We need to stop waging ‘sorta war’

Dang it, I gotta get serious again. Got something on my mind that’s actually been bugging me for years, but after the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and some of our U.S. Marines who lost their lives this past week, I just don’t get it.

Let me back up a little. Let’s talk about the subject of war. War is an awful thing. It’s an apocalyptic hell-on-Earth that represents a total and massive failure of our humanity. I always get a little concerned when I see others (usually those who have never served) who are quick to call for war as a solution to problems.

Of course, every diplomatic avenue should be pursued first. But how and who measures how and when we have truly exhausted all other options? How far do we go? How much is too much? When do we go from the most powerful country on the planet with a strong deterrent to harming our interests to being the world’s largest paper tiger? That is perhaps the toughest question there is in politics and there are thousands of different ideas and litmus tests that “justify” when war is appropriate.

I think of war the same way I think of a gun. You never, ever draw a firearm for self-defense, except as a last resort when no other options are possible (walking or running away, for example). The gun stays put away and if, God forbid, it is drawn, then one had best be prepared to actually use it.

War is worse. War isn’t one person firing a handgun. War is bombs, missiles, tanks, fighter jets and ultimately troops with rifles. War is mass casualties. War is civilian losses. War is hell unleashed. But lately, I fear my country has adopted a policy of waging “sorta war.” Think of it as the guy with the gun who, instead of knowing that his life is in jeopardy, thinks there is a good possibility that somebody else might hurt him. So, he draws his gun and sorta shoots.

Apparently, we’ve forgotten the lessons learned in Vietnam. Vietnam was the first war where generals were given a back seat to the politicians in waging combat. Often, soldiers in the field had to wait for permission to return fire to come from Washington, D.C., several thousand miles away. Often they had to wait for permission from the White House administration itself.

War was given all sorts of rules and politics. You can’t patrol here, you can’t bomb there, you can’t pursue the enemy into this village or that structure. Suddenly, we expected soldiers trained for combat to both fight and make friends. I guess that sounds neat — to somebody who has never served a single day in the military and never seen combat. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t work that way. Soldiers and tanks aren’t equipped for kisses and hugs. No wonder we lost Vietnam. The Vietnamese didn’t beat us; we beat ourselves.

And so here we are today. Several countries hate our guts. Oh sure, their governments don’t always come right out and say it (especially the ones that are receiving billions of dollars in aid money from us). You seriously think Pakistan, our (ahem) “ally” in the War on Terror, is our good buddy ol’ pal? Please! They put on the mask and play nice because we load them with money, arms and intelligence, which suspiciously often finds its way into the hands of the Taliban. And we send over troops to be buddies and pals while they’re getting hit daily with IEDs and snipers. Then we wonder why our some troops are prone to snap.

I watched the “Arab spring” with interest. Not so much for what was going on over there but for what was going on here. In America, we love our Hollywood movies and the notion of freedom fighters standing up to a tyrannical dictator. That’s how our country was formed.

I watched with curiosity as so many of you rooted and cheered for those people fighting in Libya and Egypt (and now Syria). But here’s the thing; what if those “rebels” aren’t the freedom-loving people you think they are? What if they’re just a group of people who wants to substitute one form of intolerance with another? What if they want to remove the dictator so they can instead replace him with their own unique brand of intolerance?

That’s exactly what happened. Even worse, we helped!

In Libya we blew a few billion dollars on airstrikes to help the overthrow of Gadhafi. In Egypt, we pump billions of dollars in aid. President Obama forgave several billion dollars in debt owed to us by Egypt after its own uprising. Why? Because we honestly think that these countries are going to be our new buddies? Because we think they’ll embrace democracy? How has that worked out so far?

I’m tired of Americans losing their lives in “sorta-wars” that go on for decades and slowly drag out a long body count. Either stay out or go to war. If the decision is war, then go to war. Send in everything — the Air Force, Marines, Army — level and flatten the entire country, plant the flag on it and then negotiate peace with our boots on their necks. If that’s too horrible, if that is something we simply cannot bring ourselves to do, then don’t send in a single troop.

Take Germany and Japan, for instance. They are good allies and business partners these days and I don’t recall any attacks on our country from either one in quite some time now.

I’m tired of the smoke and mirrors approach where we give several billion dollars of our money to countries that hate us, so long as they pretend we’re good buddies. I say pull all our people out. Cancel all foreign aid and let countries that want it re-apply for it and state their case sas to why they deserve it.

If they want to use oil as a hostage, fine. We’ll open up our fields as wide as we can, let the price of gas shoot up for a bit and begin charging those countries the same amount for a bushel of wheat as they charge for a barrel of oil. Re-assert out position as the world’s strongest nation and countries can either be our friends, our enemies or simply leave us alone.

If we continue using our current politics and methods, this country only has endless decades of terrorist attacks and loss of lives ahead of it. I’d like better for my children.

Ben Compton is a Palmer resident and publishes his column as “Compton’s Corner,” the same title used by his grandmother, Phyllis Compton, a longtime Frontiersman columnist.