How better to celebrate the day after Valentine’s Day than with the discussion of WAR?
I’ll let you in on a little secret, something I’m rather ashamed of: my knowledge of history is really lacking. I blame it on my schooling: basically, we studied the Romans, the Tudors, some Jurassic/dinosaur stuff… and that’s it. Seriously, I left school not knowing a thing about World War 1 and 2, or any contemporary political history. Oh, I forgot: we also studied the Normans — so, millions of years ago — then a huge gap — 2000 (the Romans), 1000 (the Normans) and 500 (the Tudors). And that’s it.
Obviously my knowledge of history has improved now, but there’s still some huge gaps from the last 500 years or so — Napoleon? I know that ended in Waterloo… I think. And there was the Crimean, but I don’t know anything about that. World War 1 was started in Serbia or something… but Vietnam? I haven’t a frickin’ clue why there was a war in Vietnam — and Burma too?
There’s a huge block of wars that occurred in colonial times, between 1600 and 1900 — not least of all the War of Independence (which I only found out was America vs. Britain recently!) Britain has been at war with Spain, the Netherlands, France… in fact, I think the only power we haven’t been at war with is the Portuguese. The colonies (i.e. everywhere except Europe) have basically been in a constant state of flux for 500 years, until the relatively-calm period of the last 50 years.
You probably know that New York was originally New Amsterdam — it was handed over to the British Empire, as part of some peace treaty with the Dutch Empire. Did you know that, after the First World War, Iraq was part of the British Empire… for more than a decade! Ah, the Middle East… for more than 2,000 years it has been the most contested part of the world. First for religious reasons, then exploration and trade, and now energy (with a bit of religion).
That’s the bit I get a little bit hung up on. History is full of war. Peace can be described as ‘the time between two wars’. Is there really a difference between terrorism (the instilling of terror within a given populace), and war? ‘Terrorism’ is usually used to describe acts by small groups upon entire nations — paramilitary, guerillas, etc. Is it any better if you declare war beforehand, and then send five guys in a B-29 to kill 100,000 people in Hiroshima?
Then we have ‘the crusades’, a rather fancy term used to connote a religious war. Crusaders are, by definition, religiously sanctioned warriors — you are killing in the name of a god. A crusade, generically, is an attack on some kind of lifestyle or ideology. You can have a crusade against drugs, or drunken behaviour, or Islam. A crusade, in essence, is righteous — its instigators firmly believe that what they are doing is right.
And therein we have a problem, because I’ve just described every war, religious or otherwise. War, from the protagonist’s point of view, is right. You don’t march into another country for fun, you do it because you must. War is a necessity for long-term survival — it is rational in that sense. (Well, OK, war — after diplomatic means have been exhausted — is rational.)
This is quite a hard thought to get your head around, but hang in there. Islamic terrorists declared war on America for ideological reasons — as an American, you probably can’t comprehend their rationale, but the terrorists believe they are right. Seriously, just as the Nazis wanted a world without Jews, they want a world without Americans. Look at it from the opposite point of view: George Bush declared war on Iraq, because he thought it was right. It’s as simple as that. The calculations leading up to that decision might be infinitely more complex, but it ultimately boils down to ‘it’s us or them’ — our way of living, or theirs.
It’s kind of funny, but obviously very sad at the same time: war will always exist. Fortunately, with the world explored and colonialism out of the way, we don’t war over land — but it was never about land anyway; it was about resources (food, slaves, oil, etc.) And guess what… (those of you that know me will know what’s coming) — until we get off this planet of ours, until we reduce the strain on our natural resources, war will always exist. We can build upwards into the stratosphere and down to the Earth’s mantle, we can synthesize materials and use ‘greener’ manufacturing methods, but ultimately we’re going to run out of resources.
Imagine for a moment: we have space travel. We can jet around from star to star, planet to planet. Can you imagine a war occurring back on the home world? No. Try to visualize the extent of the universe and the trillions of planets that can support life. Do you think we would ever need to war again? No — at least not for a very, very long time.
Hezabelle
Feb 15, 2010
In the colonies we study the hell out of colonial history, obviously. Not only do we study WHAT happened, who belonged to whom and the like, but also the effects that it had on our culture. Any study of Canadian or American literature inevitably ends up in a study of post colonialism.
I didn’t, however, learn much about the Vietnam War until I wrote an essay on it in my first year of university. Which is a shame, because the Vietnam War is SO interesting.
I really like the idea of the parallel between “crusade” and “terrorism.” It’s really all just semantics. What do you call a war when you want to condemn it? Or encourage it? It’s all in the language.
I’ve also always liked the idea of how if we had a common enemy we wouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves. The only way we’d have peace on our world is to fight with another. It works the same way for countries. What better way to unite a divided country than by declaring war on another? It has worked countless times. In fact, it’s arguably the only real reason the Roman Empire functioned. The only way to avoid civil war was through expansion.
MentalSarcasm
Feb 15, 2010
“We can jet around from star to star, planet to planet. Can you imagine a war occurring back on the home world? No.”
Unless we get invaded by aliens that we discover while travelling. Earth could end up being the Iraq of the galaxy.
Sara Strand
Feb 15, 2010
You know, I read a book in high school about Hiroshima and it was FASCINATING. But aside from the one book I can’t remember the title of, I know I studied a lot of history. I can’t remember most of it though. Surely you’ve read the Diaries of Anne Frank, right?? If not, you should WW2 is an interesting study. I remember parts but surely not all of it.
Duke Fandango
Feb 15, 2010
I’m surprised that you were taught so little at school but then I’m a bit of a history nerd. I agree with you, until we get off this rock we’ll be up against it!
Einstein said it best:
“I do not know how the Third World war will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth – rocks”
sebastian
Feb 16, 2010
Mental — the great thing is… if there’s some other civilization out there, they would have found us by now. Or, rather, the chances of them ‘magically’ finding us in the next few thousand years is infinitesimally small. I’ve tried to conceptualize it before, but always fail dismally.
There’s a chance that aliens are merely keeping an eye on us, but… well… really, only one way to find out
I’ve visited the HOUSE of Anne Frank, Sara! But, no, not read the book yet
I really ought to, being Jewish and all…
Einstein was SO cynical. Seriously, I was looking up some of the things he said, some of the things he believed. That poor guy… I guess that’s the risk of looking at the world through a magnifying glass. You see unsavoury things.
Kristi A.
Feb 16, 2010
I wish I remembered more about history, but I think that most of the history that I learned about in school was set around wars. War seemed like the way that we measured time periods in school.
My reduced, mostly forgotten, and condensed history of what I know about American wars. (Which isn’t much, because it is America style and we are certainly in love with ourselves and movies.) I will also leave you with a pile of ridiculous references complete with field trip. Also, study the American Girl dolls. They are commercialized pieces of plastic role-playing history. What?
American Revolution- AWW SHIT, we are colonies and we are taxed without representation, so we are going to take your tea and throw it in the river as a bitch slap(Boston Tea Party). There were two sides, some were with the King and some were for freedom from England. People wore breeches. Stamps were also mad taxed. Warfare was ceremonial and stupidly fought with people marching in straight lines and shooting at each other. Except for Francis Marion, the swamp fox from South Carolina, who is awesome and a total badass guerilla warfare style. Paul Revere rode on his horse warning people that the British were coming. Betsy Ross sewed the American Flag. George Washington became first President, despite rumors of wooden teeth and chopping down cherry trees. The Declaration of Independence was mostly written by Thomas Jefferson, and was signed by several other people, including John Hancock, which is where the expression about needing your John Hancock comes from. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Also, you can get scholarships if your ancestors fought in the American Revolution, like through organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution.
Visuals and Learning Aids: See Washington crossing the Delaware painting by Emanuel Leutze. See sculptures by Hiram Powers. Watch The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson. Corresponding American Girl Doll: Felicity, a saucy redhead who is a bit of a tomboy. Field Trip: Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia for HISTORICAL RE-ENACTMENTS. Soundtrack: Yankee Doodle.
The American Civil War. North vs. South, Brother vs. Brother. It still plays a huge part in how Northerners and Southerners view each other, at least on the East Coast. Fought over various reasons, the big ones being money, resources, industry, and slaves. Robert E. Lee was the head of the Rebel Army, and later became immortalized in the Dukes of Hazzard by being the namesake of the key automobile in the show. He had a famous horse and was pretty respected as a general. Ulysses S. Grant was the head of the American Army, and later became a president. He liked to smoke cigars. If you google the Rebel Flag, you will find a surprising amount of chicks in Rebel Flag bikinis and trashy Southern graphic design involving hunting deer. Example: Dixie Outfitters. Jefferson Davis was the President of the South, and Abe Lincoln was the president of the North, and well, the proper United States. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a big time read. The Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Manassas are the same battle, with Southern and Northern names, respectively. Gettysburg was horribly bloody and a massacre, and the Gettysburg address is a famous American speech by Abe Lincoln, written on a train, that starts out with “Four score and seven years ago our forefathers…” People in the South still call people in the North, Yankees, despite the fact that the Civil War is way over and done with. Don’t forget about Black History and the Underground Railroad. The Civil War had some of the most ridiculous and awesome facial hair, and it was the first American war that was captured on film.
Visual and Learning Aids: Photographs by Mathew Brady and company. Watch these movies: Glory, Gone with the Wind, and Gettysburg. Supplemental reading: The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. (Historical fiction about the Civil War.) Field Trip: Google Civil War Reenactments. Pick a city and a side, NORTH OR SOUTH. Corresponding American Girl Doll: Addy, a runaway slave. Soundtrack: “Dixie,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and “Johnny Comes Marching Home.”
Part two tomorrow. I’m a bit sleepy here.
sebastian
Feb 16, 2010
*positively overflows with new-found historical knowledge*
Kristi A.
Feb 16, 2010
Part Two!
Okay. World War I. Does anyone know anything about World War I? I know the Ottoman Empire was involved, and there was some kind of assassination that went down. I think it was covered for maybe a week in 6th grade, and I’ve never heard it talked about ever again. Trench warfare? Zeppelins? I found the WWI memorial in Washington, D.C., and it looked neglected and abandoned, and it was dirtier than the streets. I think Woodrow Wilson was president, and women’s suffrage was happening stateside, and people were pissed off at the suffragettes because they picketed a wartime president, and it was considered treason. Women’s suffrage is probably more interesting, and some American suffragettes were inspired by British suffragettes, but other American suffragettes considered British suffragettes as savages with their throwing brick tactics. I know that a lot of people were disillusioned in Europe after WWI, and that spawned the Dada movement of Anti-Art. Abstract expressionism started too, with Wassily Kandinsky doing cool things with color theory and mood. There were a lot of other people doing weird things with free love and spiritualism, and art nouveau stuff came about during this time. Newspapers and comics were big things too, check out Little Nemo in Slumberland for some lovely Art Nouveau dreamland stuff. And Winsor McKay is awesome anyway. He basically started animation.
Supplementals: Ehhh. I don’t know much about WWI. I love the Suffragist movie Iron Jawed Angels done by HBO. The Great Gatsby is set slightly afterwards with the Roaring Twenties. Check out the art stuff previously mentioned, just for art education’s sake. And the Karawane nonsense poem by Hugo Ball in a lobster costume. American Girl Doll: Rebecca Rubin. I don’t know much about her because she was released more recently than I paid attention.
World War II. Probably the biggest war covered in my education because it was the really pretty recent, considering. Okay, random facts, GO! Germany was weak and considered pansy-ass after WWI, and they found strength in Hitler by his charming political speeches and blaming Jews, homosexuals, and the Romani people for all of the country’s problems. He was concentrated on racial superiority, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed characteristics of Germany. Look up “Education for Death,” the WWII cartoon put out by Disney to educate about the German mindset and regime. Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG15bVweujE)
Hitler also wrote a book called Mein Kampf, which I remember finding on the library shelves at my high school, but I was totally scared of checking it out, despite my geeky interest in WWII. The National Socialist Party came to power, strengthening German unity, but also placing more and more restrictions on the Jewish people. Their power grew and spread to more countries outside of Germany, including Poland and the Netherlands. The Jewish people were forced to wear yellow Stars of David to signify themselves, homosexual people were forced to wear a pink triangle, which has become a reclaimed symbol today for LGBT people. Japan became allied with Germany, as did Italy in the War. Winston Churchill, prime minister of England, was this total hero and completely inspirational. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president in the US, and was in a wheelchair because he had polio. America got into WWII after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. “A day that will live in infamy.” There are various conspiracy theories about Pearl Harbor. America retaliated by atomic bombing two cities in Japan, Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The bombs were named Fat Man and Little Boy, and the plane that dropped them was called The Enola Gay. Also tank warfare, fighter pilots, and women in the military, WASPs, WACs, and WAVES. On the home front, families were starting Victory Gardens and practicing being self sufficient to help the boys overseas. Women went to the work force, spurred on by propaganda pin up lady Rosie the Riveter. Some of the pennies issued during WWII aren’t made of copper because the soldiers needed copper for bullets. And women played baseball on the All American Girl’s Professional Baseball League! After WWII, the US had their own version of concentration camps for Japanese people, which is awful. My friend Emma told me recently that German soldiers are still required to visit concentration camps to acknowledge their past and understand that such atrocities shouldn’t happen. (She’s in Germany and recently visited Auschwitz.) There are still Neo-Nazis around, and there are still people who don’t believe that the Holocaust happened.
Supplementals: Reading: Night by Elie Wiesel, The Diary of Anne Frank (already mentioned by someone), Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Maus by Art Spiegelman (Graphic novel). Movies: Triumph of the Will (German propaganda film), Schindler’s List, La Bella Vida (Life is Beautiful), Jakob the Liar, and Inglorious Basterds, the new Tarantino flick. Also, there are tons of racist Looney Toon propaganda cartoons on youtube from the time of WWII…they portray America’s characterization of Germans and Japanese during that time period. Corresponding American Girl Doll: Molly! She is on the American home front during WWII, and her father is a doctor aiding in the war effort. (My personal fav, my parents got her for me when I was little, which added to my budding WWII geekery. Plus she has glasses!)
Field Trip: The Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. This was one of the worst days of my life, but I feel like it is absolutely necessary to visit. I’ve never been to a concentration camp, but I hear all of them are haunting experiences.
Kristi A.
Feb 16, 2010
Oh! And WWII music is awesome. Listen: http://www.amazon.com/Songs-That-Got-Through-WWII/dp/B0000032SP
sebastian
Feb 16, 2010
I’m going to get a snack to eat while I catch up on my history…
Thanks!
Foggy Dew
Feb 16, 2010
Have you been reading the Ender’s Shadow series? Cause a lot of what you say is “we need a common cause” and “we need to get off this planet” are what Card is writing about in those books. Especially the “we need to get off the planet” part. If you haven’t, totally recommend them, after reading Ender’s Game. The four Shadow books are pretty good.
I should also point out, that while we, America, may be #1 on the terrorists’ lists, Britain and the rest of Europe are #1a-(however many letters it takes). The funny thing is, I feel I do understand their reasoning. I don’t like it and I’ll do everything I can to prevent them from succeeding, but I understand why they, basically, want us dead and gone.
Oh, not for nothing, a B-29 had a crew of 10. Just thought I’d mention that.
For fun: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/france.html
sebastian
Feb 17, 2010
Hm, it originally read ‘B-52′, but I corrected it — I thought B-52s had 5 crew? (Or 6 with the original front gunner?)
No matter…! (Military freaks scare me…)
We’re not REALLY targets because of our heavily-secular demographic. We’re targets through association with the US. But let’s not forget that the amount of terrorism on US/European soil by Muslim extremists is TINY. It’s almost all in the Middle East, with some in south-east Asia. (Ah, but how much of it is caught by the security agencies before we hear about it…)
I haven’t read the other Ender books, but I do mean to. Always good to know that other people share my POV — I sometimes wonder if my ideas are wacky. They sure don’t sound wacky to me, but…
ural aka [Karga]
Feb 17, 2010
i dont believe that every single war depends on resources. A lot of wars depends on resources, but not all of them. For example, for the imperialist forces yes, resources have priority. But some of them are just based on inferiority complex or superiority complexes of the dictators, or nations. Some of them are about Expanding the lifestyle of your own culture, so you’ll always have the priority to sell stuff to them.
But some of them, are just ideological. Muslims never had big factories, big firms in the past. They never lived a rich life. All they cared about was the religion. To spread it around the world. Or mostly their war was self defensive.
Not just the Muslims. Think about the Native Americans ! They were never concerned about what resources they had. They thought that the nature mattered, and their own existence was just floating around the earth.
So it was not about Resouces again. it was Self-defence. But however, they all have been slaughtered. Not a small town, not a school full of children, not a clan, not the Sioees, Apaches, cheyokees, … all of them, not a single country, not a few of countries, A WHOLE CONTINENT has been slaughtered. That is a number none of us can imagine. For hundreds of years, they have been slaughtered like rabid animals. By them who was just concerned about having more GOLD, LAND, Resources… So i have to say that, almost every war in the past has been started by the Western Nations. And the opposite forces tried just to self-defence. And they failed. They were never ready to such a mass murder. A lot of them were ready to share, but it was never enough for the invaders. How many of you have Native American Friends ? Yeah, their fate is so bad that they do not exist anymore.
Africans.. Hold on a second. Those who have been threaten as slaves for hundreds of years. Can you imageine that just for a moment of time, just from 1700 until 1808, 3,1 million Afrikans have been caught as slaves by England. And the total number for the whole Europen nations was over 12 millions. Did Africans asked for resources ? No, not really. They were happy with their barrens. Until the English-French forces approached to China, there was notthing wrong with them. But to gain control on opium, to sell it illegal, the forces declared war on China as well. it was not so different how Japan have changed their policy. Japan was a nation out of war. They changed their introversive policies after a lot of European countries started fishing in their waters. They had no legal principles about international relations.
So i don’t believe that the world will change unless the global forces start to think that there is not just “us” !
There is also a “them”. Certainly it’s to late to cure the illness which was spread by the Europeans to the whole world. Because every nation, culture, has been corrupted by the term “exploitation”. Every nation in the world, has realized that if they want to survive against the BAD! They have to play BAD!
i don’t want to make this a hate talk. it’s really not about “hate”. Because it’s too late to hate them who started those policies. Who Slaughtered Africans, Native Americans, Japanese, Algerians, and so on… i just want to point out that to declare war, or start a war… 1 bad thing, 1 bad will is more then enough. Even if the rest is totally harmless, they war will start anyway.
A new world is not the solution. The Conquest of America is a good and recent example. isnt it ? Every person has to start thinking about “empathy”. That’s the solution. People have to care about the policies of their government if the policies are too offensive against other nations. Look at Afghanistan, Iraq. United States started a war there, and now every human being born there, hates them. They hate them because they tortured their elders, they raped their mothers, they captured their resources. And it’s not hard to understand their feelings. If you know about the word “empathy. if you know about the word “them” not just “us” …
sebastian
Feb 17, 2010
Ah, I was hoping for a comment from you
Yes, I don’t count self-defence as ‘war’. I don’t think terrorist acts by Islamic extremists counts as self-defence though — it’s war. I don’t know who started it, but it’s war. Self-defence is a rear-guard action, where you try to hold onto your land (like the Native Americans).
I don’t think we forget about ‘them’. But are you seriously suggesting that ‘them’ are as important as ‘us’?
I’m British: do I save 5000 British people, or 5000 Africans? As for the incoming Americans — should they have just left North America? Let the Native Americans stay? How would the world be today, without the USA? Are you really sure that war with the Native Americans was a bad idea?
The problem is, most decisions aren’t simple. The target of your war isn’t likely to be understanding — and rightly so! But somewhere, someone is making the simple decision that declaring war is the best thing to do. I don’t think it’s really something that normal people like you or I can comprehend.
ural aka [Karga]
Feb 17, 2010
As i have stated there. it’s a disease. And sadly, the roots came from European nations. A lot of those countries getting slaughtered, had a shamanistic lifestyle. They care’d about nature and life. Life in any meaning. Human life, animal life, plants… They had no governments, they were hunting to feed themselves, not to sell what they get. And that was the secret why none of those wild animals in their territorries was a subject of extinction.
By the way, why do you think that it’s needed to make a choice between 5000 Brits and 5000 Africans when there is no THreat against your existence. I can hear you saying if the Britts wouldnt do that, the French would do. And yeah, if they wouldn’t, Germans would, or Spanians, Dutches. And that’s what happend. Every nation has taken their role on human slaughter. İt was not a subject of war, since they were unarmed. It was a subject of genocide. So they would never claim rights in the future… There is a question i do not like to ask, it’s just based on the question 5000 British or 5000 Africans.. Compare it with the Jews. 5000 Jews or 5000 Germans ? i think this is the most silly question ever asked but with the theory you have stated there, it’s quite the same. And maybe it was not a simple decision for the germans, and it’s not something that people like you and me can comprehend.
Since it’s about the humanbeing, and about the civils. No doubt it’s a sin.
And no doubt that jews, brittish, turkish are not more valuable then Aboriginals, Africans, Native’s.
I can get it that those decisions weren’t simple. And i also get it why it was not simple. If they wouldn’t slaughter them as fast as they can, the other nations could do that. And it was a matter of who, and when. Better to be the only one there, yes.
So it’s still the sickness of being greedy, being strong, being the only one who make the rules. Like ” terra nullius ” . it’s not a simple decision when the whole population of your country needs more resources, lands, trading. Not you, neither me could stop that even as an Emperor. There have been a lot of emperors like that, and they have been poisoned, killed… So it’s about having a population which has been cured of this mass consumption. If a whole nation would have had the knowledge, that increasing their high life standarts will kill millions of innocent people. I am sure they would stop that. And if the whole world would get the same knowledge, that could make a difference. As i stated, unless we change, unless we care about “them” (does not matter which that “them” describes) War will never stop.
Let’s look what the world has become. USA attacked Iraq, they insisted that Iraq had Nuclear missiles. But sooner, they told it was false information. Of course it was false information. The war was not about the missiles. it was about the resources. And then they attacked Afghanistan. I don’t believe that even 11September is %100 a terrorist attack. There is still doubt about that. Now, everyday Iraqi’s are dying. Since 2003, researches say that over 1milyon have died.
Well, end of the Walltext. I am going to watch a movie of this subject named “The Rabbit-Proof Fence”
i did not heard about this one. But comments say that it’s a must have watched. I watched every single movie about the Holocaust made by Nazi’s. It’s certainly one of the most recent, and most known. But it’s not the only one, neither it’s the worst. I am kinda interested person on reading, watching, talking. Shame that my english is not good enough to discuss equal strong how i do it in my own language. But i am improving.
By the way, there is a recent documentary, but i am sure you have watched it. It’s a very popular one named “Zeitgeist”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912#
sebastian
Feb 17, 2010
You have an email incoming…!
Melissa
Feb 17, 2010
I could see war happening back at Earth in an interstellar society because it would, at least initially, be the hub of POWER — which everyone knows is the best resource of all. (Why??? You should do a piece on why the ability to boss other people around is so thrilling for some.)
ural aka [Karga]
Feb 19, 2010
hey seb, did u get my by email.