"But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism - it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason."
~Barack Obama, December 10th, 2009.
Evil exists in the world. Good vs. Evil, Them vs. Us. Invariably we are the good and they are the evil. We fight just wars and their wars are corrupt.
The President seeks to perpetuate many myths in our age. While reinforcing old myths, he also seeks to make permanent a new way of handling foreign policy. A fundamental change that we can certainly believe will alter the course of human history.
An unwritten policy of the United States has been to wage wars for geo-political gain throughout the world. In this past this has been considered an evil. War was wrong and in order to create war politicians needed to deceive the people.
Here is a list of a few American actions that follow this example since WWII:
1950-53 – Korean War. The United States responded to North Korean invasion of South Korea by going to its assistance, pursuant to United Nations Security Council resolutions. US forces deployed in Korea exceeded 300,000 during the last year of the conflict. Over 36,600 US military were killed in action.
1959-75 – Vietnam War. US military advisers had been in South Vietnam for a decade, and their numbers had been increased as the military position of the Saigon government became weaker. After citing what he termed were attacks on US destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf, President Johnson asked in August 1964 for a resolution expressing US determination to support freedom and protect peace in Southeast Asia. Congress responded with the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, expressing support for "all necessary measures" the President might take to repel armed attacks against US forces and prevent further aggression. Following this resolution, and following a Communist attack on a US installation in central Vietnam, the United States escalated its participation in the war to a peak of 543,000 military personnel by April 1969.
1988 - Operation Praying Mantis was the April 18, 1988 action waged by U.S. naval forces in retaliation for the Iranian mining of the Persian Gulf
1991 – Iraq. Persian Gulf War On January 16 America attacked Iraqi forces and military targets in Iraq and Kuwait, in conjunction with a coalition of allies and UN Security Council resolutions. Combat operations ended on February 28, 1991
2001 – Afghanistan. War in Afghanistan. The War on Terrorism begins with Operation Enduring Freedom. On October 7, 2001, US Armed Forces invade Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks and "begin combat action in Afghanistan against Al Qaeda terrorists and their Taliban supporters.
2003 – 2003 invasion of Iraq leading to the War in Iraq. March 20, 2003. The United States leads a coalition that includes Britain, Australia and Spain to invade Iraq with the stated goal of eliminating Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and undermining Saddam Hussein.
What is new in our foreign policy is not that we will be aggressive; our actual actions will undoubtedly change little. What is changing is the words we use when discussing our military actions.
James Boyd White wrote a book called, "When Words Lose Their Meaning". It is a book on Rhetoric that shows past civilizations such as the Greeks losing their ability to debate policies effectively because the words themselves change their meaning.
Take our word "war". We are fighting two wars today in one sense. If I ask someone on the street how many wars the United States is fighting they would probably say two.
However, we are fighting a War of Drugs, a War on Crime, A War on X, Y, Z....
We are currently fighting two occupations; bloody occupations where 90% of the casualties are civilian. Yet we do not talk and debate occupations but "war".
The Constitution says only Congress can declare war, yet no such declaration has been declared in Iraq for example. This is legal, but politicians use the word "war" to their supreme benefit. They call these occupations war as to bypass the connotation "occupation" carries. Yet they say it is not an actual war that needs to be declared by Congress since Congress passed the AUMF.
This President is far more dangerous to world peace than our former President. President Obama's use of rhetoric is more powerful than anything we've seen in politics in a long time.
In his Oslo speech the President reaffirmed many myths that our culture believes. The myth that war is innate in human beings; that we have always practice war; that the morality of war has never been questioned; that the concept of a "just" war is progress; ultimately, even saying War is Peace (War is needed for peace paraphrase).
If this becomes the value of the American people we will surely have become what the world fears we are. Enemies to peace, and a threat to human peace.
Today, politicians must trick us and lie to us. From the Pearl Harbor, to the Gulf of Tonkin, to the World Trade Center attacks without a catalyst we can not accept war.
Is this our new vision for foreign policy?
War, in one form or another, appeared with the first man. At the dawn of history, its morality was not questioned; it was simply a fact, like drought or disease - the manner in which tribes and then civilizations sought power and settled their differences.
Not to question the morality of war? We are slowly but surely changing the way we talk and think about war. It's scary. And we must fight against this change or risk further sliding into dystopia.
As we address these challenges – and others we cannot foresee tonight – America must maintain our moral clarity. I've often spoken to you about good and evil, and this has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two of them there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense – and to advance the cause of peace.
~George W. Bush, Farewell Address to the Nation