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The War Party's Enablers: all of us
SF Chroncile | 14 Spet. '03 | Robert Higgs

Posted on 09/17/2003 8:43:40 AM PDT by u-89

Excerpt: many Americans take pleasure in "kicking ass," and they do not much care whose ass is being kicked or why. So long as Americans are dishing out death and destruction to a plausible foreign enemy, the red-white-and-blue jingos are happy. Visit a barbershop, stand in line at the post office or have a drink at your neighborhood tavern and listen to the conversations going on around you. The sheer bellicosity of many ordinary people is as undeniable as it is shocking...

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further excerpts:

...In view of the evident futility, and worse, of nearly every war the United States has fought during the past century, how does the War Party manage to propel this nation into one catastrophe after another, each of them clearly foreseen by at least a substantial minority who failed to dissuade their fellow citizens from still another march into calamity?

An adequate answer might fill a volume, but some elements of that answer can be sketched briefly. The essential components are autocratic government, favorably disposed mass culture, public ignorance and misplaced trust, compliant mass media and political exploitation for personal and institutional advantage.

By "autocratic government" I refer to the reality of how foreign policy is made in the United States. Notwithstanding the trappings of our political system's democratic procedures, the making of foreign policy involves only a handful of people acting decisively.

When the president and his coterie of top advisers decide to go to war, they just go, and nobody can stop them. The "intelligence" agencies, the diplomatic corps and the armed forces do as they are told. Members of Congress cower and speak in mealy-mouthed phrases framed to ensure that no matter how the war turns out, they can share any credit and deny any blame. No one has effective capacity to block the president, and few officials care to do so in any event, even if they object. Rarely does anyone display the minimal decency of resigning his military commission or his appointment in the bureaucracy.

In short, in our system the president has come to hold the power of war and peace exclusively in his hands, notwithstanding anything to the contrary written in the Constitution or the laws. He might as well be Caesar.

In the late 1930s, Congress considered the Ludlow Resolution, which would have amended the Constitution to require approval in a national referendum before Congress could declare war, unless U.S. territory had been invaded. Franklin D. Roosevelt vigorously opposed such an amendment, writing to the speaker of the House on Jan. 6, 1938, that its adoption "would cripple any President in his conduct of our foreign relations." The resolution was voted down 209-188 in the House.

Of course, eventually the president who propels the country into war may have to stand for re-election, and he, or at least his party, may be repudiated. That occurred in 1920, 1952, 1968 and, perhaps, in 1992. Although on such occasions some observers always conclude that "the system worked," nothing could be further from the truth, because by the time the voters repudiate the leader responsible for plunging the nation into a senseless war, the damage has been done.

Wilson gained re-election in 1916 as the candidate who had "kept us out of war," then immediately reversed himself. Four years later, his party was turned out of the presidency. Too late.

President Lyndon Johnson campaigned against sending "American boys to do the job that Asian boys should do," then immediately reversed himself. Four years later his party was turned out of the presidency. Too late again.

Presidents decide to go to war in the context of a favorably disposed mass culture. Painful as it is for members of the Peace Party to admit, many Americans take pleasure in "kicking ass," and they do not much care whose ass is being kicked or why. So long as Americans are dishing out death and destruction to a plausible foreign enemy, the red-white-and-blue jingos are happy.

Visit a barbershop, stand in line at the post office or have a drink at your neighborhood tavern and listen to the conversations going on around you. The sheer bellicosity of many ordinary people is as undeniable as it is shocking. Something in their diet seems to be causing a remarkable volume of murderous, barely suppressed rage.

An eagerness to spill blood and guts extends, however, well beyond the rednecks. Highly literate, albeit sophistic, expressions of this proclivity appear nearly every day on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, a Likud Party megaphone whose motto might well be "all wars all the time." Establishment think tanks, most notably the American Enterprise Institute, trot out well-spoken intellectuals in squads to trumpet the necessity of wreaking global death and destruction.

Public ignorance compounds the inclinations fostered by the mass culture. Study after study and poll after poll confirm that most Americans know next to nothing about public affairs. The intricacies of foreign policy are as alien to them as the dark side of the moon, but their ignorance runs much deeper.

They can't explain the simplest elements of the political system, they don't know what the Constitution says or means and they can't identify their political representatives or what those persons ostensibly stand for. They know scarcely anything about history, and what they think they know is usually incorrect. People so densely ignorant that they have no inkling of how their forebears were bamboozled and sacrificed on the altar of Mars the last time around are easily bamboozled and readily sacrificed the next time around.

Forming a snowcap on this mountain of ignorance is a widespread willingness to trust governing authorities, especially the president. Thus, if President Bush tells the people that Iraq poses a serious threat to the United States, many believe him. Presidents and their lieutenants exploit this misplaced trust to gain popular approval for bellicose foreign policies, knowing that even if every somewhat educated or skeptical person in the country opposes the policy, it nevertheless will receive substantial support in the polls.

So long as war is something that happens "out there" somewhere, most likely in a place that few Americans have ever visited and most can't even locate on a map, and not too many body bags are delivered with sons and husbands inside, then the masses tend to find sufficient bliss in their ignorance and childlike trust in their rulers. Flag-waving and other symbolic displays bring them a cheap identification with the great nation-state, but few have any immediate contact with events in the empire. As an issue, war remains foreign to them in the literal sense -- always somebody else's problem.

Follow the link to read the entire article


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; education; iran; iraq; mideast; neocon; propaganda; syria; warismessyboohoo; waronterroism; warparty
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Wars are sometimes necessary however a wise policy is to avoid getting oneself into positions where they become more likely when there are other options. It is unwise to go out of one's way to make enemies where they need not exist. Conservative and libertarian critics of the the Iraq war do not specifically pick on this one occurrence or this one particular administration. They tend to see our foreign polices dating back to the Span Am War as unwise and motivated by reasons other than national defense. History shows how our interventions and meddling have not solve problems, rather they have been complicated. War begets more war.

Terrorism is the result of political problems. They can not be solved with the military. Pursuing war for economic gain, personal advancement or spreading ideology is a crime and a sin.

1 posted on 09/17/2003 8:43:42 AM PDT by u-89
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To: u-89
This'll be fun, let's watch.
2 posted on 09/17/2003 8:49:48 AM PDT by Myrnick ("Hey, Lama! How about a little somethin' ya know - for the effort?")
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To: u-89
Wrong. terrorism can only be solved with the military. To think otherwise is willfully ignorant. America must not rollover. Many people stated the same during the revolutionary war. Terrorism, like tyrants must be dealt with using the military.
cordially
3 posted on 09/17/2003 8:49:48 AM PDT by week 71
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To: u-89
I don't trust ANYONE that uses the word bellicosity.
4 posted on 09/17/2003 8:50:35 AM PDT by ElectricStrawberry (Nec Aspera Terrent!!!)
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To: u-89
Force has solved more problems in the history of the world than any other solution.
5 posted on 09/17/2003 8:50:49 AM PDT by LanPB01
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To: u-89
This terrorism is NOT the result of political problems. The terrorists are Muslim and they hate us for any and every reason, but especially because we are not Muslim. Their aim is to make all the world Muslim.....and terrorism must be defeated, by war if necessary.
6 posted on 09/17/2003 8:50:49 AM PDT by maeng
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To: ElectricStrawberry
I don't trust ANYONE that uses the word bellicosity.

Or "jingo"/"jingoism"...

7 posted on 09/17/2003 8:52:16 AM PDT by SunStar (Democrats piss me off!)
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To: week 71
terrorism can only be solved with the military.

Exactly, especially since we're not just fighting a war against individual terrorists and their organizations, but against the nations that sponsor them.

8 posted on 09/17/2003 8:53:48 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: u-89
Higgs sounds like a typically piggish liberal blowhard - not much new here.
9 posted on 09/17/2003 8:53:48 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: u-89
Let's see, the military pretty much solved slavery, Nazism and Communism. I think terrorism is small potatoes compared to those other three.
10 posted on 09/17/2003 8:53:48 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: u-89
American Girls and American Guys
We all always stand up and salute
We all always recognize
When we see Old Glory Flying
There's a lot of men dead
So we can sleep in peace at night
When we lay down our head

My daddy served in the army
Where he lost his right eye
But he flew a flag out in our yard
Until the day that he died
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me
To grow up and live happy
In the land of the free.

Now this nation that I love
Has fallen under attack
A mighty sucker punch came flying in
From somewhere in the back
Soon as we could see clearly
Through our big black eye
Man, we lit up your world
Like the 4th of July

Hey Uncle Sam
Put your name at the top of his list
And the Statue of Liberty
Started shaking her fist
And the eagle will fly
Man, it's gonna be hell
When you hear Mother Freedom
Start ringing her bell
And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you
Brought to you Courtesy of the Red White and Blue

Justice will be served
And the battle will rage
This big dog will fight
When you rattle his cage
And you'll be sorry that you messed with
The U. S. of A.
'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass
It's the American way

Hey Uncle Sam
Put your name at the top of his list
And the Statue of Liberty
Started shaking her fist
And the eagle will fly
Man, it's gonna be hell
When you hear Mother Freedom
Start ringing her bell
And it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you
Brought to you Courtesy of the Red White and Blue
11 posted on 09/17/2003 8:53:58 AM PDT by BenLurkin (Socialism is slavery)
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To: Chi-townChief
Higgs sounds like a typically piggish liberal blowhard

And he seems to have stolen Pat Buchanan's phrase "The War Party."

12 posted on 09/17/2003 8:54:56 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: u-89
This author has it all wrong. This war is not about killing people, but about stopping terrorism. The multinational alliance that is fighting this war, led by the U.S., seems to be doing everything it can not to kill people. Killing is used only as a last resort.

In the history of war, this is a remarkable anomaly.

13 posted on 09/17/2003 8:55:39 AM PDT by AZLiberty
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To: u-89
Damn right I'm a war party enabler. When the cause is just it's a noble duty.
14 posted on 09/17/2003 8:56:27 AM PDT by Petronski (Calm down. Eat some fruit or something.)
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To: u-89
Terrorism is the result of political problems?

Are you suggesting that 9-11-01 was just a political statement?

Damn,you could have fooled me!


15 posted on 09/17/2003 8:57:52 AM PDT by Mears
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To: SunStar
or "paradigm." Maybe not applicable here, but I still don't trust 'em. ;)
16 posted on 09/17/2003 8:58:21 AM PDT by TheBigB (I don't believe in Astrology. We Scorpios are skeptical.)
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To: u-89
Anti war sentiments especially after 09-11 are
the words of the "intelligensias she-males"
Those...unwilling to either get into the fray for the sake of their familes and their nation are either cowards..or they are traitors...
17 posted on 09/17/2003 8:59:07 AM PDT by joesnuffy (Moderate Islam Is For Dilettantes)
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To: dfwgator
Let's see, the military pretty much solved slavery, Nazism and Communism. I think terrorism is small potatoes compared to those other three.

You may want to take this concept back to the drawing board. None of these issues have been solved. Slavery still exist, Nazism still exist, and Communism still exist. 100 years from now, Terrorism, or whatever 'ism we call it then, will still exist. Blackbird.

18 posted on 09/17/2003 9:01:34 AM PDT by BlackbirdSST
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To: u-89
War begets more war.

At least you didn't mention the "viscous cycle".

19 posted on 09/17/2003 9:02:10 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: week 71
Tsk, tsk, tsk! Here is how we will defeat terrorism fella:


20 posted on 09/17/2003 9:02:33 AM PDT by BenLurkin (Socialism is slavery)
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