slogans of the party (part III): WAR IS PEACE.

I saved the first of the Party slogans of 1984 for last.  Not because it is particularly powerful, but because it is the most profusely contradictory.  Further, it is probably the closest to our own reality, as governments and politicians try to tell us that

WAR IS PEACE.

I am unabashedly anti-war.  In this day and age, there is no need to declare war on another nation.  Rather, there has been no reason for us declare war on a nation since perhaps the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II (and perhaps not even then).  In my lifetime, I remember Operation Desert Storm, the bombs dropped in Kosovo, the war in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq.  The two most recent wars were waged in the name of America's freedom from terrorists.  We are told that these military operations will make the world a more peaceful place.

Tactically, I don't think we can solve the problem of terrorism (if it even truly exists at the scale we are told) with traditional warfare.  America's defenses are entrenched in a Cold War mentality, and trying to place age-old warfare strategies on something that's quite new.  Stopping terrorism won't be accomplished by dropping bombs on civilians that aren't involved.  The exaggerated terrorist threat is, in this writer's opinion, virtually non-existent to Americans.  The analogy I often use for the inappropriateness of the war launched on Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban and Al-Queda is this: if your neighbor comes into my house and shoots my mother, do I have the right to bomb your entire neighborhood in retaliation to "smoke him out" of his hole?  Doesn't seem quite logical. And seems pretty unfair to all of his neighbors. 

Being a cradle Catholic, I was very upset at George W. Bush's catering to Pope John Paul II's to gain approval of the war in Iraq.  According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Just War doctrine is as follows:

"The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:

• the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
• all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
• there must be serious prospects of success;
• the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition."

These seem like pretty good guidelines, if you are going to be for war.  None of these conditions were met for the wars that have been waged in the past half-century. 

Noam Chomsky points out in several of his works that the Vietnam protest efforts actually took an extremely long time to become mobilized.  They were due in large part to men and women who returned from Vietnam and wanted to speak against the injustice of the 'conflict' [not war] that was being waged in the jungles of southern Vietnam.  In contrast with today's military, many of those people were involuntary combatants, as they were drafted.  In today's all-volunteer armed forces, we are dependent upon those few courageous souls who risk their reputation and careers to speak against the various lies being told about major combat operations in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan.  

There are grave consequences, however, to ending this mismanaged war.  Politicians and policy makers can make fabulous promises about "bringing home our troops", while neglecting to mention that our government will undoubtedly continue to employ private contractors like Blackwater to maintain the region.  Your tax dollars fund these contractors just as well, if not moreso, than our boys and girls in green.  In fact, more money is given to these contractors, and they are unregulated entities that will never be arrested, face a court martial, or apologize for the civilian atrocities we know they are committing.

I could go on forever, but I think I'll stop here.  I'll leave you with the paraphrased words of a college friend of mine, Aidan Delgado (who gained Conscientious Objector status while stationed at Abu Ghraib).  He reminded an audience that the torture, abuse, and atrocities that are done by our compatriots (contracted or enlisted) are ultimately a reflection of all Americans.  The decision to support a war in which crimes against humanity are being incurred is your responsibility with dire consequences.  You cannot support a war in hopes of peace, most especially when the acts of that war are far more destructive than any hypothetical alternative.