Have you ever noticed that whenever America makes war, a war
declared in the media and not in
Congress, a war against a word, an idea, a state of mind, a condition, or a category of nebulously defined behaviors, substances, or political entities, instead of a war declared and waged against a nation or nations, that these
Wars On are conflicts which America never wins, or at least is rarely if ever the clear victor? That, in fact, these
Wars On never really end, though such wars may subside and flare up, are occasionally discretely abandoned by their sponsors, or else we declare victory and withdraw, just like
Reagan withdrew the Marines from Lebanon in 1984.
There was/is the
War on Crime. In America, the main victors in this war are politicians who are "
tough on crime" during their election campaigns. Often the criminals join the politicians creating in a "
win/win situation."
There was the War on Poverty, and America certainly did not win that war. Today, under various dog-whistle rubrics such No Child Left Behind, and Welfare Reform America wages an undeclared War on the Poor.
There was/is the War on Drugs; did America win that war? We just say no to the drug-du-jour, and when next year's model hits the streets it always seems to be more noxious, more addictive, and more destructive to society than the last drug "scourge." However, this crusade, like the War on Crime, is a perennial winner for politicians and for the drug businessman too, on the whole.
For a long time, America fought a War on Communism, aka the Cold War; to my mind better called the Hot-and-Cold Running War. Some say we won that war, around the time the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall fell. But both North Korea and Vietnam, "Communist" states to which we served up piping-hot war in the midst of the Cold War, still have "Communist" governments run by the same basic set of people that were in charge when we were making war on them.
We went to the brink of the hottest of hot wars during the episodes known as the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis, and since maintained a simmering enmity against the "Communist" regime of Fidel Castro. Yet nearly a half century later we are still waiting for Fidel to just fall down and not get up. The most populous nation on Earth, China, has a "Communist" government run by the same ruling class for almost 70 years. China and its present day ruling class are more powerful and more ambitious than the Imperial dynasties of old.
Even in most of the territories of the former Soviet Union, the same ruling class, more or less, is in charge, where there is anybody is in charge; little tyrannies fostered on ethnic hatreds formerly suppressed by the larger Soviet tyranny commit new crimes against humanity; the criminal class and the "new" nomenklatura prosper, while the mass of people suffer. The rich are richer, the poor poorer, and the differential between them vaster and more obscene than ever. Is this the triumph of our democratic freedoms and our egalitarian pursuit of happiness, or of the unrestrained psychopathy of transnational Capitalism? Did America really win the so-called Cold War?
Politicians and the elites of which they are a part benefit from declaring endless, unwinnable wars. The people can be distracted from their real concerns, polarized one from another and hoodwinked into acting against their own best interests for the fun and profit of the Oligarchs-R-Us. Getting your "War On" blows the dog whistle for the true believers and makes anyone dissents from the declared "consensus fearality" of the War On a traitor, one of those who the real war is made on. No nuances allowed. Who isn't against whatever the thing the WAR is ON is that thing.
For the past few years now, America has waged the War on Terror. If you're not against terror you're for it; you are the moral equivalent of a terrorist and enabler of Terrorism. That is the purpose of getting this War On. The purveyors of fear are empowered, common sense is marginalized, and reality becomes a bad joke.
Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), best known for his book, On War, defined it as "an act of violence intended to compel opponents to fulfill our will." The real purpose of war, therefore, is to put an end to any opposition-- to shut down debate, stifle or chill any voices of dissent, rally society around an enemy, seize the high moral ground, and divert resources from one set of solutions to another, usually a military-based solution set. As a political tool for capturing and maintaining power, declaring war is simply too irresistible for power seekers to resist. (Link)
How terrified do we, the people, have to be, before our own ruling class can call it a win? How many of our freedoms will we give up before we will surrender the least of our comforts, or give up the strangely comforting fear itself? How many countries must be laid waste, how far must "Democracy" be spread, before the "Ter-rist" bogeyman can be retired? How many people have to die before the President the United States of America can declare final victory?