Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Americans spend so much money on 'defense' and are always in wars because we have to flex our brawn. It's no secret that we are lacking in so many other areas compared to the rest of the world. So, in the meantime we will use our might to try and shape the political climate to our favor. We'll also use our dollars by providing aid to other countries. It's tough to knock the big, strong rich kid off the top pedestal... but it can be done.
Obviously, this strategy will ultimately become our undoing.
How does one maintain the mentality for perpetual war?
There are three types of soldiers that willingly will be the merchants of those who profit from the military industrial complex, and they must be motivated to often fight an invented enemy, someone like the Iraqi's, who never attacked the United States and had no ill will towards Americans, more than likely even admired Americans (but no more, for obvious reasons)
The three types of soldiers are the careerists, those who fight for a paycheck and for the structure of military life. They are not those who start the wars are reliant upon, as these soldiers are often in favor of peace over war, often having a justified fear of dying for all the wrong reasons. Then you have the ideologues, those whose patriotism can be harnessed and their energies directed for love of country, the American way, freedom, and all the other nonsense that is pumped into them to justify the occupation and subjugation of other people in their countries. Ideologues, it has been said, are also not the best candidates to support perpetual war, as they often come to their senses over time, many may even learn the truth behind the lies that sent them to war, and they may end up opposing the wars.
The third soldier is who the merchants want as their vanguard, the "tip of the spear", and that soldier is the one who has learned to hate the enemy. Harness that hatred, and that soldier will do things he or she never thought they could. They can fight on indefinitely.
And that is war's greatest lesson to those who fight them, hate. It is what the U.S. is teaching a generation, and one whose lesson is absorbed and practiced by some, and rejected by others. The battlefield is often ones own mind.
1. Too many Americans don't even have a grasp of what any given war is about. For instance, study after study showed that a high percentage of Americans believed that Saddam attacked the World Trade Center.
2. American in general don't have much knowledge of countries outside the U.S. or their history. Nor do they know our history of interaction with many countries. Therefore, politicians can paint a picture of those countries and insist we should go to war, and the average American wouldn't know if they were given the truth or not.
3. Apathy. You always hear about the hardships of our soldiers (rightfully so), but absolutely nothing about the toll it takes on the citizens of the country we go to war with.
"Do Americans love war, or are we just apathetic to its consequences?"
You can't sum up Americans with this yes or no question. It's not one or the other.
Americans can hate war, but sadly accept that there are times when war is a necessary evil. Americans may grieve over the consequences of war, but realize that, just like chemotherapy and cancer, war usually has some catastrophic results along the way to an eventually successful outcome.
And finally, you can't sum up the feelings and beliefs on war for Americans with the two choices you gave. Very few people "love" war, even if they are sometimes oblivious to the reasons for a war, or how that war affects others.
There is something wrong with a nation that does not care it continually kills innocent people in their own country on a daily basis. There is something wrong with America.
That is true. We should not be fighting all the time. For the record, I am opposed to war except when America is attacked. Then all hell should break loose. Otherwise should mind our own.
A stupid canadian once said to me, "America was born out of war and violence. That will be its legacy." As much as I hate to admit it, there is some truth. We are great but, dysfunctional.
We fight wars becuase it's a means to an end. Humanity will never see the end of violence becuase of this fact. While I don't agree with the Bush era doctrine, peace through strength is not a slogan, it's a very real and documented psychological tactic. Speaking as one of those bullied kids, I can tell you that more often than not who gets targeted and who doesn't has everything to do with weakness vs strength rather than anything else.
not only do most Americans not know what war entails and what the details are of any given war, they are almost addicted to its "Hollywoodness". They see veterans as 'heroes' but the actual people who were overseas fighting a war of the rich, for no reason other than someone wants to show power, are people they rarely come into contact with. The real reason for those wars or where the countries are even at, elude them nor do they even care to hear about it. Yes, so many think Saddam was the big evildoer, they never heard the names of so many others who are/were worse than him, they blindly believe and accept the media hype and brainwashing. It's easier to accept it all than to question it. Look at Vietnam, so many only know what the movies made about that war showed them...
there's something very wrong, not only in America, also in Britain and any other country supporting and fighting these wars
not only do most Americans not know what war entails and what the details are of any given war, they are almost addicted to its "Hollywoodness". They see veterans as 'heroes' but the actual people who were overseas fighting a war of the rich, for no reason other than someone wants to show power, are people they rarely come into contact with. The real reason for those wars or where the countries are even at, elude them nor do they even care to hear about it. Yes, so many think Saddam was the big evildoer, they never heard the names of so many others who are/were worse than him, they blindly believe and accept the media hype and brainwashing. It's easier to accept it all than to question it. Look at Vietnam, so many only know what the movies made about that war showed them...
there's something very wrong, not only in America, also in Britain and any other country supporting and fighting these wars
Tyrants are not unique to America.
I think some of us understand what's going on but there's nothing we can do. GW Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 but won the presidency on a technicality. From there, he lied to us and involved us in a war (Iraq) which we had no business being in--all for power and greed.
One line of popular thought here, since World War 2, is that America now has a responsibility to police the world and protect our interests. These people believe that we need to police to prevent another Adolf Hitler from rising and taking over the world. Although Sadam Hussein was no real threat, he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and was made an example to other world tyrants. Although I don't agree with that line of thinking, as perpetual war will eventually weaken a country, I can understand it.
Ha ha.
Selective editing and censorship at its worst.
Americans don't "Love" war any more or less than anyone else. I'd venture to say that we hate war just like most everyone else.
The real irony is the thinly veiled implication that "some" Americans DO like war because of the completely mistaken view that waging war is profitable. Well, waging war is not profitable, it causes way more damage and expensive problems than it solves. The conditions that led to war usually linger after the fighting has ended. Yet, sadly war like crime is inevitable, part of the human condition. There will always be some out there, dictators and the like, that think that they can (and in the short term they sometimes do) get what they want by waging aggressive war. Ultimately though in the long term, wars rarely SOLVE any of the problems that humanity faces. Sure, the fighting has stopped, but the struggles (for food, water, shelter, purposeful lives) of humanity continue. All political parties and the minions in them need to get a better grasp on much of the HISTORY that we carry with us. Trite high-schoolish slogans do nothing to advance our understanding of war and go far to perpetuate the foolish mentalities that reside in those very sloppily educated out there.
War will never go away, but perhaps, if we all, but some in particular, can pull our collective heads out, we may be able to REDUCE the frequency and severity and duration of war and wars.
And censorship is not the place to start.....
History shows a lot of other countries loved war more than us. So far, we haven't been in a war that lasted 20 to 50 years- if you study European history, or any other region, you'll see that multi-generational war has been a common occurrence all over the world.
So far, we have never bankrupted our society in the stuff of war, either. Other nations have, many more than once. Sometimes to the point of permanent impoverishment.
We have never had a military culture so strong as to completely rule our nation's course and dominate everything in our culture. Others have, repeatedly, even when militarism has ruined a nation repeatedly, over and over. We much prefer to step away as soon as we can, and we have always taken care to ensure that our military is our servant, not our master.
Sure- we have made many mistakes, especially all throughout the last century. But, at the same time, we also did many things right, and in ways that allowed our most ferocious foes to step away as well, a thing that would have been impossible for them to do.
Patriotism can be just as potent as a national force of cultural will as for a willingness of taking up arms. History has proven that time after time everywhere, as nations rose and fell. We are a young country, and the 20th century was our turn. I think that all in all, we did all right last century, for both us and for the rest of the world. We could have done better, but we could have done worse.
Keeping to the long view, I think, is both necessary and vital in these rapidly changing times. Acceptance that we are bound to make mistakes and sometimes flounder is also necessary. We haven't lost any of the qualities that put us on the top of the heap, and I believe that as long as we look out for each other the most, we'll end up doing all right for a long time to come.
Land of the free, home of the brave. That sums us up. We just have to collectively remember those truths and hold them close.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
