Marines who fought at the battle for Fallujah are now wondering if they fought in vain. Which prompts Michael Kasdan to seek an answer to the question of what war is really good for.
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It is nature of the biggest world events to explode into the public consciousness; and then, over time, to fade.
Ten years ago and for years thereafter, the wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq were consistently in the public eye, where they raised questions about democracy, oil, involvement in foreign wars, and our role in the world. Until they weren’t. Even though thousand of troops still remain stationed in Afghanistan, this is rarely discussed in today’s news. Everything fades and is replaced. Other issues bubble to the top. Fiery outrage and battles for societal reform run headlong into the numbing quicksand of bureaucracy and political wrangling.
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This past weekend, the New York Times ran a piece entitled “Fallujah’s Fall Stuns Marines Who Fought There.” The article picked up the story of Fallujah ten years after the war in Iraq. In 2004, the battle for Fallujah was a flashpoint, and the hard-fought and costly battle to wrest Fallujah from the control of the insurgents was considered to be one of the more significant and important military victories in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Ten years later, however, we are coming full circle, as Sunni insurgents, many with ties to Al Quaeda, have re-taken control of Fallujah.
The New York Times article reports that this turn of events has caused many of the Marines involved in the battle for Fallujah to question if their sacrifice, including the lives of friends who were lost in Fallujah, was indeed in vain:
For many veterans of that battle—most now working in jobs long removed from combat—watching insurgents running roughshod through the streets they once fought to secure, often in brutal close-quarters combat, has shaken their faith in what their mission achieved.
Some now blame President Obama for not pushing harder to keep some troops in Iraq to maintain the stability. Others express anger at George W. Bush for getting them into a war that they now view as dubious in purpose and even more doubtful in its accomplishments. But either way, the fall of the city to insurgents has set off within the tight-knit community of active and former Marines a wrenching reassessment of a battle that in many ways defined their role in the war.
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Ryan Sparks was a platoon commander during a seven-month Falluja deployment in which three men were killed and 57 wounded in his 90-man unit. Now about to take a job in Manhattan after recently leaving the Marines, Mr. Sparks, 39, said many of the younger Falluja veterans are angry “because we lost so many Marines, and it feels like they were sacrificed for nothing.”
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Ten years later, the “war” is over, and the bulk of U.S. troops has been withdrawn from the region. The country has moved on to a different set of newsworthy problems: the economy, gun control, ObamaCare, and the NSA. In our desperation to look forward and to deal with the present, we so rarely look back. And so we forget. It fades.
But this historical loop in Fallujah presents us with a unique opportunity to look at Fallujah now and compare it to ten years ago. In this case, the wars in the Afghanistan and Iraq, like many of our failed modern wars, were justified as exercises in democratization, in nation-building. Today, Fallujah is back in the hands of the insurgents. Today, young legions of fundamentalists draw hatred and inspiration from the atrocities committed their at our hands. It did not work.
We can’t just move on without reflecting. We can’t just let the things that fade from the public eye, fade from our collective consciousness. When we do, we fail to examine our actions and initiatives at the only time that they can be critically examined and judged: years after the fact.
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Almost half a century ago, in his hit single “War!,” Edwin Starr soulfully asked: “War. (Huh! Yeah…!) What is it good for?!” The answer back then was “Absolutely nothing.”
And nothing has changed.
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Photo: aheram / flickr / creative commons license
There are no good or bad people. History is written by the winners, so they always write themselves as the good guys.
Americans are not the good guys. We are people who are fighting for our own interests, just like everyone else.
I agreed with you Mike. Look at all the Indian Wars that the USA fought to take land from the Indians. Marine Corp General Butler stated that he and his fellow Marines were gangsters for American wealthy people and corporations around the world. The USA overthrew governments that had agendas that were helpful to its own citizens but were not pro-friendly to American businesses and then we get so shock when the people take up armed revolt in places like Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. BTW, what was so good about World War II? You had IBM, the Ford Company,… Read more »
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. The point of the piece was not that war is categorically always the wrong answer. Though, as mentioned above, there are those that take that absolute worldview. But war is us at our absolute worst; it reveals the darkest in us as human beings and involves unspeakable horrors and atrocities for those on both sides, no matter the “winner.” And as illustrated by Fallujah (and many others before it) the long-term consequences of “winning” are always less than clear. Often bigger terrible problems are caused. I wrote piece to emphasize the need to stay aware… Read more »
I can only agree with J. I have a great respect for those who chose absolute non-violence, like the Quakers. Gandhi’s largely non-violent struggle against the might of the British Empire worked. But would it have worked against Hitler or Stalin? The bottom line in this fallen world is force. Used sparingly, as wisely as possible. But force. To stop evil men and women. One of the great almost invisible advances of the modern world is the first beginnings of an international system of justice that means that evil heads of state do not live in happy easy retirement, but… Read more »
Heavy sigh of agreement, Andrew. “The bottom line in this fallen world is force.” You just rounded up our species in one sentence.
The UN is a foreign governing body that has NO Constitutional basis to exist on American soil. It is responsible for undeclared police actions like Korea and Somalia. Our troops are not cops or social workers to be used at it’s whim. Michael New was a US Army Specialist who was court- martialed simply for refusing to wear a UN beret or insignia because he took his oath to the Constitution seriously. The Founders of this country warned against entangling alliances that put us into other people’s wars and internal affairs, and we have ignored that sound advice for over… Read more »
Except you know keeping bad people from taking over their weaker neighbors.. and liberating millions of people from concentration camps.. or overthrowing tyrannical dictators.. or freeing millions of slaves.. or.. well I think I’ve made my point..
The Iraq war on the other hand was a total waste of munitions, military personal, and all manner of other resources. Unfortunately for the Marines who fought in Fallujah, they fought a war which was designed to expend munitions so we could build more and funnel tax payer dollars to armaments companies.