A Different View of Wars from 1917-2008

War:  World War I -Enemies:  Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria

War:  WWII – Enemies:  Germany, Japan, Italy 

War: Korean War – Enemies:  North Koreans (Communists)

War:  Vietnam War – Enemies:  North Vietnamese (Communists) 

War:  War on Terror – Enemies:  RADICAL Islamics (Terrorists)

Starting with the Korean War there was a lack of desire for war.  The World Wars (especially WWII) had tons of support, everyone helped the war effort.  But as the Cold War began, the people of the United States stopped liking the idea of war.  Now look at the results of the two “finished” wars following WWII.  The U.S. pulled out of Korea, and it was divided into North and South, something that remains today.  Communism was not rejected like the United States planned.  Now, the Vietnam war lasting from the early sixties to the mid seventies was a complete flop.  The U.S. left and communism spread into all of Vietnam.

What did these wars have different from the others.  Well in WWI Germany was attacking U.S. Merchant ships, and then the Zimmerman telegram.  We were attacked and we responded.  World War II the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, so we responded, and then responded to Germany’s declaration of War.  These wars where against an enemy, with a military and official national boundries.

Now Korea and Vietnam were not wars against a nation, but an idea.  We went to both to hault the spread of Communism.  We failed because we were fighting an Idea.  Ideas are powerful.  In the end Communism won the day.  We fought an idea using an army and lost.  The War on Terror is the same thing.  It is a war against an idea.  Instead of Communism we are fighting RADICAL Islam.  (Please note I am separating the types of Islam into normal and RADICAL Islam.)  In the end, the idea will win.  We can waste as many lives as we want but it will be the idea of RADICAL Islam that will win.  This is not because we are not powerful, the United States is, but it is because of an idea of hatred and mistrust that we will ultimately fail.  We can not tell one from the other, same as in the Korean and Vietnam wars.  The allies and the enemies are the same physically.  It is their ideas that makes them different.  I am not a fan of war on ideas, because ideas can not be destroyed.  Ideas live on forever.  Ideas are mightier than the sword.