Do Americans Love War?

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/do-americans-love-war/70068/

Do Americans Love War?

Jan 24 2011, 1:45 PM ET

Of course not, goes the traditional answer. Americans have always been reluctant warriors. "Of all the enemies to public liberty," wrote James Madison in 1795, "war is, perhaps the most to be dreaded." Our literary heritage is full of anti-war classics like Ernest Hemingway's A Farwell to Arms. U.S. military campaigns have often been unpopular, sparking protest movements. Americans didn't love fighting in Korea in the 1950s, or Vietnam in the 1960s -- and neither do they enjoy battling insurgents today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Absolutely, Americans love war, responds Andrew Bacevich. As the author of the recent Washington Rules puts it, we've "fallen prey to militarism." Enthralled by the sword, Americans have a "penchant for permanent war." After all, the U.S. defense budget almost matches the rest of the world's military spending put together. Many of America's wars were popular -- at least at first. In 2001, around 80 percent of Americans backed the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Two years later, about seven in 10 Americans supported the invasion of Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein.

But neither of these views is completely right. The truth is that we do love war -- but only a certain kind of war. To understand what this kind is, sit on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., and look toward the Capitol.

[gratuitous]

1. Are you kidding? It's our national religion

Compare people's faith in God and how they act on it, and people's faith in war and how they act on it. God's got nothing in the public mind to compare with the omnipotence of war. We use war for everything. Any problem is first treated with an application of war and violence. If that doesn't work, we apply more war and violence until we declare it has worked, all objective evidence to the contrary. We celebrate its practitioners as heroes, recite the names of those who died for war with reverence, and parade its machinery down our city streets several times a year for public veneration and worship.

[nineteen50]

3. When you are a military nation

and it is the only tool you have everything looks like a
military problem.We need to learn how to negotiate so we don't
always decimate.

[nineteen50]

2. NO

We use to have a citizen military, now we have a corporate
military because it is now all volunteer.

[Bragi]

4. Most Americans opposed Iraq and Afghanistan

Except for the first few months of these wars, when the 'support our president/troops" propaganda is highest, polls have shown that most Americans have opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In fact, most people in most democratic countries that joined these wars oppose them.

What this shows is that in contemporary democracies a) people are not inherently pro-war, they are more inherently anti-war, and b) it doesn't matter a people in democracies think about war.

[SoCalDem]

5. Not all wars are created equal

WWI & WWII were "special" because so many Americans still had close kinship with relatives all over Europe..people they may may met at one time, or even had lived with in towns & villages all over Europe, with those relatives.

When people emigrated here in droves during the late 1800's / early 1900's , they left much of their family behind, so when wars broke out in Europe, there was a feeling of having to help them out, becvause they were truly "family".


I think Korea was the turning point..the first "modern war" that seemed to make no sense at all, and for 99.9999999% there was no personal connection to it..same goes for Viet Nam, only moreso.

Wars enrich many, so of course some people always love war, and for others who love the Rah-Rah of it all (as long as THEIR kids don't go) they enjoy some perpetual warfare too.

If we had a 15% war-tax BEFORE the first boots hit the ground, or the first missile was fired, we would end nonsense wars.

[NNN0LHI]

9. It is not all "(as long as THEIR kids don't go)"

I have a couple of neighbors who act like little kids on Christmas morning when their kids get called up for another tour of duty.

Its almost like they get some sort of sexual gratification at the thought of their kids killing some brown people in the worst imaginable ways. They never give much thought to the possibility that their own son may be killed.

If I hadn't recently witnessed this phenomena in my own neighborhood with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed this was possible.

Don

[ixion]

6. Indeed. A 'certain kind' of war, a.k.a. a Turkey Shoot

where no one actually has to do anything but go shopping. Of course, this isn't really a 'war' at all.

If the US gets into a real war, suddenly no one will like it as much.

[tabasco]

7. I was in the infantry for 10 years

and I hate it.

[Shandris]

8. I don't think, as a whole, Americans -truly- love war.

The key word, of course, is 'truly'. You can see this in the faces of parents who are for a military conflict until the time comes for their son or daughter to go - then you have the (often) 'split-reaction'. The boastfully proud father and the teary-eyed mother (yes, this is a stereotype; I have seen this response more commonly, although I have seen the exact opposite as well. I found nothing more...odd...than the chest-beating mother and the quiet, teary father who gave me pleading looks of understanding).

But do we enjoy WATCHING a war? Oh yes, CNN and the Gulf War proved that. The joystick jockeys of war make it look so FUN, after all, and hey, they never even see where the bomb lands! (Note the sarcasm, please) I used to really enjoy war-like video games; I still do, but only those that are old-time historical simulations. When men would be forced to face men on the field of battle, and where victory wasn't gained from a mile and a half away (ie, anything pre-gun, like the Chinese Three Kingdom era and so forth). But I can't find entertainment in things like Call of Duty or Modern War anymore, and I think I'm probably better off for it (although many I'm sure will find my enjoyment of pre-gun war simulations to be just as bad; it happens). I don't wish I was in a war, and I don't want to see TRUE violence displayed as entertainment on my television/computer (ie, real-life bloodsports or gladiatorial contests). I get the feeling that I'm in a minority in that opinion though; I have little difficulty imagining large crowds showing up for actual bloodsports like in the Roman days (no, American Football doesn't count, even though I don't find that too incredibly entertaining more than a couple games a year at most). Just so long as the spectators KNOW they aren't going to get involved.

I'd be interested in seeing how many people would show up to simply spectate a (for example) gladiatorial contest to the death (maybe involving prisoners?), and how many would show up if there were a lottery involved -- and the 'winners' would be who the prisoners fought. I suspect the attendance would drop immediately and dramatically -- because while we Americans like to watch a war, we don't want to be in one.

Sorry so lengthy, just woke up and head hurts quite a bit, finding thought formulation a bit difficult. :)

[Rageneau]

10. We love war and we love war-mongering...

because we don't have to suffer the horrors we force other people to suffer in order for our rich people to get richer.

Do Americans love war? Silly question.

A better one is: Has any nation in history loved war MORE than the U.S.?