I agree with much of what you say, too, mnaz. The point I was arguing was twofold: the characterization of military service personell as "brainwashed" and "hired killers," and the notion that war can be wished away one person at a time.btw, I basically agree with what both Doreen and Barry are saying, in most respects at least. If war, or any phenomenon for that matter, is simply taken as inevitable, it will indeed be inevitable. And yes, there will always be people out there who want to "fuck up your shit." What I'm less certain about is the link between people who want to "fuck up your shit" and perpetual large scale war. The potential need to take up arms in collective "self-defense" remains a real-world concern, but I also believe in human evolution, and the need to learn from past mistakes, and I'm far less certain about war as an effective agent of reform and spreading ideology. And the world is filled with injustice. Always has been. No human effort could right every wrong by means of military force alone. I suppose I'm not an absolute pacifist in the sense that I stop short of saying military force has absolutely no place at this point in human evolution, but we are definitely to a point where the unquestioned inevitability and glorification of war should diminish, and it should be more truly a last resort.
The war in Afghanistan, like the war in Iraq, is not large-scale war. If it was, it would be over. I'm not even sure if there's a tank brigade in Afghanistan. Is there? Why not three, or five, or ten? Because it's not a large-scale war. It's a small police action of the type that surely will transpire even should humanity become unified politically at some point in the future, in which time there would be no need for corporate interests to foment war to build a pipeline. Unless some small pissant group of wannabe radicals were making trouble in the region through which the pipeline was to go.
As far as war for ideological reasons, I don't see the US as pushing ideology on the Afghani public. The Taliban, on the other hand...I'll bet there are a fair number of women in Afghanistan who would say they were, and who are glad they are now less able to do so. Make up your own mind.
War for political, economic or ideological reasons will hopefully become less and less prevalent as we evolve socially as a species. Military force, however, is an inevitable reality now and in the future. I would love to have seen the US military deployed during the Rwandan genocide, or into Darfur when that was at its peak. It seems to me to be a much more savory use of such might. As it is, I'm pleased to see the Taliban ousted from power in Afghanistan, it's a small redemption, and I stand behind any effort to keep them from getting back into that country or, God forbid, Pakistan.
Peace,
Barry
