WAR
Part I
A new type of conflict
George Bush says that America is in a new era of warfare. He says that America faces a threat unlike any that she has ever seen. According to him, America has never engaged in a preemptive war but must strike now in order to protect herself from this new and savage assault. America did not seek a conflict with these terrorists but she will act to ensure her safety. As Toby Keith puts it, “This Big Dog will fight when you rattle his cage.”I love Toby Keith and I really like the idea that we are a “Big Dog.” In fact, I saw a bumper sticker once that said,
“If you want to hang with the Big Dogs, sometimes you have to lift your leg.”
If you have ever owned, loved and cared for a dog you will fully understand why humans invited toilets. When urine flies around at random it has a tendency to mess stuff up. Yeah…Toby…OK…we are Big Dogs. But, have you noticed…we tend to lift our legs a lot.
A new era of warfare?
Where does he get that? Seems like same old, same old to me. Let’s see…How often has the United States preemptively attacked a less developed culture due to fears of a terrorist attack? I researched this question and here are just some of the incidents of warfare I found that meet this criteria:
Cayuse War 1848-‘55 Rogue River Wars 1855-‘56 Yakima War 1855-‘58 Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War 1858 Fraser Canyon War 1858 California Indian Wars 1860-65 Navajo Wars early 1600’-1865 Hualapai War 1865-’70 Apache Wars 1864-‘86 Sioux Uprising 1862 Red Cloud's War 1866-‘68 Colorado War 1863-’65 Comanche War 1867-‘75 Modoc War 1872-‘73 Red River War 1874-‘75 Black Hills War 1876-‘77 Nez Perce War 1877 Bannock War 1878 Cheyenne War 1878-‘79 Sheepeater Indian War 1879 Ute War 1879-‘80 Pine Ridge War 1890-‘91
The history of the U.S at war goes something like this: We arrogantly run roughshod over a less developed culture. Someone from the less developed culture stands up and kicks us in the shin. Then, we wipe them off the face of the Earth. Then, we do it over and over again.
Darryl Worley asks us;
“Have you forgotten when those towers fell? We had neighbors still inside going through a living hell?” There is no question that we all remember September 11, 2001. The question is, “Does anyone remember June 25, 1876?” On that day, a bunch of mean nasty terrorists murdered the entire US 7th Cavalry…What!?…We were just trying to make God-fearing Christians out of those mud-worshipping heathens.
Actually, the 7th cavalry was sent to subdue Native Americans who did not want to be forcibly placed on a reservation. Forcibly placed…you know…to help them live better.
At Little Big Horn, the industrialized US decided to preemptively attack a hunting-gathering culture. A culture with significantly inferior technology, mind you. Go figure…a few of them decided to fight back. Let's see, what was that guy’s name? Oh, yes, Sitting Bull…Hmmmm….Bin Laden…yeah…what do they have in common?
TATANKA IYOTAKA
(Sitting Bull)
It wasn’t like Custer got ambushed and then we went on a mad witch hunt and put everyone we thought might be a Native American on a reservation and killed the rest.
Oh, yeah, I guess we did do that. Sorry, our bad.
“Engines” is what we used to call terrorists. Or sometimes we called them, “Savages,” to make ourselves feel better after brutalizing them.
They must have been attacking us because of our Freedom!!
Those beasts...We gave them everything! New clothes, new food, new transportation, new religion, new rules, new government, new homes, and booze by God. OK, “opps” on that last one.
But why did they attack us? Why did a few of them fight back? I thought the “Trail of Tears” was a mournful slave song from the old south. Oh yeah, and what about the African-Americans? We enslaved them for 300 years. They never fought back, did they? I mean fought back against us confederates, as I am from the old south myself.
Well, gosh darn-it, I guess Levystien really is showing his stupidity. The children in New Bedford, MA, who awaken every day and attend a school named after the first African-American Congressional Medal of Honor recipient who bravely attacked Ft. Wagner in the Civil War, might beg to differ.
Sgt. Wm. H. Carney Memorial Academy
Remember that Levystien is from the CSA, not the USA. When he says, “they,” attacked, “us,” he is referring to those Yanks attacking us Confederates. Oh, and by the way, the US government did preemptively attack the CSA. In reality, the US government has drawn first blood in most conflicts. America was actually attacked in 1812, 1941, and 2001 but other than that we have done most of the attacking.
But we never thought that African-Americans would fight back. Again, I mean we confederates. In July of 1863, the popular belief was that African-Americans were too chicken and/or too stupid to fight in a military conflict. There was much debate as to whether they were too chicken or too stupid but everyone knew that if left to their own devices they would be an ineffective fighting force. Then;
The 54th Mass. Regiment attacked Ft. Wagner.
A suicide mission that the white forces were too chicken to embrace (A Christian suicide mission by the way). By all accounts the African-American troops fought with unusual valor.
In Sgt. Carney’s own words:
‘. . . We were all ready for the charge, and the regiment started to its feet, the charge being fairly commenced. We had got but a short distance when we were opened upon with musketry, shell, grape shot and canister, which mowed down our men right and left. As the color-bearer became disabled I threw away my gun and seized the colors, making my way to the head of the column. . . In less than 20 minutes I found myself alone, struggling upon the ramparts, while the dead and wounded were all around me, lying one upon another. Here I said, ‘I cannot go into the battery alone,' and so I halted and knelt down, holding the flag in my hand. While there, the muskets, balls and grape-shots were flying all around me, and as they struck, the sand would fly in my face.
I knew my position was a critical one, and I began to watch to see if I would be left alone. Discovering that the forces had renewed their attack farther to the right, and the enemy's attention being drawn thither, I turned and discovered a battalion of men coming towards me on the ramparts of Wagner. They proceeded until they were in front of me, and I raised my flag and started to join them, when from the light of the cannon discharged on the battery, I saw that they were my enemies. I wound the colors round the staff and made my way down the parapet in to the ditch, which was without water when I crossed it before, but now was filled with water that came up to my waist.
Out of the number that came up with me there was now no man moving erect, save myself, although they were not all dead but wounded. In rising to see if I could determine my course to the rear, the bullet I now carry in my body came whizzing like a mosquito, and I was shot. Not being prostrated by the shot, I continued my course, yet had not gone far before I was struck by a second shot.
Soon after I saw a man coming towards me, and then within halting distance I asked him who he was. He replied, ‘I belong to the One Hundredth New York,' and then inquired if I were wounded. Upon replying in the affirmative, he came to my assistance and helped me to the rear. ‘Now then,' said he, ‘let me take the colors and carry them for you.' My reply was that I would not give them to anyone else unless he belonged to the Fifty-Fourth Regiment. So we passed on, but we did not go far before I was wounded in the head.
We came at length within hailing distance of the rear guard, who caused us to halt, and upon asking who we were, and finding I was wounded, took us to the rear and through the guard. An officer came, and taking my name and regiment, put us in charge of the hospital corps, telling them to find my regiment. When we finally reached the latter the men cheered me and the flag. My reply was, “Boys, I only did my duty; the old flag never touched the ground!”
Sgt. Wm. H. Carney
54th Mass. Regiment, 1863
Wow, there is so much irony in this heroic act that even Levystien is left speechless.
So, Sgt. Carney, the US has not only conquered and destroyed other cultures but has imported other cultures in order to conquer and destroy them. Low and behold…a few guys fight back.
I think that Sitting Bull would also let us know that the US has not only been attacked by terrorists but has often been attacked by terrorists and the US has not only engaged in preemptive warfare but has often engaged in preemptive warfare.
In regards to WAR, I don’t think the US is doing anything any different than it ever has. The US is waging an idealistic campaign against an inferior opponent who is fighting back due to oppression that the US arrogantly and unfairly inflicted. What else is new?
Part II
The future result of our current conflicts
They say that the only reason Texas doesn’t slide off into the Gulf of Mexico is that Oklahoma sucks. Texans may joke about people from Oklahoma but Texas would no more consider invading Oklahoma than they would consider attacking the man-on-the-moon. The reason that an invasion of Oklahoma is so far-fetched is that both Texas and Oklahoma are fully modernized states and are economically interconnected. The same can now be said of France and England or of Germany and Russia or of Italy and Greece. Soon, I believe, you will be able to make the same statement about any two nations on this planet. This is the future result of our current conflicts but getting from here to there will not be a benign journey.
Does anyone remember Manifest Destiny? The idea that the 13 colonies would spread westward until the US stretched from sea to shining sea. I think there may have been a wee little tiny bit of bloodshed along America’s route to the Pacific. And over in Europe, I think that the various empires and arms race idiots squabbled a bit before reaching their present level of understanding. Why and how will we get from here to there?
Here is my reasoning:
First, democracy may or may not be the best or most idealistic form of government ever created but it is surely the strongest. Once it is in place, it’s there to stay and it will infect other countries around it. People, it seems, kind of like the idea of freedom. Damn, I hope that didn’t sound too much like a Bush-ism. Actually, and in secret, I do like George Bush but please don’t tell any of my intellectual friends.
Second, democracy is unnatural. It’s not the evolutionarily designed way for humans to interact with one another. We had to first think it up. Then, we had to fight and fight in order to force it on people. But once it was understood and embraced it became so embedded in the fabric of society that returning to our old ways was no longer a possibility.
Third, abused children love their parents. This is why, for example, Russians loved their Czar. People forget that Napoleon was bringing democracy, and really, really good food to Russia when he invaded in 1812. 100,000 Russians died in one day to make sure that Russia remained impoverished and oppressed. And they died loving their Czar. More importantly for this current discussion, Russians prevented democracy from coming. Correction, they only delayed its arrival. They embraced Leninism, fought off Marxism, dealt with communism, and are now trying to realize democracy...well, sort of. Hmmmm….
So, and you can quote me on this; “Democracy is coming like the sun is coming up tomorrow.”
Assuming that the sun does comes up tomorrow. I suppose that a rogue nation could get a nuclear missile and blow it up. No, wait, the sun is one enormous nuclear explosion that is enlarging and heading straight for us! Sorry, I’m getting a few billion years ahead of myself. I have a tendency to do that.
Let me use a better analogy, there is this weed we got from China that grows everywhere in the US. I think that democracy will eventually invade every last little corner of the Earth just like this weed is invading America. Boy, that sounded really stupid.
The funny thing is that everyone will like democracy and want it but fight it until it takes over and then never release it. It’s like getting kids to brush their teeth. It’s an unnatural thing to do and kids don’t want to do it and it takes a long time to get them to do it, some longer than others, but once you are brushing your teeth then for the rest of your life you will always feel a need to brush your teeth and you will never allow anyone to make you stop brushing your teeth.
Wow, that was a long sentence and my Word program didn’t even put a little red squggly line under anything in it. It did however put a little red suiggly line under the word squiggly which I grossly misspelled but since I chose to include that word in this sentence and had to retype it three times I finally got it right on attempt number three. Yes, Levystien may in fact not be a total idiot!!
Even China is now starting the long journey to democracy. Before you know it nations like Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and a few African nations that I don’t really know much about because the US media just doesn’t tell me, will also start moving towards democracy. I think we really don’t care very much about Africa even if Bill and Bono do. Or is that Bill the Bono?
I’m sorry, Bill, you really are my hero and I didn’t mean to make fun of what you are doing philanthropically (Wow, I spelled that one right on my first try.) but I just could not resist the name Bono. He’s my hero, too, but how could I call myself a comedian unless I did something funny with that name.
OK, let me try this again, nations like Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and a few African nations now seem like Neanderthals in the modern world...and not just due to their leader’s facial fuzz but due to the fact that wealth is no longer best generated by having a king who conquers and hoards. You can make millions by conquering and hoarding but you can make billions by sharing and cooperating.
Finally, it is the money men that make the world go ‘round and they will ensure that markets open up and free trade reigns supreme and tyrants and hoarders become a thing of the past. So, if democracy is coming everywhere and the moneymen will ensure that this happens, then why is the US kicking Iraq’s butt? (Assuming it isn’t because they hate our freedom.)
We must kick their butt and win this “War of Terror,” as Borat puts it, for one simple reason; There will be a war, probably for the next fifty to one hundred years as countries are forced to adopt democracy, and the only question is who will get hurt the most? I have to say that in the year 2001 it was looking a lot like it was going to be the US. Now I’m really sounding like George Bush.
OK, that makes sense in regards to the so-called “War on Terror” but what about Iraq?
Is a stable and democratic Iraq possible? Can a stable and democratic Iraq reduce the sum total of bloodshed on the way to democracy? 53% of people reading this book fervently say that a stable and democratic Iraq is possible and 54% scream that they are certain it won’t happen and won’t work if it does happen. (A few didn’t understand the question.)
Come on people…look…despite the human desire to boil things down to two choices and pick one and stick with that one until death sets in, I would suggest that no one really knows the answer to my question. No one knows if we will leave Iraq as a strong democratic nation. No one knows if a strong and democratic Iraq will result in a higher or lower amount of total bloodshed over the next 100 years. No one knows!!!
Thus, Bush could be a genius or an idiot. We won’t know for quite some time. We do, however, know that everyone who currently thinks he’s a genius is an idiot and everyone who currently thinks he’s an idiot is an idiot. In regards to our future security and in regards to future amounts of bloodshed, we just don’t know. OK, say it with me…“I don’t know.” Now repeat that 10 times.
The only thing that I am pretty sure about is that somewhere between 50 and 100 years from now every country on the planet will be some form of democracy. Every nation will be economically interconnected with every other nation. Come to think of it, George, I do kind of like the idea of letting a bunch of young boys go fight this thing over there rather than fight it here at my home in Colorado.
On the other hand, I was in Manitou Springs this past weekend and I purchased a T-shirt that reads, “DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY.” It is a black T-shirt with a picture of four cowboys with Winchesters, boots, dusters, and western hats.
Hell, why don’t we just let them come. We’ll either put them sand niggers on reservations or in the ground.
‘Member…George and me is from Texas, boy.
RACE Table of Contents
