Many times in my past, I have dealt with the idea of conflicts. I had joined the US Army fully believing the narrative that our militaries were fighting battles to preserve our freedom, and I even bought the line that protecting freedom meant protecting interests. It was the only way to rationalize the Iraq invasion of 2003, but I was still reeling from 9/11 and my own inadequate academic attempt to subvert my lack of discipline. It didn’t work out for me then, and I fell back on wondering how to find a path for myself.
The military was recruiting. I was looking for a new start.
On my first tour in Iraq, it quickly became evident that something didn’t add up. I was able to see some of the filth and squalor that some of the Iraqi people were living in and couldn’t help but feel bad for them. Buildings had been turned to rubble, kids were begging for scraps thrown from military vehicles, and desperation was etched on the faces of so many.
Looking at photos from prior to the invasion made it evident that even if life was brutal under a Hussein dictatorship, we hadn’t improved life for the majority. What we had effectively accomplished was forcing them to be dependent on the US to rebuild and maintain their infrastructure, and enraged a large and passionate minority to attack the US led efforts to replace that infrastructure.
Over the ensuring years, it became harder and harder to rationalize some other conflicts as well.
Iraq in 2003 was just the tip of the iceberg for me. I quickly saw it as related to Vietnam in terms of the point or purpose. There wasn’t a real one at all. Then I started questioning the first push to Baghdad in the early 90’s, and then our role in the Middle East for several decades. Further, why had we been in Bosnia?
Looking at the trajectory of our conflicts and involvement in the region surrounding Iraq and Afghanistan, I couldn’t help but see the US government’s fingerprint on almost every single stability problem or brutal dictatorship being propped up.
I legitimately believe that had the US never been involved in the Middle East, they would be a far more peaceful region with less volatility.
Of course I can’t prove a hypothetical narrative, but what we should do is learn lessons from what did happen, and try to do better.
That is the exact opposite of our federal government foreign policy efforts in all locations around the world. Following history, our egregious errors in that region frightened me. I would have sworn we were innocent and had only been provoked by actions from other nefarious actors in the region from the 80’s and 90’s. I remember the bombing of Beirut and the hostages in Iran from my propaganda classes as well.
When I learned about our actions in supporting and potentially even coordinating the assassination of the duly elected prime minster of Iran in 1953, I was blown away again. That was too close to the war of the “greatest generation.” World War II was above board, right? So something must have simply gone terribly awry in the period following WWII.
I had set myself up to be disappointed yet again. I think the case for WWII is still strong, but it should have been unnecessary. Without our completely avoidable and unnecessary involvement in WWI, there may have never been a WWII. The Treaty of Versailles probably never would have been forced on the involved nations if it wasn’t for American influence, and without that treaty, populism in Germany likely never takes root, and Hitler never rises to power.
When you take the time to look at our use of the military and our foreign policy, it is a gross misuse of a terribly deadly weapon.
Nothing should make you question the government more.
The fact that the period of massive government growth and overreach also has coincided with the interventionist efforts to export violence around the world is concerning for anyone that understand the evils of big government.
The rationalization from our elected leaders to use the fallout from those interventions to gain support for even more intervention should remove any vestige of trust we ever have in their decisions.
Forever.
I’m not to the place where I can say we don’t need a military yet. I think we have provoked so much hatred from our interventionist policies that removing any semblance of a defense would be unwise. I do very much believe it can be significantly reduced, however. That military should definitely be reigned in and no longer be utilized to project violence to those we should be seeking partnership with. Over time, I think we would find there is little need for much of a standing military at all.
That may seem extremist at this point, but understand that the reason you believe that, is because of the circular reasoning that the same military you might think we need, has been training, recruiting, and inciting most of our enemies for decades. Our effort have yielded nothing but heartache and more conflict.
Just stop it already.
Read Scott Horton’s “Enough Already” for some insight into the multiple conflicts in the region. If you read his contribution to understanding those conflicts, and still think we should be engaged in any conflicts, you may be hopeless. It just doesn’t work.
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I couldn’t agree more! Except I’m to the point where I think it (the entire military) could all be disbanded. But I’m a bit of an extremist these days!
Great post sir!
Thank you, and I appreciate your take! I don’t necessarily disagree in disbanding, but perhaps scaling back. The danger is that if it isn’t entirely done in 4-8 years, it is never likely to be disbanded at all.
Daniel, I agree with your take on foreign wars. I even agree with your historical take on WW1 and WWII. Hopefully we can influence more people in our direction. When we discuss morality, many people concentrate on the wrong things. What could be more immoral than unnecessarily killing millions of people, which has been the result of U.S. foreign policy since the Spanish-American war and perhaps before?
Couldn’t agree more. I stopped looking back trying to find a moral war, as I don’t know if our nation has had any.