Twenty years later and we are still oblivious to what actually had happened. All I know, personally, is that too many lives were lost, more lives have been lost to this day and still counting. We tell ourselves never to forget, but strangely enough we seem to always do. People will go to extreme measures and will do anything, when they believe they are doing the right thing, that it is necessary and just. 20 years ago the war on terror began!
WHAT IS JUST WAR?
A paradoxical theory that has been well received by the sovereign authorities. A just cause, a rightful intention and a reasonable hope of success. These principles of a Just War originated with classical Greek and Roman philosophers like Plato and Cicero and were added to by Christian theologians like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.
The United States of America gained its world superpower status in the late 20th century. As many announced, it is the new Roman Empire. The US had always been very good at winning wars.
EVOLUTION THOUGH TIME
From the very beginning, when the United States evolved from a newly formed nation, fighting the Kingdom of Great Britain(1775–1783), alongside French soldiers and sailors, managed to triumph over Britain and gained its independence via the Treaty of Paris. And through the American Civil War (1861–1865).
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States fought between states supporting the federal union and southern states that voted to secede and form the Confederate States of America. The military strategy was proposed by Union General Winfield Scott early in the American Civil War.
The plan called for a naval blockade of the Confederate littoral, a thrust down the Mississippi, and the strangulation of the South by Union land and naval forces, the Anaconda plan. And, after collaborating with the Allies during World War II (1941–1945). Which was an inevitable outcome of the Great War, later to be known as World War I.
The latter had greatly destabilized Europe, and many issues were left unresolved. In particular, political and economic instability in Germany, and lingering resentment over the harsh terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty. Which alas fueled into the rise of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
NEW ERA NEW WAR
Up until 1945, The United States won virtually all the major wars which it fought. But what is important to understand, is that all those wars were overwhelmingly wars between countries. At this age in time, that kind of war has become the exception. If you look around the world today, about 90 percent of wars are civil wars.
These are complex insurgencies, sometimes involving different rebel groups, where the government faces a crisis of legitimacy. The US has found, for various reasons, that it is far more difficult to achieve its goals in these cases. The three longest wars in US history are Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. All from recent decades, all these complex types of civil wars. It seems like we have two problems here.
One is that we cannot easily see the enemy. In an interstate war, the enemy is wearing uniforms, we know where they are on a map. In a counterinsurgency, they are hiding in the population. Two, we haven’t corrected our way of thinking to deal with insurgencies or civil wars, and then we keep getting involved in those kinds of wars, despite the fact that we’re ill-prepared to deal with them.
Look at Iraq, where the United States believed it could topple Saddam Hussein, and basically leave as quickly as possible. We would overthrow the tyrant, and then the Iraqi people would be free to create their own democracy. That was based on massive overconfidence about what would happen after Hussein fell.
REALITY VS. TRUTH
So, why do we keep on going to war, if we already know we struggle with counterinsurgency? The reason is the White House, no matter who is in it, convinces itself it doesn’t need to stabilize or help rebuild a country after a war. We don’t learn very well from history. Presidents convince themselves that the next time will be different. Their decisions and actions hugely based on what might be pleasing to imagine, rather than on evidence, rationality, or reality. Ongoing human nature inner conflict between what is real and what we believe and desire to be true.