Warfare

Warfare is the most horrendous and counter-productive of all human endeavors. It is the decision to destroy (on the other side) and sacrifice (on one's own side) life, liberty, and property on a large scale. A defensive war, one waged against a person or country involuntarily is one matter. The decision to voluntarily undertake a war is another altogether. As an aside, proponents of voluntary wars constantly attempt to make the latter look like the former and even in democracies find many who are all too willing to suspend their disbelief and reason when their patriotism is called upon or into question.

In any event, a voluntary war should never be undertaken lightly by a democracy. Before making the decision to undertake a war, a democracy should make sure that it is capable of sticking to several principles throughout the course of the war:

1. The enemy must be clearly defined.
2. The goal must be total victory.
3. The details of a victory must be clear and achievable.

We have failed both in Iraq and Afghanistan on these counts and will likely do the same in future wars.

In Afghanistan, our fundamental failure was limiting our resolve to achieve victory by not clearly defining our enemy and seeking their defeat. The Taliban are back with a vengeance because we thought our goal was democracy in a land where none has ever existed. Our goal should have been the annihilation of the Taliban - no exceptions. That was the only way to achieve victory in Afghanistan and now that opportunity is long gone. That is why the resolve to enter the war must be 100% before it is undertaken. When wars are undertaken under less than true pretenses or with unclear and unrealistic goals, it often has an effect of lowering the resolve of those in charge of the war.

The Taliban waged a war of annihilation against the non-Taliban ethnic groups in Afghanistan. Thinking they would abandon those goals because some magnanimous foreign power attacked them was shear lunacy. We should have been prepared to go village by village and essentially execute their soldiers. That is why war should never be undertaken lightly. Once the decision is made, the resolve must be total to commit the seemingly worst acts of humanity. But that is how wars are won.

War should only be entered into voluntarily under the most extreme circumstances and should only be fought with the most extreme ferocity once that decision has been made.

The Iraq war needs a whole essay. Not only was the war undertaken with fake pretenses, the mission has changed from month to month. Our only clearly defined enemy was one person who is now dead. In the meantime a million new enemies have sprung up, leaving us without absolutely nothing to achieve as far as remaining in Iraq goes.