Some Thoughts About War & Politics

My endless debate with The Fly over the insanity of war has led me to research the views of contemporary as well as historical minds. My primary focus is the rationale they use to support their views for or against war.

Now granted, the late Libertarian Harry Browne is not usually considered one of the great minds of our time; however what he said resonates with my current feelings: (And after all, isn't that what research really is - trying to find someone who agrees with you?) Browne had strong views on the impact of politicians in leading their nation to declare war on another country.

He said, "Whenever (a nation) goes to war somewhere, the politicians tell their constituents that diplomacy was tried and failed — and that war was the very, very, very last resort.

But the truth is that the politicians didn't try much at all to avoid war. And the diplomacy was bound to fail, because it involved politicians making insensitive demands on another country — demands they had no authority to make, demands that were known in advance to be unacceptable to the other nation.

In the few cases when America has been attacked, it's been because our politicians were trying to dictate to other countries. Typically they were countries that represented no threat to us at all. Those countries who did attack us were either trying to gain an advantage against the stronger U.S. when our government had made war seem inevitable (as at Pearl Harbor), or because attacking seemed the only way to strike back at a country that was throwing its weight around in other people's business (as in 9/11).

I grant you, Harry was a bit extreme, but not far away from the reality of Washington. I still fight the idea we are in Iraq because of oil. But I don't fight the idea that the "official" reasons have never been (nor will they ever be) revealed. Whatever the reasons, real or imagined by a paranoid Father Time, our being there today is just plain wrong - a totally needless waste of American money and troops. Resources we can ill afford to squander and desperately needed by our own people. Resources squandered by an administration that refuses to listen to its own citizens. Resources squandered by an arrogant administration that feels it knows more than the electorate.

Thus endeth the rant! My apologies to those have followed Father Time's Place for the past year, and came here looking for comic relief. I shall return!

Next up, some thoughts from ancient philosophers who felt war was inevitable. It will be tough for me to digest, but in my 67 years, I've digested a lot. Especially the past six years!