Before I begin my discussion on why war is ineffective, let me offer you a scenario to put it into perspective:
There is a bully at school who is causing all sorts of disturbances. He insults the other children, as well as the teachers who have chosen to give there lives to better these children. One day a security guard sees him physically attacking another student. The security guard steps into the middle of it, what should be the correct way to diffuse it?
A) He beats the bully to the point were they can no longer fight each other: Fight Violence with Violence.(Which makes him no better than the boy)
B) He breaks up the fight and lets them go on their way: No repercussions, which enforces the idea that nothing will happen if he gets into an altercation later.
C) He takes away that child’s liberties at school. He is not allowed to go to recess, and required to do lines in its place. Writing “I will not bully others” until the bell rings. Take away all fun for a period of time and teach him a lesson. (Negative Enforcement on the instigator)
D) Make an example of this child. Instead of punishing just this child, hold all the children accountable for allowing bullying to take place. Make them understand bullying is not acceptable, but neither is watching it happen and doing nothing to stop it. (Negative Enforcement on the instigator as well as the enablers)
Now the majority of people will probably pick C… the child was in the wrong and should be punished for his actions. But the problem with C is that when one bully disappears another will appear. That is fighting the fire by aiming at the flames, the only way to stop the act of bullying to emerge is to enforce that it is not acceptable to bully, or to allow bullying to occur. Empower the people. If there is 1 bully in 99 people, the 99 people will learn they have more power than the bully. There is power in numbers, and it is there responsibility to take care of one another.
So now that we have brought war down into something relative, how could we enact this on a larger scale?
Ok so we have been in war with different parts of the middle east in the last decade. We have spent approximately $3.2-4 trillion dollars between the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan according to Brown University. The The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) hands out roughly $50 Billion Dollars in Financial Aid to other countries all over the world, and continues to give financial aid to countries known to harbor terrorists who continue to attack American citizens.
In all of these wars we have used a mix between solution A & solution C to combat these problems. We have torn up and destroyed homes & communities, we have taken many innocent lives, and we have completely devastated areas in others peoples home country. We have killed many terrorists, but remember, when one falls another will take its place. We are fighting the fire while aiming at the flames. So what is the answer: EMPOWER THE PEOPLE( Reoccurring theme huh?)
So lets take a look at a different solution for a moment, just entertain me for a moment. If solution D would work for a small community such as a school, why would it not work on a larger scale. The ratio is still similar, just more people involved.
So lets say that we as Americans withdrew from all of our wars, and chose instead to act in defense only. Lets put that $3.2-4 trillion dollars back into our pockets now and use it to rebuild our own country.
Now instead of chasing after everyone with a big stick every time a problem arises, why don’t we learn to practice the art of negative reinforcement.
Let it be known to all the countries(with more importance spread to all the population) that America will be teaching the world a lesson in tough love. Unless someone tries to bring the battle to us, we will now hold each country responsible for there actions against us. These countries have there own governments, their own arms, and their population outnumbers the terrorist groups dwelling within. For every success a terrorist or terrorist group has in harming Americans, or our country we will be punishing everyone in the process. Don’t be too naïve to believe that their governments don’t know who they are and are not supporting them. They can take a stand on their own.
Give them an ultimatum. For every attack that takes away American lives we will suspend all financial aid for a period of time. Everyone suffers for turning the other cheek. All monies, food, water everything will seize and the government and population can take some time to realize if they want to enable the terrorists, or if they will fight back.
I do understand it is harsh, but let me ask you this.
What is worse:
Us sending in troops, destroying homes, using all sorts of weapons and taking countless innocent lives by force?
OR
Allowing the people to choose between rebuilding there country and living without our wars, or being deprived for enabling terrorists and bullies to exist?
This is only one piece to the picture I see on ending wars, there are two more installments I need to include:
Reshaping financial aid to foreign countries
Shifting the focus of our Military(Defense & Rebuilding Our World)
This article will be re-wrote in a bit, but I just wanted the ideas to be public. I hope you enjoyed reading.
Thank You
Exactly! The minute we leave the Middle East, jihadi organizations will reform and build strength all over again. Unless the administration wants to station troops indefinately in the MIddle East, which does nothing more than fuel foreign resentment of the United States, we must pull our forces out now and use the saved money to fuel domestic growth.
Well not only just pulling out of the wars, it’s more than that. Its empowering the people of those countries and allowing them to rise and disintegrate all terrorists in there countries. The US alone provides roughly $50 Billion in aid to other countries, we become the first to set this in motion it’s a huge chunk of aid to lose. But if the other world powers all followed this then their only choice would be to unite. Which helps everyone.
Unfortunately for many countires, empowerment would be hindered by governmental corruption. Many terrorist cells have significant influence on wealthy politicians who fear assassination by terrorists more than poverty within their respective countries. In many places, elections are not free, and so politicians do not fear public opinion like they do in more democratic countries. In order for this to change significant political reforms would have to be enacted. The Arab Spring is representative of what extremes might have to be taken by the people to establish election reform.
Wait until my next two installments come out, its a 3 part process. The focus deals less with governments and more so with the mass population. True power will come from the masses, not the governments. There is power in numbers.
I think other site proprietors should take this website as an model, very clean and great user friendly style and design, as well as the content. You are an expert in this topic!