explanation or excuse when we chose it, started it and are now perpetuating it is disingenuous and self-serving.

What is happening in Iraq is many things. None of them are war. It is not our country. We could end our involvement in any combat in that nation by bringing our occupation troops home. I can guarantee you that no American active duty military forces will be killed by Iraqi insurgents or Shiite militias if they were in America instead of Iraq.

What is happening in Afghanistan might be arguably substantially closer to a war. At least it is the case where an argument can be made that having American combat troops there might actually be contributing to American security, and there are actual military forces deployed against them. But there has to be a minimum threshold where at some point the size of a military deployment, even one that includes combat with specific enemy forces, is so small that it does not rise to the level of "war". And as long as poverty and corruption are the norm, and the entire country outside the capitol is ruled by warlords with no national loyalty and no willingness to operate out of anything but personal greed and the perpetuation of their own local power, there will never be an end to the Islamic Fundamentalists that we currently narrowly describe as our enemies in that blighted place.

It is also important to understand that borders, particularly that of Pakistan, prevent the prosecution of anything even remotely resembling war. We can only place our troops in harms way and wait until the forces opposed to them decide to attack them. It should be obvious that this state of affairs utterly precludes a military solution, but to the mindless, predatory, criminal leadership in Washington DC there is no other expression of American power than bombs and bullets.

Ultimately, we know it. We are not "a nation at war". This is not "a time of war". A part of us is embarrassed when we make the claim. Some people say this is true, but it is only a technical truth, merely the case because there has been no formal "declaration of war". This misses the very important larger point. We are not a nation at war because nothing we are involved in, no military endeavor we labor at, can reasonably be described as a war. It is a politically self-serving delusion, propaganda to support the worst crimes of a deeply authoritarian government. We have allowed our government, post 9/11, to bamboozle us with martial talk, illegal invasions and stupid, wasteful, destructive occupation into allowing them unlimited extra-constitutional powers. The sad thing is that it is entirely unclear why they so deeply and venally desired these unnecessary authoritarian powers. Other than conducting illegal surveillance on their political opponents, the outrageous new powers they have claimed do not empower them in any meaningful way.

Torture, indefinite detention without due process, rendition, bribery, murder, mercenaries - none of these things has yielded positive outcomes, despite vague bleating to the contrary. They could have done a much better job of managing the threats to America after that September day without any of it, and America would be significantly better off politically, diplomatically, militarily and economically.

We have all been ill-served by allowing and enabling the "wartime" fiction. It has been used against us, not to our benefit, and we cannot allow it to survive into the next administration. These lies have have cost so many lives, so much treasure, so much power and prestige - let us reject that contention, and pull away the cloak that "war" gives our government to act in criminal and counterproductive ways. Only by speaking the truth can we force them to acknowledge the truth.

posted by mikey @ 2:36 PM