War is The Enemy of Freedom
If you were an alien arriving on planet earth, and you spent time studying the various relationships of the many countries and peoples that inhabit it, I’m sure you’d come to the conclusion that we are all mad. Mad because we are continuously at war with each other.
It was Clauswitz who said, “War is a continuation of state policy by other means.” In other words, war is used as a means of advancing state (or foreign) policy. Diplomacy is supposed to be the other means.
But consider how the word diplomacy has morphed into simply another word for “war”. Like the “diplomacy” being inflicted on the Iranians – “Stop the nuclear fuel cycle or we’ll increase the sanctions against you, we’ll blockade you – and if that doesn’t work, we’ll bomb you.”
In my book a blockade is an act of war – so such diplomacy ends up being a cover word for more war.
I’ll tell you the truth, I’m sick and tired of war. I see no point in it. All I see is dead people and rich warmongers. I don’t see any improvement. I see only a total waste of money. War is what our leaders want and it’s financed from the public purse – that is, financed from your pocket.
If you walk down the street and canvas support for war as a matter of policy – you will not find many takers. If you travel the world and study the various peoples, you will find they do not want war – only the opportunity to get on with their lives and make the best of things for themselves and their loved ones.
I’ve often thought that instead of war – which involves the deaths of thousands of innocent people – it would be better to simply put the leaders of the warring countries into a sealed room, armed with pistols. Then let them shoot it out, or scrap to their hearts content. But don’t let them out until they’ve sorted out the issue at hand. At least that way – those who actually want war would be the ones fighting it, and we could get on with our lives in peace.
Not only that, but war eats up valuable economic resources – resources that could be applied somewhere else. Just think how much better our economies would be (and therefore our individual lives) if the money spent on war and weapons was left in the market – in the hands of those who actually earned it in the first place. Now, that’s a radical thought!
And when it comes to war, it has finally dawned on me that most of it is waged by one country – the USA. This pains me greatly, as for years I held up the USA as a beacon of freedom and prosperity. But the fact is, the USA is the leading warmonger nation in the world today, spending vast amounts on armaments, sending thousands of young men to their deaths in fruitless and useless wars, and continually threatening non-compliant countries with war as a means of policy.
Glenn Greenwald, writing at Salon, states the obvious when he says:
“It’s hard to overstate how aberrational — one might say “rogue” – the U.S. is when it comes to war. No other country sits around debating, as a routine and permanent feature of its political discussions, whether this country or that one should be bombed next, or for how many more years conquered targets should be occupied. And none use war as a casual and continuous tool for advancing foreign policy interests, at least nowhere close to the way we do (the demand that Iran not possess nuclear weapons is clearly part of an overall, stated strategy of ensuring that other countries remain incapable of deterring us from attacking them whenever we want to). Committing to a withdrawal from Iraq appears to be acceptable, but only as long as have our escalations and new wars lined up to replace it (and that’s to say nothing of the virtually invisible wars we’re fighting). For the U.S., war is the opposite of a “last resort”: it’s the more or less permanent state of affairs, and few people who matter want it to be any different.”
War is the enemy. What people need is peace and freedom. To talk of war as necessary for freedom is a nonsense and oxymoron. War can never bring freedom – and in fact, the vary act of war invigorates government and extends its powers – powers that are never removed. Each and every war has grown the totalitarian power of government and diminished freedom.
Thus the once-freest nation in the world – the USA – is now headed to the totalitarian waste dump of history. And it’s doing so by way of war – the surest way to ruin any country.
Until we get over our infatuation with war as a means of sorting out problems, then I don’t see much hope for the human race.
P.S. This article – The Afghan Disaster - by Lew Rockwell, hammers home the point nicely. Another article – Another War in The Works – by Paul Craig Roberts, is also worth a read. With reference to the Iranian situation, I urge you to read this article by Juan Cole – 10 Top Thing You Think You Know About Iran Which Are Not True.
This is a load of rubbish if ever there was one,
The first world war did away with famine in western Europe,
The second world war developed the computer, if the second world war had not happened we would not even have the pocket calculator today, everyone and I mean everyone would have to work sixty hours each week to have the slandered of living we enjoy today.
As for persecuting the Muslims, everything our do-gooder leaders do is designed to bring as many Muslims into the western world as possible, Almost 50% of baby’s born in western Europe are Muslims, if these do-gooders are not stopped all of western Europe will be an Islamic state in forty years, do you consider that to be peace in our time?
Tom, you make war sound wonderful.
Sounds a bit like that old warhorse of an economic idea – brilliantly exposed as fallacious by Frederic Bastiat – that destruction is actually beneficial to the economy. In his rebuttal of the “war is good for economy idea” he took the devils advocate position and presented brilliant illustrations of the irrationality of the idea – best illustrated in his Candlemakers Petition – where the blacking out of windows should be encouraged, in order to provide more work for candlemakers. Likewise, the breaking of windows would also be good – good for glaziers. Hence war is “good”, because it destroys things which need to be rebuilt, which is a great cure for unemployment!
Jeez Tom, you’re not getting out much, are you? The least the UK and US can do is pay off the debt of one war before moving on to the next. After WWI we had growing nationalism and we are having that now. It is a huge inhibitor of growth.
I was conscripted into the army and my freedom interfered with for 11 years – no thanks. Politicians do the job you are paid for and if the only option is war, see yourself as a failure – and get out.
Quite the View Tom has — and to a certain extend he is right — kill enough people in War and you won’t have worry about famine. There will be no one left alive to starve. Great concept!
The greatest boom in technological innovation came from the Land a man on the moon project. Regardless of what weapons manufacturer’s clam.
And thank God none us has to work over 40 hours a week any more. To — ah get by.
Quite the world you live in Tom — LOL
Dear David,
Well, war is really beneficial for some:
1. the military-industrial complex who make substantial profits and get the opportunity to test their new toys on thousands of hapless innocent civilians
2. As war creates stress, anxiety and of course lots of physiological damage, that means eyewateringly huge profits for the pharmaceutical crooks
3. War requires finance – lots of it. The vampire bankers are probably rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of a long drawn out conflict.
Obviously Terry has no idea how the first world war paved the way to do away with famine, it certainly had nothing to do with the number of people killed.
As for landing a man on the moon, that was based on the German rocket that they developed at the end of world war two.
As some might know the Russians were first in space, when the Americans were asked, Why are the Russians in space before you? They said their Germans are obviously better than our Germans.