war is a failure.

i have no real point with this post, other than “war is a failure” came up in a conversation, which then led me on a rather rambling trip through the internet.  most interesting site of the day: history is a weapon - really very interesting site. 

i still adhere to the idea that war represents failure.  that we, as a species, are lazy.  we look to militaristic solutions, violence, aggression, rather than utilizing imagination and creativity to come up with alternatives.  the framing isn’t “violence” vs “do nothing”, there are other alternatives many times.  tho sometimes, doing nothing is one of the most effective things you can do.  not the easiest, but the most effective.  bullies bully precisely because they want a reaction from their chosen victim.  they want that power.  the power to make their chosen victim react.  sometimes the most effective means in dealing with a bully?  stand there and don’t react.  take the wind out of their sails.  not much fun to pick on someone who just looks at them.  will that work in ever bullying situation?  of course not.  each situation requires it’s own solution.

things which caught my attention…

“All war represents a failure of diplomacy” -  Tony Benn, British politician, Speech to the House of Commons (1991)

“There was never a good war or a bad peace.” - Benjamin Franklin

“In any war, the first casualty is common sense, and the second is free and open discussion” - James Reston, Scottish Journalist

“The only real diplomacy ever performed by a diplomat is in deceiving their own people after their dumbness has got them into a war.” - Will Rogers

The Failure of War by Wendell Berry
If you know even as little history as I do, it is hard not to doubt the efficacy of modern war as a solution to any problem except that of retribution—the “justice” of exchanging one damage for another.

Apologists for war will insist that war answers the problem of national self-defense. But the doubter, in reply, will ask to what extent the cost even of a successful war of national defense—in life, money, material, foods, health, and (inevitably) freedom—may amount to a national defeat. National defense through war always involves some degree of national defeat. This paradox has been with us from the very beginning of our republic. Militarization in defense of freedom reduces the freedom of the defenders. There is a fundamental inconsistency between war and freedom.

In a modern war, fought with modern weapons and on the modern scale, neither side can limit to “the enemy” the damage that it does. These wars damage the world. We know enough by now to know that you cannot damage a part of the world without damaging all of it. Modern war has not only made it impossible to kill “combatants” without killing “noncombatants,” it has made it impossible to damage your enemy without damaging yourself.

War is the “Total Failure of the Human Spirit” - Robert Fisk

If you go to war, you realize it is not primarily about victory or defeat, it is about death and the infliction of death and suffering on as large a scale as you can make it. It is about the total failure of the human spirit. We don’t show that because we don’t want to. And in this sense journalists, television reporting, television cameras are lethal. They collude with governments to allow to you have more wars because if they showed you the truth, you wouldn’t allow any more wars.

War is acknowledgment of failure - Dominique de Villepin, the French Foreign Minister

Therefore, I would like solemnly to address a question to this body, and it’s the very same question being asked by people all over the world. Why should we now engage in war with Iraq? And I would also like to ask, why smash the instruments that have just proven their effectiveness? Why choose division when our unity and our resolve are leading Iraq to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction? Why should we wish to proceed by force at any price when we can succeed peacefully?

War is always an acknowledgment of failure. Let us not resign ourselves to the irreparable. Before making our choice, let us weigh the consequences. Let us measure the effects of our decision. And it’s clear to all in Iraq, we are resolutely moving toward completely eliminating programs of weapons of mass destruction. The method that we have chosen worked.

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