"Speak to the past, and the past shall teach thee." ~ Inscription on the Caspersen Wing of the John Carter Brown Library
Americans, her allies, and those we have yet to formally declare an adversary awaken each day to a world of glory. In the dawn, we hear only the gentle sound of songbirds. The rustling of leaves also hums in our ears. A silence fills the morning air. It is the tune of tranquility. We open our eyes and see beauty, most everywhere. Although we are awake and alert, Americans have amnesia. We do not recall why we fight, why we fear, and why we are forever at war.
Citizens in calm and clean countries, those not engaged in combat with the United States, and particularly individuals in affluent America, rub their eyes, look at the clock, confirm the time, and enter the "restroom." Repeatedly, as an automaton, people follow their routines. They do not recall that we are at war. Nor do "civilized" souls summon up the lessons of the past. During the course of a busy day, few Americans ponder, why we fight abroad or what is it that we truly fear.
One after another, in most every abode, an American touches a toggle switch. Without a word from the Almighty, there is light. A slight stroke on a polished handle and water flows freely. A shower, perhaps a shave, followed by breakfast cooked on a stove and we are off. We have hardly a care in the world. There is no reason to ruminate. Why do we fight? Why is there war, and why do we engage in battle?
Although the periodicals are filled with death, the airwaves broadcast military bereavements, in America, and in other prosperous providences, war is but a blur. People have more serious matters or burdens for the minds of many. A glass of chilled juice might be nice. Scan the newspapers for the best sales. Watch a little television. Open the garage door, enter the car, and drive off to work or play. Life is good in the United States. This is why we fight, and fight, and fight again. We want to preserve our right to be free.
Admittedly, there are the few forgotten ones, even in this wealthy nation. Some people are too poor to enjoy as most of us do. These impoverished individuals barely survive. That is what happens when there is a battle waged. No one has yet to win the "war on poverty." Therefore, we cannot expect the underprivileged to indulge as the rest of us do. These forgotten souls as are all victims of hostilities, out of sight and out of mind. The pitiable fight to stay alive. Might they wonder why the privileged fight?
In a nation afflicted with amnesia, we know not of what is or why. We merely go about our day. For the most part Americans and her allies immerse themselves in opulence, or more "correctly" the necessary creature comforts. For those secure in their political association with America, daily chores can be conveniently completed. Elsewhere, in official war zones, citizens do not have this luxury. On battlefields, people do not have the luxury of memory loss. Perchance , each day those entrenched in combat ask, why do Americans wrestle against us.
Bombs blast overhead. Bullets soar just above the ground. Dust fills the skies. Debris is deposited on every street corner. Homes are hovels for they have been reduced to rubble. Electrical power is not generated with regularity. Water, when found is frequently contaminated. We understand in Iraq, there is a Green Zone. However, even in this supposed sanctuary, the weapons of war whiz by. Arsenals are the only commodities in abundance. Guns and ammunition are consumer goods in a nation rife with war! In a war-torn nation, residents understand why they brawl. It is a matter of life and death.
In America however, the "land of the free and the home of the brave," we believe battles preserve our rights. Our young men and women march off to war, no matter the generation to protect and serve the citizens of this sovereign nation. Countrymen understand a system that ensures liberty, justice, and freedom for all must be maintained. We must fight to sustain our serenity. Certainly, global harmony will come, eventually, if we maim, murder, and massacre all potential and probable enemies. However, war does not wield as we wish it would. It never has. So, we might ask, why do we fight.
Every generation of Americans in this century has fought a major war. We joined World War I, we were told, "to make the world safe for democracy." In World War II, we were attacked and fought to save the world from tyranny. In Korea and Vietnam, the grip of ideology led us to fight communism. In Iraq, we fought for oil. All in all, during the half-century of the Cold War, we used military force abroad on over 50 occasions. In fact, America has made a habit of war.
Today's world is loaded with opportunities to go to war again. Yet, we view ourselves as a peace-loving nation without any hostile designs on the world. Will the real America please stand up?
Stand we do. Americans stand solid in support of the troops. We rise above the fray of diplomacy. We dictate; all other Federations must embrace the democratic process, and if they do not, we will impose our principles, if not in practice, in force. United States Armed Services cannot extend themselves too thin or too far, or so citizens of this country believe. It is our quest to spread democracy, even if by military might. In this nation, we forget the warnings of George Washington. Apathetic and arrogant, Americans enjoy a perpetual state of amnesia.
Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. . . . Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages, which might be lost by a steady adherence to it?
. . . The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
. . . If we remain one people under an efficient government the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies. . . . Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest .
George Washington understood that it is possible to intermingle; yet, remain independent. The General reveled in the quiet of peace. The first President of the United States appreciated the stillness that settles in when we, the people are benevolent. Concord for him was not a colonial city. The elder statesman explained as a father might, be kind, be careful, do not seek to consume beyond your means or conquer those in your path.
Yet, colonists in this New World, just as children with a new toy, or the teen who experiences a novel sense of freedom, were not satisfied with the sublime. Pioneers were bored with presumed borders. The early settlers wanted to explore, as a young person or nation does. The need to expand, extend beyond all barriers, to invent, and invade uncharted frontiers was great.
"Americans" advocated a maverick approach. We advanced forward, contrary to the cautions of our forefather. The people of this new territory deemed themselves the future. They, we sought to forego the lessons history might teach us. John L. O'Sullivan, Editor, and Journalist wrote of this popular sentiment in 1839. We hold these truths to be self-evident. America had and has a Manifest Destiny. Decidedly, intentionally we deny our history.
The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National Independence being entirely based on the great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once our disconnected position as regards any other nation; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the past history of any of them, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes. On the contrary, our national birth was the beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which separates us from the past and connects us with the future only; and so far as regards the entire development of the natural rights of man, in moral, political, and national life, we may confidently assume that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity.
The people, and the government, those that title themselves Americans, grabbed land. We subjugated native people. Then we dominated others. Citizens, in a land where all men are created equal, violated their own Constitution and desecrated humanitarian principles. Our countrymen enslaved. As the neophytes we are, or were, we coveted our neighbor's goods, then, seized these. Although we have grown physically, the habits acquired in this nation's youth remain strong. We feel most steady when we do as we have done.
Just as any adolescent would, when Americans [or her allies] speak of our past, we claim, ''that was then.'' This is now. Times, they are a changing. We need not correlate what was with what is. We cannot live in the past. We do not dwell on what was. In an Technological Age we are all connected. We cannot be isolationist. Citizens of the United States negate the wisdom and words of Washington. We refuse to see that he never suggested that we be separate or secluded. President George Washington stressed that we must work well with all the world's inhabitants. In his farewell address he proclaimed that we be the image of peace and the embodiment of domestic tranquility. Americans must extend the same sense of serenity to its neighbors in every nation.
The former leader of this great land reminded us, invasion is not a wish among the inhabitants of any nation. Undue influence beckons no man, woman or child. Yet, in our irrational exuberance, we forgot. Americans, adolescents that we are, wish to expand our horizons, to grow, to progress. We have yet to realize this philosophy causes us to regress. Citizens of the USA are as aggressive children, always searching for the next nation or notion to defeat. Thus, we war. We have done so for centuries. We did not heed the warning of George Washington. As youngsters, we knew better. We still do, or so we believe. As adolescents, we are certain we do not have amnesia. We have no history to recollect.
Americans live in the present. They do not realize that fight after fight has not brought us true freedom. For our countrymen, each battle is unique, a new beginning and an end to all war.
Citizens of the United states do not consider that bigotry bounds our citizen and has for centuries. We do not realize or accept, Americans are limited by what we hold dear. Dependency on petroleum, possessions, and property control us. US residents have no choice but to war for what they want and want, and want more of.
If freedom is defined in respect to neoconservative values, those established in reaction to the idea of social equality, then in a reactionary manner, we are liberated. We have the freedom to follow selected leaders and teachers, preachers who profess righteous realities.
Americans do not bestow benevolence upon others unless it serves their purpose. Arrogance and amnesia work well for us. When they do not, war is always an option, or is it.
As I speak to history, I hear the voices of those that died a brutal death, at the hands of an American. In the name of peace, US born brigades battled and shed the blood of our brethren on foreign shores. We were fortunate, for a time we avoided severe clashes within our country. However, just as our forefather prophesized, those that do not act in peace will be victim to violence. Citizens of the United States are casualties of the combat we engage in. We behave as savages and reap the rewards of what we sow. Yet, we claim not to understand why anyone would aggress against us.
Man is the only animal that deals in that atrocity of atrocities, War.
He is the only one that gathers his brethren about him and goes forth in cold blood and calm pulse to exterminate his kind.
He is the only animal that for sordid wages will march out
. . . and help to slaughter strangers of his own species who have done him no harm and with whom he has no quarrel.
And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands and works for "the universal brotherhood of man"--with his mouth. ~ Mark Twain [What Is Man?]
On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked. Millions wondered why. Our leaders told us that those in other lands hate us. They are jealous. I think not. I believe citizens in many countries abroad are beleaguered. People in distant nations want citizens of the United States to attend to American affairs, and allow those elsewhere to care for their country alone. Those we label "stranger," a danger, may actually think their way of life is better for them than ours would be.
However, citizens of the United States and those "wise" enough to be on our side desire to control what comes. We want those quiet mornings, with cool breezes driven by electric powered fans. We have learned to always want more. In the USA, we crave indoor plumbing, and automobiles that run on foreign fuel. Toil as we might, citizens of the once New World came to realize that here, in this land we did not have all of the resources to support the lifestyle we covet. Americans have allowed themselves to become dependent, while retaining an independent attitude.
Wild Westerners helped the United States to grow. We grabbed all we could; we still do. We fight for what we want.
As infants are, we were imaginative, inventive, inspired, and innovative. Americans learned to build better guns and bombs. We manufacture unmanned planes so that we might drop arsenals on foreign regions without putting ourselves in harms way. One of our lives is far more precious than any foreign beings might be. Military might helped us gain power. Yet, our dominance remains dependent on the tentative goodwill of others. In truth, the oppressed and abused in nations afar fear us. They begrudge us not for our wealth but for our ways. The others are not envious; they are indignant.
We might consider what those elsewhere realize. We, the world's superpower, do not understand definitive diplomacy. We understand war. Thus, we easily engage in combat. Perchance, to be heard, people in foreign lands work to speak the only language we seem to comprehend, brutality.
Oh, Americans may sit at a table and talk; however, rarely do we listen. We are as a two-year old toddler or rebellious adolescents often are. Americans, even when engaged in negotiations are irascible, confrontational, inflexible, and obstinate. Witness the woes other nations express when we dictate what we want, and then label our demands diplomatic.
People in lands abroad do not wish to adopt American values; nor do they wish to have these standards imposed on them. They wish only to peacefully coexist. Those in every nation wish to be politically independent. No one negates that all countries are, by the very nature of this planet, inexorably intertwined. However, that does not mean they are one. As a mother is to a child, the two are connected; yet separate. Characteristically, the young learn from the older. History and experience teaches or tries to.
Our nation's father, George Washington worked to bestow wisdom. Later, General Smedley Darlington Butler endeavored to enlighten. However, the rebellious renegades commonly called Americans refused to believe the warnings of a warrior that understood, "War is a racket!"
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war, a few people make huge fortunes.
In the World War [I], a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.
How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?
Out of war, nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few -- the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.
And what is this bill?
This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.
For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.
These are the words of a United States General, an officer, a man who twice won the Medal of Honor. General Smedley Darlington Butler was, at the time of his passing, in 1940, the most decorated Marine in United states history. A man of maturity, a military modern, a General that saw and led soldiers into combat, concluded, "To hell with war!"
The General realized as many historians have for centuries; war is an economic endeavor. Hence, the reason Americans excel. Just as a young child, intent on getting what they want, will manipulate a message, so too will American powerbrokers and their political pawns. As a lad, or lass, might convince a friend or a familiar to do as they desire for the good of the gang, the influential in America tell the common folk that if we war, life will be good globally. The prominent people tell the poor innocents they need to fight this battle for altruistic reasons.
We must engage in combat to free the oppressed, ensure freedom for our citizens, to defeat communism, to eliminate terrorism, to make more millionaires, to build the portfolios of billionaires, fight to ensure the financial stability of the few.
General Butler understood as we must if war is to ever end, those in foreign nations want as we long for, to be free, free to decide for themselves what is best, and right for them. Smedley Darlington Butler also through the wisdom of ages, experience, and empathy realized the truer question.
[W]hat business is it of ours whether Russia or Germany or England or France or Italy or Austria live under democracies or monarchies? Whether they are Fascists or Communists? Our problem is to preserve our own democracy.
Why do we brawl? When we fight for the freedom of others, or to maintain the fallacy that we are unimpeded by a lifestyle that binds us, then we deny history. We dishonor the memories of those that fought and died for this country. We ignore the wisdom of General Washington, Butler, and Eisenhower. Again, in a Farewell Speech to the nation and the world, one more military leader and another President of the United States warned us.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Were we to honor the words of Generals George Washington, Smedley Darlington Butler, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, perhaps, we the people would rise up above the maverick mentality that hinders us. Citizens of the United States might realize we need not come to blows when in crisis. If the people of this nation did not follow the multi-millionaire moguls, otherwise known as Commander-In-Chief, down a path of destruction, then, perchance we could live in peace worldwide. The rote reply to why we fight need not be answered, if there is no reason for the question.
President Washington appreciated, if we did not interact in harmony, those elsewhere would seek to destroy us. As Washington understood, violence begets violence, and so it has. The cycle will continue if we choose not to comprehend what we create.
As the deaths tolls rise in each and every territory at war, we can no longer believe as we do, or have. Americans must begin to honor history and not see themselves as separate or as futurist with a manifest destiny to pursue, The people of the United States must accept military industrial complex will not save us from perceived monsters. Only we can save ourselves. Fear is frivolous. Apprehension is born of ignorance. If Americans allow themselves to grow beyond, if we abandon the individualistic, immature outlook, which inhibits our belief in our fellow man, if we acknowledge what we know, all will be well.
In 2007, we are again at a crossroads. The recent protracted battle has heightened our awareness. As our children passed in combat and continue to meet an awful fate, we grow a bit. Slowly, some came, and more will come to realize intelligence, as it relates to war is frequently false. The information the public receives serves the powerbrokers, not the people. As Smedley Darlington Butler mused, we might say now.
Had secrecy been outlawed as far as war negotiations were concerned, and had the press been invited to be present at that conference, or had radio been available to broadcast the proceedings, America never would have entered the World War. But this conference, like all war discussions, was shrouded in utmost secrecy. When our boys were sent off to war they were told it was a "war to make the world safe for democracy" and a "war to end all wars."
Do we wish to have a need to state this again? I think not. As the Presidential elections approach, we have an opportunity to choose anew. In each political Party, candidates remind us we must fear those that want nothing more than we do. Millionaires, near billionaires and their pals proclaim we can only achieve peace through strength. Please, let us finally accept a truism passed down through time. War need not be an option. We can achieve the absurd. Strength comes through peace.
Citizens in every region want to be free. Our neighbor's abroad wish to wake up each morning after a restful sleep and welcome a quiet day. They yearn to see the sun shine, clear skies, and a calm community. Those in the Middle East, in the Persian Gulf, in Korea, Iran, Vietnam, China, India, Russia, and every where else on the globe want nothing more than work, food, shelter, safety, and a sense of sanity. Serenity is the comfort that brings delight. We need not clash Let us learn to give as we wish to receive. Perhaps, if we study the past, rather than recreate it we will no longer need to ask, "Why do we fight."
Please enjoy the works of Eugene Jarecki, and his production. The filmmaker offers his thoughts on Why We Fight.
Bali's crying shame, The drama of the UN climate change talks caught the world's attention, but critics wonder whether they will secure its future. By Jonathan Leake. Times Online. December 16, 2007
Why We Fight. Interview with Eugene Jarecki. Beyond Terror Transcript. 3-4 June 2005
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