War As Terrorism

...an essay about moving toward the idea of Peace.

By Roy D. Follendore III

December 17, 2002

The concepts that we choose to focus on are important. We all have become somewhat fearful of our National future, not so much because of our enemies but because of the mindless rage, we have found within ourselves. Our nation has become charged with war. It goes past the disillusionment we faced since the beginning of the millennium.

Remember those Y2K chips in computers was supposed to have caused airplanes to fall from the sky? Our Government leaders paid an awful lot of attention to that and they had good justifications. However, our Government also chose not pay enough attention to terrorist attacks on the World Trade center, the failure of the stock market corruption and to what they have been doing to the airline industry.

With respect to our enemy’s intentions to harm us, the means and the existence of their people and money, the fact is that America knew. Our Government knew. Our industry leaders knew. It was internal corruption where bureaucratic managers attended to personal agenda’s instead of our national security that failed us. That is something we can and should change. It is a change that does not take the expensive and dangerous overhaul and centralization of the internal structure of our Federal Government to make that change. What is needed is accountability of ideas as well as people’s actions.

Governmental decentralization of responsibilities were originally put in place so that more options could exist with checks and balances. To maintain good focus in Government takes the conviction that we must not accept the corruption, which we have come to accept. There is no doubt that this day requires a new code of ethics that can make a difference.

This is what we must expect. It is unacceptable that will make a lasting change, not more propaganda. We cannot assume that war will make any lasting difference. It never has. War only brings with it more of that concept of that absolute power and authority where our business and Government leaders never rise above that “one for all and all for one” level of corruption. In the post 911 age, we must understand that the thing that we are facing is larger than our enemies. We have created the false philosophical ideals for ourselves. They are our worst enemies.

Many soldiers fundamentally believe in the concept of peace first. There is a place for the potential of peace in all circumstances. "Give Peace a Chance!" is not a cliché, it is a way of solving problems of terror without creating more terror. This slogan has a core meaning that is more than merely pacifism. It says that we should not allow our enemies to be able to dictate who and what we are to become as a civilized nation. It means that in order to declare war on that which we despise, we also must become many of the very things that we despise. We must not make ourselves into the image of our enemies. Open debate keeps our opportunities and options both clear and available.

Since our economy has started to unravel and our concepts of America where shattered we really have not been debating what it is that we want to become as a Nation. There have been Americans waving the flag. There has been attacks on those would think that we have more options than war. We have chosen the language of our response in military terms. We confuse the idea of remaining united with the idea of being an American. The nationalistic argument that taking a stand against a declaration of war on terrorism is wrong because it must be seen, as standing for terror could not be further from the truth.

The ideological path America has been put upon is a philosophical dead end. There are simply no adequate limitations to a declaration of war on terror because there are no geographic boundaries, no time limits; no single ideology that specifies which group is a terrorist and which group is not. The idea of declaring a war on terror has no military meaning.

There is no easily definable or recognizable enemy because the enemy does not choose to mass until it attacks. In a war on terror, we are essentially facing a individuals with nuclear aircraft carriers. Our military leaders are being tasked to make rules up as they go along, so of course they tend to choose to attack nations that have substance. It is a slippery slope. In the end, we may not even be able to differentiate the difference between the words of war and terror.

It is no secret that there are moments in our history when we Americans could have been defined by others as terrorists. Dropping nuclear bombs on cities that are predominately composed of the concentrated wood and paper homes of noncombatant families with innocent children would be considered an act of terror by today's standards. If one does not agree with that particular example, there are countless others from which to choose.

Nevertheless, we should not try to forcefully argue yesterdays events by today’s standards. The point is not to argue that America has a proud and noble history where we do the right thing. The point is that we Americans have sometimes justified acts of terror by concluding that our examples ended the terror of war sooner.

Right or wrong, the justification were stated in terms of exchanging the lives of hundreds of thousands of living civilians for a estimate of a million statistical soldiers. That justification that may have resulted in a just cause and effect but it was not acceptance that our actions were a form of mass terror. The bottom line is that we Americans elected our leaders. Our leaders have deliberately chosen to develop, keep, and use the very weapons of mass destruction that we Americans now find most fearful. We felt that by keeping secrets we could control the future but we knew we were never really were alone in that decision.

The inevitable proliferation of these weapons has occurred and will continue to occur. The issue is therefore not if we as a nation are in a problematic philosophical position about the concept of controlling terror but how in our future, we should conduct civilized affairs.

This new method of a war of terror is simple. First, find some cause worth dying for, then engineer the simplest means to cause the most damage, and then go do that damage. It has always been simply a matter of time before the kinds of soldiers who once made the best kamikaze pilots became something else. They now have become businessmen that destroy peaceful cities with suitcase bombs. We are terrified by this idea, just as we should be. The U. S. Army’s motto “a soldier of one,” pretty well explains the current situation of warfare.

We must constantly point these painful facts out to ourselves because we seem to be able to easily forget that war has always been defined in terms of a refined form of terror. Terror has always existed on this planet in all of it’s horrible forms. We Americans have unknowingly contributed in laying out the course of future terror. We have allowed ourselves to be lead to accept that a car bomb is a weapon of terror but a nuclear bomb is not. It is therefore our language, as well as our leaders decisions, which we have allowed to fail us. Consider the concept of terror.

There can be no doubt that people are terrorized by impending death. However, when human beings lose their human rights, and their property, when they starve and are forced to live as refugees or separate from their families they are also terrified. When people are forced to accept things which are against their religious beliefs, their ideals and their native customs, as well as when they witness all of the collateral damage and death to innocent people, to animals and to the environment, they are also terrified.

If by our standards of war, we choose to agree that some forms of terror are acceptable then we are stating that terror is necessary. Because of the formalized way that we have chosen to define war, we allow ourselves to selectively state that terror is OK in at least one case but not in others. Through war, terror becomes acceptable both as a matter of degree and as a matter of choice.

Nevertheless, this idea is diametrically opposed to a philosophy of a war on terror. The most egregious mistake this administration has made is that through our public definition of “a war on terror,” we must demonstrate and restate that terror without boundaries must be acceptable as a useful political tool for those who demand dominance. Where the “acceptable” terror of war was once predicated by the influences of neighbors, by physical and economic boundaries, the current doctrine would chose to remove those “restrictions.” We have chosen to unilaterally redefine the sovereignty of civilization as an impediment to civilized warfare and through that have justified the very acts that we so despise.

The statements being made to the world by our society are these messages. The first is that terror is inevitable for those who commit terror. The second is that terror is a necessary part of existence. The third is that for mankind, the situation will always be their terror or ours.

If these things are so, then we all must be willing to accept an existence of perpetual terror. Are Americans willing to accept that? If not, are there any alternatives? Are there viable fallback positions to such a zero sum philosophy?

Maybe war isn't the best or only path for America. Maybe we must constantly recreate the campaign that will restate our love of peace. Perhaps we should put at least as much effort in our message of peace as in our threats. Call it propaganda if you like, but in a pluralistic society, there should be room for our Government as well as citizen’s participation and support in this.

If our soldiers are to be ordered to march to war, then perhaps they should also be asked to march for peace. While there appears to be a fatal conflict in the idea that war on terror is not just a form of terror on terror, there can be no conflict in the idea that our soldiers should be aware that their ultimate mission is stand up for peace.

As we seem about to go into another major war where thousands and perhaps millions of innocents may be killed this is after all the Season to think of peace.

Peace to you and your family!

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