Another Day, Another Year - Another War

by John Cory, Reader Supported News

Thursday, 18 March 2010 08:54

An Iraqi boy weeps amid the ruins of Fallujah, 09/10/04. (photo: AFP)

ctober 7, 2001 at 2043 (GMT) CNN posted: "Bush announces opening of attacks." He was announcing war in Afghanistan.

March 19, 2003 at 0405 (GMT) CNN.com posted the headline: "Bush Declares War."

He didn't of course. Only Congress can declare war.

The top of the article clarified: "U.S. President George W. Bush announced that war against Iraq has begun."

He "announced" that war had begun.

On May 1, 2003 Mr. Bush stood on the flight deck of the USS Lincoln under a Mission Accomplished banner and said, "... major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."

The announced war was really "the battle of Iraq" and it ended on May 1, 2003.

On March 4, 2010 CBS News told me: "Bombs Herald 1st Vote in Iraq."

Today, March 17, 2010 the Washington Post told me: "Al-Qaeda crippled as leaders stay in hiding, CIA chief says."

The "announced" war in Afghanistan is 8 years old.

The "announced" war and battle of Iraq is 7 years old.

They grow up so fast, don't they?

America has been at "announced war" on a regular basis since 1950. We have been at war with someone somewhere every decade. Korea - Vietnam - Cambodia - Granada - Panama - Kosovo - Afghanistan - and twice with Iraq - and that doesn't include the side excursions and support operations in a dozen other places around the globe.

War is a way of life. War is our language. War is our culture. War is our industry and our chief export. It is also the ghost that haunts us most.

The recent movie The Hurt Locker received an Oscar and much discussion. Was it anti-war? Was it pro-war? Was it accurate? Was it real? Was it too "Hollywood?" Why did it open with that quote from Chris Hedges? It was about patriotism not drugs, right?

War is about everything and war is about nothing. You can go to war but you can never come home from war. War is portable which is why war is always with you. War sleeps when you can't and wakes you when you do sleep. War lets you go crazy just to keep you from going crazy. There has never been a war to end all wars.

I started a novella about war a few years back and never finished. Maybe I'll finish it this year. But in the preface I wrote: "They say the first casualty of war is truth but they are wrong. The first casualty of war is - reality. In war the unreal becomes real and truth is a lie."

We no longer have to "declare" war to go to war. Maybe the next step will be that we no longer have to "declare" victory in order to end war. Maybe we can just pack up and slap a sticker on the door on our way out: Done.

War is the "gift" that keeps on giving - and taking.

Iraq and Afghanistan Military War Deaths = 6,392 (US and Coalition Forces)

See The Faces of the Fallen here.

In addition an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi and Afghan civilians have been killed.

No faces to be found.

War is anonymous and war is personal. War is a celebration and war is a Wake.

War would like to make an announcement -

Happy Anniversary.

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+3 # Guest 2010-03-18 10:30

....but this is the good war....PBO said so...

+4 # Guest 2010-03-18 10:41

War is evil. War is preventable through CREATIVE NONVIOLENT CONFLICT RESOLUTION, when the resources are available. We must stop building the resources for war and start developing the resources for PEACE. That is why we need a U. S. Department of Peace.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-18 11:57

War is the depletion of our finances, and increase in our national debt. War is the killing and maiming of unknown numbers of people, including our soldiers and anyone's civilian population that happens to get in the way. When war is unconstitutiona l, and our Congress keeps funding it, and avoiding ceclaring it, we are no longer a Constitutional democracy or republic. We are drowning rats.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-18 12:12

THE DUBYA YEARS

Life was a fruit tree

heavy with proverbs, but

for well-nigh a decade

“The emperor has no clothes!”

went out of style

w h i l e

facts kept lodging upstream in the river.

Power was draped on a man

who, like a Roman

lifting his arm straight out:

“Without the slightest doubt,

one tenth is one!”

repeated....repeated.

And what's more:

“Peace needs war!”

When shall we recover?

+5 # Guest 2010-03-18 12:47

I think the US will cease it's bullying attitude about war when the US is actually in danger of war on her own soil. That day WILL COME, without a doubt. The growing 'sophistication' of weapons will assure that missiles will hit US soil from space at some point soon. Then maybe the bully will be put in its place, and the complacent people will KNOW what war feels like and smells like and KNOW what other people have known too well. SHAME ON THE US - I cringe knowing we will get what we deserve in due time.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-18 18:49

Again, another poignant article by John Cory.
This reminds of a conversation I overheard today between 2 young men in their 20's. One was commenting about the great admiration he felt just knowing that some soldier somewhere was right that moment somewhere in the world shedding his blood sweat and tears for his right to speak his mind freely here and to enjoy his freedoms. The listener sat there agreeing and inviting anyone around to dare to disagree.
I should have and am ashamed that I didn't. How many innocents do we have to slaughter to prove that we have something that no one, except maybe us, is threatening to take away? If I had observed that not a single dying soldier was giving me anything that I didn't already have, would my freedom of speech rendered a bloody nose for me? Probably.
And this is the whole point. The world isn't being made safer for any one and we don't deserve anything that we have any more. What rights does a nation have that murders based on lies?

-4 # Guest 2010-03-18 18:57

Anyone who has read just a bit of world history should realize that wars have been going on for eons, propagated by people with huge egos and huge amounts of personal greed. No amount of marches, Peace Talks', or negotiations with prevent them; delay maybe, but stop them, NO. Idealism will also not work and never has worked. If everyone had adequate amounts of money, land, education, and health care, you WOULD still have 'road rage', fights in bars, and ego provoked conflicts. So, it appears that the countries with the most money and best weapons will always come out on top. Do I have the answers: NO. Stop looking at things through 'rose coloured' glasses and do as the Boy Scout motto says, "BE PREPARED", because wars are not going to stop..........SADLY. All of the world's intellects, think tanks, UN and other organizations have been able to accomplish very little. good Luck to mankind.........going to need it and plenty of it.

+2 # Guest 2010-03-18 21:07

Your comments are amazing JetPilot. "Be prepared". For what? How do you prepare for your thesis that only luck will influence the human outcome? As for our human history...isn't it remarkably brief since our existence as a species is so brief? It really is. If nothing actually works so far, and you conclude by implication that nothing will, what kind of future can you see? Do you know what a logical progression analysis is? If you do, apply it to your thesis of nothing works and then....recommend what? Oh yeah, we take off our rose colored glasses.

You confess to having no answers. Are you proposing that we stop looking for answers?

You actually speak for a very large number of people so I hope my and your response gets posted. I think other readers too would like to know just how YOU are "prepared" and for what. Simple curiosity you know. No disrespect intended.

0 # Guest 2010-03-24 09:11

JetPilot, you forgot one thing. Unlike historical wars, we now have the means to destroy all life on earth, and we don't have to drop nuclear bombs to do it. Weapons containing high grade uranium have been around for a long time, and the devastation they leave behind for innocent civilians and their newborns is well documented. At any time a terrorist could sabotage some of our nuclear reactors with the same results. Perhaps when US babies are born with two heads, we will lose our cocky attitude as the best and the brightest, entitled to do whatever we like, at whatever cost to others. We may have to learn the hard way what suffering means. Maybe - just maybe - we will elect politicians worthy of their office who will see trouble coming and change our course. It's up to us.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-18 19:19

There is a conversation in the movie Ben Hur when the Roman Consul arrogantly says to Ben Hur something like "If you are not with us then you are against us." Sounded a lot like Dubya when he was trying to recruit the Coalition of the 'willing'! We all know what happened to the Roman Empire and I don't think the American Empire is going to last 600 years. The Roman Empire was big on 'pre-emptive strikes too as well as forcing culture and laws on unwilling peoples.
America has so much good in it but should lead by example and not force except in exceptional circumstances. The first Gulf war was fair enough but not the second. Afghanistan too in my opinion is understandable. Witholding money and arms from Israel until they return to 1967 borders and vacate the West Bank would also be fair. Some things are common sense. Who runs the U.S.A.? The military Industrial complex or the people?

+1 # Guest 2010-03-19 12:43

North, south, east and west, killing is what U.S. does best.

Why? Because the MilGovCorp wants control over global resources, including human. Milgovcorp represents the inversion of reality used to mythtify the masses. The actual flow of power is CorpGovMil.

Here's the really cool bit. The less than 3% who own and control most of the show on the 'Mericun plantation and who benefit from war and destabilization , get their schemes of aggrandizement paid for by all citizens via tax money. Why do you think the national debt is so large? There is always money for warfare that benefits only the elite, but never enough dough for healthfare, schoolfare, shelterfare, workfare and the overall welfare of U.S. citizens.

Warfare is welfare for the elites, from bankers to Boeing.

You can either STFU, or you can stop giving the banks, insurance corps, the government) your money. That is about the only remaining power you have .

+1 # Guest 2010-03-19 18:31

I'm a Vietnam combat vet so take this in that light, I'm not demeaning the sacrifice or the motivation of the troops just their gullibility. When my kids were little and one was chasing the other, I told the one being chased to quit running. You can't be chased if you don't run. In our modern volunteer military (and I include the private soldiers of fortune in this) they have to join for us to have a military. If they don't join, there is no one to send. Everyone you know that is thinking of joining do everything you can short of kidnapping to keep them out.

He's the universal soldier
And he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from here and there and you and me
And brothers can't you see
This is not the way to put an end to war.

+1 # Dave M 2010-03-19 20:37

"We no longer have to "declare" war to go to war," Mr. Cory says. Indeed, this is the way it has been since the end of the Second World War. Since that time, the majority of Democrats and Republicans alike have enthusiasticall y supported "war without declaration." The deeper truth here, however, is that, according to the US government, an activity no longer needs to be legal for the US to engage in it. Laws are for the people; but unrestrained coercion is the modus operandi of the US government. The truly sad element in all this is that the American people have been standing in it for so long (since WW2) they can barely smell it anymore.

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