The Long War

 

The following post was written by me for Phylax Blog:

America is at war and it's not easy being the father of two teenage sons these days. I guess now I know how my father felt back during the height of the Vietnam War. In those days US casualties were running about 150 young, irreplaceable sons a month. The United States entered the Vietnam War idealistically following President John F. Kennedy's dictum: "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." Fifteen years later Saigon fell to a conventional North Vietnamese Army riding obsolete Russian made tanks.

Now we are engaged on many battlefronts against an amorphous enemy who is blurring the lines between civilian and combatant, like never before. We are engaged in the "Long War," the war for our survival, the war for the survival of the West. Contemporary America is seen as Athens during the Peloponnesian War, an unpredictable imperial power willing to impose its will on friends and enemies alike. In his book, "A War Like No Other" Victor David Hanson says: "So great were the dividends of envy, fear and legitimate grievance that the victorious Peloponnesians who oversaw the destruction of the Athenian long walls, the fortifications to the sea, symbolic of the power of the poor and their desire to spread democracy throughout the Aegean, they did so to music and applause." The wealth and liberality of Athens encouraged dissent and hyper-criticism abroad and at home. As Thucydides reminds us, it wasn't the democratic empire's military blunders that caused its downfall, it was its own internal discord and societal infighting. As a result, victorious Sparta moved quickly into the vacuum left by Athen's defeat to create its own empire.

Meanwhile, much of the West looks on helplessly, fearfully, lest the maelstrom swallow it whole. The demographic time bomb ticks while the new Spartans, in the form of jihadi warriors, prepare new assaults. with an unlimited supply of shaheed (martyrs). These are men who have lost their honor. They feel humiliated and ashamed at their inability to make sense of why their societies are failing. They will not easily be assuaged or defeated. The "varvari" are at the gates and they are not drunken Anglo-Saxons, rap music playing Americans or scheming Zionist Jews.

    Technorati : Jihadi, Jojn F. Kennedy, Peloponnesian War, Shaheed, Sparta, The Long War, Thucydides, Victor David Hanson, Vietnam War

Comments

[Rich Larson]

Great points, and judiciously exposing of those we are fighting. Personally I am even more judgemental of the jihadis with whom we are engaged.

I think that much of the Muslim world is being pulled along by many of their bretheren who live and try to pass on a culture of death. They dress babies in pretend bombs and parade them in the streets. Some parents contemplate using their live babies as cover for bombs. They celebrate the suicidal/homicidal bombings of their teenagers. And they claim that the deaths of the bombers will bring them directly to heaven.

I don't know if the leaders of this culture really believe what they say, or if they are as manipulative as pst despots and just use persuasion to convince ignorant and angry youth to do stupid and cruel things. Either way, it is a twisted and primative world view.

[Stavros]

Rich,

The scary thing is the indoctrination of future generations to hate us. The "Long War" is aptly named.
Go to: http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ and read the articles on Jihad. Very interesting.

[leontaph]

Have any of you read this,:

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=42948

Serious how anyone can support this globalisation war and at the same time criticize whats going on in Greece doesnt make sense as its obvious part of the same process of globalised hyperoligarchy from the Atlantic centres. Has anyone noticed that NATO's geographic objects are almost the same as those of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan?

[leontaph]

I just realized it whats going on in Greece is Operation Marita in reverse...What you refer to as the "Long War" here is just another term for neocolonial permanent war industry put in nice scholarly language.

[leontaph]

Here is a good essay,:

http://books.sipri.org/files/PP/SIPRIPP18.pdf

[Stavros]

leontaph/Ko/Kosta,

The West, which Greece has always been a part of, must confront radical Islam. I supported our efforts to transform Iraq and Afghanistan into some semblance of modern, democratic nation states. It is increasingly clear that we have failed. That does not negate the need to confront and fight when we must the forces that would return us to the dark ages. The ideology of radical Islam like Fascism and Communism before it, cannot be ignored.

I appreciate your comments even if I don't agree with them, however please do not make them piecemeal. If you want to have a discussion, let's do so but don't use MGO as a soapbox from which to spout your particular ideology.

[leontaph]

I have no ideology these are all facts about a war that is about resources and superprofits for the Fortune 500 establishment. And I dont think you know who wants to return us to the dark ages. Greece is not part of the West or the East its part of the Meditteranean.

[leontaph]

Failed in Iraq and Afghanistan? I dont think you know whats going on there is no success and failure just to keep the cycles going with Greece getting the scissors on the way there. Now thats not an ideology thats just a fact.

[Stavros]

Superprofits, neocolonial, oligarchies, globalization. For someone who claims no ideological label you certainly like to use all the leftist or is it anarchist, catch phrases.

Greece gave birth to Western civilization, how can it not be "western?" Libya is a Mediterranean country, are you saying we have more in common with the Libyans than the Europeans? Frankly I don't care who Greeks align themselves with as long as they maintain their independence. They are gradually giving up that hard won independence because they have created a soviet style economy which spends other people's money and now the well is dry. It is run by a corrupt political elite that has been milking the country dry for a very long time and sadly Greeks have been re-electing them time and time again.

Simple economics, no conspiracies or dark forces at work. Just poor governance, corruption and greed. Not that this a just a Greek problem, far from it.

[kosta]

Its not really ideology but trends in other peoples ideology. When we say "Western" most people mean the Industrial Revolution which Greece did not take part in so Greece is not fully "Western" or "Eastern". Greece suffers from the common problems of developmentalism, foreign interference, Great Power politics and a lop sided world division of labour along with the psycho-social trends characteristic of late capitalism-consumerism, narcissism and an ethically vacuous material culture. And even that culture of late modernity is not sustainable in a world of depleting resources, so the "shocks" are not over they are just beginning.

What has the West done for Greece? Betrayed us in Anatolia, forced into two world wars, used us as an experimental centre for the Cold War, creating a "Greater Albania" and trying to force us to give the Aegean and Cyprus to our enemies and now turned us into an EU-G7-World Bank-IMF black hole which are returning us to the hyper-establishment politics of the 1950's and the starvation of the 1940's.

Hopefully, for all the foreign, domestic and historical forces that are permeating our nations life the final victor will be the Greek people.

But sure you can muddle through or make a clean break thats your choice. One thing you learn as a rifleman is to not hesitate a shot.

Best,

Kosta

[kosta]

Stavros I think youre on what they call a wild goose chase in the business. Theres all kinds of evidence of US involvement with Islamic militants all over the place, in the USSR and China are good examples, Bosnia, Kosovo come to mind etc.

[Stavros]

A wild goose chase? Isn't that what we have been doing these last few days. I am spending way too much time on MGO which believe it or not is not my full time job.

Allies are always inconvenient but unfortunately Greece is too small and its ambitions to large to do without them. You've got to give the Albanaians credit, they have always managed their patrons much more effectively.

The constant refrain that we have been jilted grows tiresome however as if Greeks never played a role in creating their own catastrophes. Anatolia was lost because expoerienced Venezilest officers were replaced by incompetent Royalist officers. This was self inflicted, like many other mistakes that we need to own throughout our history.

As for US foreign policy, it's a mixed bag like that of all empires. It often changes at the whim of those who don't know any better. Personally, I hope we have been chastened and learn to mind our own business for a change.