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Chapter 6: The Cause

 
The cause, sanctified by the dead, cannot be questioned without dishonoring whose who gave up their lives. We become enmeshed in the imposed language. When any contradiction is raised or there is a sense that the cause is not just in an absolute sense, the doubts are attacked as apostasy. There is a constant act of remembering and honoring the fallen during war. These ceremonies sanctify the cause. As Americans we speak, following the September attacks, like the Islamic radicals we fight, primarily in clichés. We sound like the Serbian or Croatian nationalists who destroyed the Balkans. The official jargon obscures the game of war -the hunters and the hunted. We accept terms imposed upon us by the state -for example the "war on terror"- and these terms set the narrow parameters by which we are able to think and discuss.

(Hedges, War Is a Force p.145-6)

Essay on Current Wars

Jacob Schuman'08: "There will be war" (February 20, 2008)
The Brown Daily Herald
It's a general rule in American politics that -while voters may be averse to notions of defeat or surrender -they by and large do not respond well to promises to send their children to die in far-off conflicts.

The Beginnings of War

Iraq

It was not until January 2002, when US President George W. Bush famously named Iraq as part of the "axis of evil" that the situation in Iraq became increasingly salient for the US government. By November, the UNSC passed Resolution 1441, which gave Iraq a last chance to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction or face "serious consequences;" Iraq accepted the resolution and UN inspectors subsequently resumed their work. Convinced that Iraq continued to hide its weapons program, by the beginning of 2003 the US and its allies increased diplomatic pressure to pass a new UN resolution authorizing military action against Iraq for non-compliance of Res. 1441. With a number of Western countries (such as France and Germany) vehemently opposed to any military action in Iraq, Great Britain played an especially important role for the Bush administration, serving as a bridge to Europe and demonstrating that the US was not acting unilaterally.

Unable to muster enough UNSC votes to pass a new resolution (as well as the implicit threat by Russia and France to veto such a resolution), the US and its partners decided to take military action outside of UN auspices, forming a "coalition of the willing." This coalition consisted of combat troops from USA, Great Britain and Australia, with secondary support from dozens of other countries (this support took various forms, such as diplomatic backing, fly-over privileges, specialized chemical/biological response teams, etc). On 17 March 2003, Bush issued an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein that he must leave the country by 19 March or be overthrown by an armed invasion. While the US had earlier condemned the Hussein government and called for regime change, this is the first date in which it does so in connection to the threat of armed force.

The Coalition's motivation for the invasion of Iraq was ostensibly the fact that it believed that Iraq maintained stocks of weapons of mass destruction, in particular, chemical and biological weapons (though the actual threat posed by Iraq remains a matter of heated debate). Another primary issue at hand when the Coalition invaded Iraq was the question of who should control the government of Iraq (one report suggested that the US had, in fact, made plans for a post-Saddam Iraqi government as early as January 2003). US officials also made a number of statements in the months leading up to the war seeking to link Saddam Hussein to global terrorism and the al-Qaeda network. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, on the other hand, asserted that Iraq believed that the US-led attack was based on oil concerns, as well as a desire to protect Israel (Iraq publicly supported Palestinian fighters). (Uppsala Universitet)

Afghanistan

The conflict between the United States government and al-Qaida constitute an untraditional case of internal conflict with most of the activity taking place outside of the US and included soldiers from over 20 different countries... Following the attacks on Washington DC and New York City in September 2001, the US President George W Bush responded by declaring "war on terror" and al-Qaida. Several other countries quickly declared a willingness to support the government. In October-November 2001, troops were deployed from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, and Turkey while other countries offered other types of support. By March 2002, more than 17 000 military personnel from 17 different countries had been deployed as part of the US forces as the so-called "coalition of the willing" that also included other support from even more countries. As the conflict activity transferred to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, the governments in these countries has been the supporting actors that have been most active in combat. Most of the coalition remained located in Afghanistan where there was only limited fighting against al-Qaida reported in 2004-05.

The US led "Operation Enduring Freedom" that started on 7 October 2001 then targeted suspected al-Qaida bases in Afghanistan but also, in support of the rebels in the Afghanistan conflict, the Taliban regime. The former Taliban government of Afghanistan responded after their removal of power in November 2001 with declaring they were supporting al-Qaida in its fight against the US. As the majority of al-Qaida fighters became killed, captured, of left the country, this support has become less clear as the Taliban attempt to resume control over the Afghan government. There is still some tactical co-operation between the two groups in Afghanistan. (Uppsala Universitet)

Vietnam

The Second Indochina War, 1954-1975, grew out of the long conflict between France and Vietnam. In July 1954, after one hundred years of colonial rule, a defeated France was forced to leave Vietnam. Nationalist forces under the direction of General Vo Nguyen Giap trounced the allied French troops at the remote mountain outpost of Dien Bien Phu in the northwest corner of Vietnam. This decisive battle convinced the French that they could no longer maintain their Indochinese colonies and Paris quickly sued for peace. As the two sides came together in Geneva, Switzerland, international events were already shaping the future of Vietnam's modern revolution. (Battlefield Vietnam)

Korea

Korea, a small country numbering 30 million people in 1950, lies at the point where three great Asian powers meet- Japan, China, and the former Soviet Union. Japan ruled Korea from 1910 to 1945. Following the defeat of Japan in World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union jointly occupied the country, the United States south of the 38th Parallel and the Soviet Union north. Preoccupied with Soviet intentions in western Europe, the United States attached little strategic importance to Korea in the late 1940s. America did assist the South Koreans in national elections and in formation of the Republic of Korea (ROK). The Soviet Union, on the other hand, took an active role in governing North Korea and in formation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The United States Army withdrew its combat forces from South Korea in 1949 but left a military advisory group to assist the ROK Army. In early 1950 the Soviets supplied weapons to and assigned several thousand Russian soldiers as trainers for the North Korean People's Army (NKPA). Armed clashes between North and South Korea were common along the 38th Parallel, but in June 1950 American observers did not anticipate an invasion of the South. Determined to unite Korea by force, the North Koreans invaded South Korea on 25 June. An initially hesitant United States decided that it must take a stand against this armed aggression. American military intervention was ineffective at first, but by September 1950 the combined efforts of the U.S. and ROK Armies, complemented by air and naval superiority, held the North Koreans in check at the Pusan Perimeter.

World War II

During March 1938 German troops had occupied Austria, incorporating it into the Reich. In September Hitler announced that the "oppression" of ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia was intolerable and that war was near. England and France met with Hitler (the Munich Pact) and compelled Czechoslovakia to cede its frontier districts to Germany in order to secure "peace in our time." Peace, however, was only an illusion. During March 1939 Hitler seized the rest of Czechoslovakia by force of arms and then turned his attention to Poland. Although Britain and France had guaranteed the integrity of Poland, Hitler and Josef Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union, signed a secret, mutual nonaggression pact in August 1939. With the pact Stalin bought time to build up his strength at the expense of Britain and France, and Hitler gained a free hand to deal with Poland. When Hitler's army invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, World War II began.

World War I

World War I broke out by accident. No European government wanted a general war, but most of the European powers preferred to fight rather than back down in the face of diplomatic provocation from their rivals. The spark which provided the excuse to set the armies marching was the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne in the summer of 1914. Austria immediately accused Serbia of instigating the murderers and issued an ultimatum, whereupon Russia declared her support of Serbia. Once the Russians ordered general mobilization (and they 'had to' because they needed more time to move their forces to the frontiers then their enemies) Austrian, French, and German mobilization orders followed in quick succession, each triggered by the other.

Mobilization plans quickly changed into war plans, because to halt part way through the deployment of military forces would simply create chaos; and chaos invited enemy attack - exactly what mobilization was supposed to prevent! Civilian leadership was displaced by military leadership, and rival armies plunged across European frontiers 'according to plan.' (HyperHistory).

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