The Madness Of War

In 1946 Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trials outlined the quintessential method to get support for a war that the people of a country do not want. Since the leaders make the policy, the people get dragged along by lying to them. They are told that they are being attacked and the antiwar protestors are accused of a lack of patriotism thereby “ exposing the country to greater danger.” So you see how easy it is for any government whether it is a democracy or a dictatorship to take the country to war. Why do I say that? Because just about every U.S. President since World War II has used similar tactics to get us into a “hopeless, unnecessary and costly war”, e.g. Korea, Vietnam, Dominican Republic, Panama, Grenada, First Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan.

By now most informed people know that Vietnam was a prime example of how lying got us into a war. Ben Bradlee , formerly Senior Editor of the Washington Post 20 years later admitted that the Vietnam conflict was a lie from beginning to end. Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame admitted that when he first took the job of special assistant to the Pentagon official in charge of Vietnam, he marveled at his boss's ability to lie poker faced to the press. Ellsberg would watch and listen for an hour to “whoppers” handed out to the press. And the press soaked up the lies not having a clue as to how flagrant and consistent they were. The press in turn passed on this misinformation joyfully to the public. This was part of the build-up to war.

Ellsberg again reported in 2004 during the Iraq War that again we had been lied to and were now in an endless and destructive war comparable to Vietnam. Officials who understood what was happening refused to speak out and just repeated the lies.

Let's consider now the invasion of Panama led by Pres. Bush Sr. There was a great deal of fog consisting of lies, inaccuracies and misinformation created by the U.S. Government and spread by the press. For years General Noriega, the dictator of Panama, was involved with CIA knowledge and acceptance in drug trafficking as long as the revenues received were used to buy arms and then transshipped to the U.S. backed contras who were fighting the Sandanista government in Nicaragua. Once Noriega changed his mind and stopped supporting the contras, he then became that evil man who bought and sold drugs. He was then presented to the American public as a bad guy that we must eliminate. So in order to do that we needed to first invade Panama. The reasons given were to protect American citizens, to preserve democracy , to preserve the Canal and to capture Noriega. Well, as usual there were no American citizens in danger, there was no democracy in Panama and the Canal was not in any danger. Because of the bombardments that followed the invasion 25000 poor people were made homeless and 1000 civilians died. In the end Noriega was captured. And we left the country in chaos. Furthermore, to use Noriega's drug trafficking as a weapon against him when we were directly involved in it is the worst kind of political hypocrisy. And the mainstream press just lapped it up.

Since lies continuously repeated get us into war and keep us at war , perhaps we should look carefully at what wars do to us as a people, both soldiers and civilians. Modern medicine has made it possible for severely wounded front line troops to survive. The ratio of wounded to dead has improved sharply. For example, in World War I and World War II the ratio was approximately 2 wounded to 1 death. The Vietnam War saw a slight increase to approximately 3 wounded to one fatality. However, in Iraq and Afghanistan the ratio jumped to 7 to 1 by far the largest in our history. But there is a downside. Many of these survivors have suffered horrific injuries that require long term care in Veteran facilities and years of family assistance.

One of the most common injuries of the Iraq War is brain trauma caused by blast waves and diagnosed as “traumatic brain injury” or TBI. This is significant because in previous wars deaths from this type of explosion was 75%. Now we can save the majority . However, unfortunately these injuries depending on the severity can inflict permanent damage that requires continuing care. Other horrific injuries are multiple amputations, burns, blindness and permanent spinal injuries.

Probably the longest lasting non- physical injury is mental health disability caused by combat stress. Many combat veterans report continuing psychological problems throughout their life. Continuing health problems and the use of drugs and alcohol are common due to prolonged depression. Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is widespread among front line veterans. Suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is the highest in 16 years. Many of these soldiers committed suicide while still serving in those countries.

These mental and physical disabilities experienced by veterans can be overwhelming to both the soldier and his family. Many of them are unable to work and mental illness can cause physical illness as well. Chronic pain is a problem for those with physical disabilities and require daily pain medication. Also many require assistance in daily living activities.

The death, destruction and astronomical cost of war demand that we find alternatives.We cannot allow the War Dept to hide the number of casualties from the general public in order to prevent mass protests against the war. In addition hiding suicides and desertions , for example, is deliberate concealment to “protect” the public from the pain of the conflict.

As one observer commented: “ Political leaders want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers.”



References:

George Carlin
Hedges, Chris. What Every Person Should Know About War. 2003
Hedges, Chris. War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning. 2002
Solomon, Norman. War Made Easy.2005
Stiglitz & Bilmes. The Trillion Dollar War. 2008