The Art of Winning or Losing a War

Listening to: The noisy, yet appreciated, air conditioner.
Mood: Mellow

I was reading Time magazine (I know, another blog inspired by Time) recently and happened to catch an article about the presidential candidate’s views on the war on terror. More specifically the problems we are having in Iraq and Afghanistan along with a schedule for leaving. Now I like Time magazine. It’s one of the bazillion magazines I read every month along with numerous books. It just so happens to feature things that get my dander up. Me being a raging liberal and all. Anyhow, I was reading about how both contenders for the presidential title would be judged for winning or losing the war. Ehm, what?

First of all, are have we advanced beyond the bullshit to call it a real “war” now rather than just using the justification of a war on terror? (God I hate that term!)If we are still hiding behind that, we need to be waging war on humanity. Mankind has, and continues to be, incredibly stupid and brutal. Most if not all civilizations have engaged in terror (state sponsored in most cases!) at one time or other. Let’s call a blunder a blunder and recognize the war for what it is. A drain on human capital and money. As a species, we should have advanced way beyond the need for taking what we want by force. Since certain parties did not take history lessons and did not bother to think about the Vietnam war before they instigated this mess, it would probably be a good idea to remember next time that the world has evolved beyond war being an effective means of getting what you want.

Second, and mainly, how in the world do you judge either a win or a loss in war? I’d venture to say that since we are a country with a ginormous army, plenty of money and resources, and a huge amount of control in the world, we have probably won in Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, we’ve won in a war sense. We’ve devastated both countries and area not getting resistance per say from the countries themselves. Yes, we are still encountering resistance, but from non state sanctioned entities, which is a whole other matter and blog. We have completely ruined what was a semblance of order and control and have destroyed their economic system along with blowing away a shameful number of civilians. So what’s the problem? We won. It’s just not that easy. We still have not gotten what it was that we started the war for. Yes, Saddam Hussein was definitely way up there on the list of brutal rulers who need to be disposed of. Yes, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban are evil entities that really had no business ruling a country or running around free. But folks, that is not why we went to war with either place. What the US really wanted when we went in was to gain some control. You see, we are control freaks. At one point, we supported Saddam and the Taliban in the form of Mujahidin. We seem to think that we can control a lot of things in the world through swaggering and threats. In the realm of control of the country and region, we have definitely lost. I think this is a major reason that we have been so reluctant to leave. There are still insurgents, and while the countries have changed, we still control them no more than before we invaded. If we leave now, or before the next 100 years are up Senator McCaine, we will have to come to terms with the purpose of the invasion and the countless lives and resources that have been misused and wasted. We hid behind the moral ground going in. We fancied it up to make it look like a defense of our own soil. Admittedly, that was a catalyst, but in terms of Iraq, it was an empty justification that was just below the surface. If we do the mature, responsible, ethical thing and do what we can to help both countries while we’re leaving, we may gain back some of the respect that was lost when we invaded.

There is no winning at this point. It’s my personal opinion that no one “wins” wars. If we struggle on and deny dealing with the problem, we will only lose more lives, resources, and respect in the eyes of the world. I sincerely hope that both candidates have used their heads in thinking of a strategy for dealing with this problem. Arrogance and stupidity never had a place in the leadership of the United States.

Becky