“Battleships, in the end, are simply a delivery system for ordnance,”
Robert Farley, “The Battleship Book.”
On December 10th, 1941 the HMS Prince of Wales, a massive King George V class battleship and the HMS Wales were overpowered by an unassisted Japanese aerial attack and sunk in less than two hours. Between the two ships they only managed to verify downing four Japanese aircraft. It signaled the end of the battleship. Aircraft carriers became the queens of the ocean.
An era ended. Another began.
After three years of bitter fighting The Korean Armistice was signed. It divided the country along the 38th parallel. It was the same line of demarcation as the post World War II reality. Nothing changed, but civilians died in tragic numbers, some estimates are as high as two million, out of a country with a population of 4 million that is almost the same rate of mortality as the Black Death.
Chinese and US forces could have fought for several more years, but there was nothing left to gain, and not much left to destroy. They decided to stop.
It was an armistice, not a peace treaty, the war didn’t end, it just faded into a foggy backdrop behind all the hate that was boiling over everywhere else. All the suffering, death and destruction served no purpose.
However, it provided a terrifying blue print for future conflicts.
Wars could no longer be won. They could only be endured, for varying lengths of time, depending on how many young souls a country would be willing to trade for what Richard Nixon, in a fit of political delusion called “Peace with Honor.” In other words, having spent so much money, sacrificed so many innocent soldiers, we finally admitted that it was stupid to get involved in the first place and went home.
It might not be impossible to find a war that was actually worth the destruction and death. It would have to be before the introduction of modern technology. There are no victories anymore. Only losses.
Soldiers, civilians, historic sites destroyed, the costs are enormous, and the profits are… what? A foreign country that you need to occupy. An endless drain on the economy, a constant distraction for the resources of the military, and the open enmity and scorn of former allies and adversaries. Finally, the slow, painful realization that we’re in someone else’s country? Which is kind of funny, there has been so much vitriol, anger and meanness directed at foreigners in America, and we want to send armed, hostile American soldiers in to invade another country. A land where they won’t be viewed as liberators but as the unwelcome forces of an imperialistic power. Although funny isn’t the right word.
America has gone from saber-rattling, dancing on the edge of invasion, to actual operational maneuvers. Excuses have been manufactured, another round of WMDs is being paraded around the televisions and magazines. Seventh Fleet assets have been moved to the Southern Command, the strike force responsible for Central and South America. There are threats of an invasion of Venezuela, not whispered, unofficial, unattributed rumors floating across tablet and smartphone screens, but actual impromptu soundbites blurted to the press. A unilateral declaration of war, on camera.
Tables of battle have been disrupted in theaters of operations that have been long been flagged as flashpoints. Foolish moves that have left understaffed forces in places where hostilities aren’t imagined, they are burning and exploding in plain sight.
Invading a sovereign state, for no other reason than it’s possible, reanimating a useless technology, solely for the naming rights, these are not the actions of a world leader. More the desperate flailing of a nation fearing for its own irrelevance.
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