A Western Penchant for Destruction:
The West has a penchant for impatience in war that has given us the Western way of war. We seek decisive engagements where the enemy can be crushed. Victor Davis Hanson spells it out convincingly in Why The West Has Won. To the Western mind, there are better things to do than “build” nations from scratch or get bogged down in protracted dirty little wars. The Western way is focussed solely on getting things over as quickly as possible … it was so with the Greeks and Romans … and it is so with us. The result is that when faced with armed conflict, the West has always sought decisive and crushing confrontations which allowed its citizen to get back to focussing on wealth creation and individual pursuits.
Western warfare tends to be incredibly costly in lives and treasure as a result, and when non-Western forces seek war with the West it is best they avoid head-on confrontation. In modern parlance, we often hear the phrase “Go big, or go home” bandied about. It represents perfectly the Western Attitude; besides, how can one go about pursuing excess while simultaneously wasting money on Afghan schools?
The picture on your site, CJunk, is Nagasaki and I can assure you it is perfectly stabilised. It’s my favourite place in Japan.
I wouldn’t consider building schools in Afghanistan a waste.
Tarek Fatah has an interesting piece in the National Post about destroying the idealogy that’s behind Islamist states or calling it quits. He makes a good point. Our efforts are noble, to be sure, but will be for naught if we don’t challenge the destructive nature of Islam or if we make deals with the Taliban.
Just my thoughts.
I guess this explains the Hundred Years War, which went on for 116 years.
Rabbit: It was still fought using decisive battles, but in this case West faced West until there weren’t enough bodies left. That’s the point.
I agree with the article. Westerners have an unfortunate impatience and it’s a huge weakness which our enemies know to exploit. Not all protracted wars fought by westerners have been “just” vis. the French in Indochina and their attempt to reimpose a very repressive colonialism. But this struggle in Afghanistan is very worthwhile and the results are indeed impressive. The key lies in staying the course long enough such that a new generation grows up with the expectations that girls will go to school, political leadership will be decided by free vote, violence will be both aberrant and illegitimate, religion will be transcendental rather than repressive and the economy will provide opportunity rather than perpetuate a straight jacket of poverty. But like the Israelites wandering in the desert prior to entering and seizing the promised land, the old generation has to die out, and with them the perception of the normalcy of slavery. This is a trans-generational struggle. The question is wether we choose to fight and finish it ourselves or leave the next generation to start over at square one. Because it’s not about to go away on its own.
DrD,
Each generation is taught by the previous one and not much changes, just a few addresses.
We need new schools (that actually teach stuff right here in Canada. I don’t five a crap about Afghanis … they will never be rid of Islam and the Taliban so whats the point?
How the West Has Won is an awesome book – i highly recommend it. It gave plenty of insight into past conflicts and potential insight into future ones for me. The costliest wars in history by far have been when two “Western” cultures go to war with each other.
What a great article. Thankfully there are still clear thinkers in our land.
My take on the rot within western civilization is the one Paul the Apostle explains in Romans 1, that is, once a country becomes Godless that God gives us up to go our own way, and that always leads to destruction. We can thank the liberal theology that began in Europe and spread to America over a hundred years ago for what we are reaping today.
I enjoy all that Victor Davis Hanson writes. However, I have to pick a nit in the statement, “The Western way is focused solely on getting things over as quickly as possible … it was so with the Greeks and Romans …” The statement is incorrect in so far as the Greeks were concerned. As an Eastern society, the Greeks, like the Persians, Assyrians, etc only fought long enough to win each battle. It was not until the western Romans reinvented the art of war that the world understood what total war was all about. Except for that nit, Mr Hanson makes a sound case.
I enjoy all that Victor Davis Hanson writes. However, I have to pick a nit in the statement, “The Western way is focused solely on getting things over as quickly as possible … it was so with the Greeks and Romans …” The statement is incorrect in so far as the Greeks were concerned. As an Eastern society, the Greeks, like the Persians, Assyrians, etc only fought long enough to win each battle. It was not until the western Romans reinvented the art of war that the world understood what total war was all about. Except for that nit, Mr Hanson makes a sound case.
“I guess this explains the Hundred Years War, which went on for 116 years.”
Closer to 500, but who is counting? the “hundred years war” phase was just a continuation of savage Normano-french border war that started the day after Rolf Ganger told the then Duke of France that Neustria was under new management and had a new name, and lasted until the last Anglo Norman lords were killed or dispossesed of their patrimony on the continent.
What I personally take exception to is this urban myth that Afghanistan has NEVER been conquered/pacified…..NONSENSE!!!!!
I have travelled some in that far-away land and in the North—between Mazar-I-Sharif and the northern border….lies an area of swampy, malaria prone land—dotted by the ruins/tumuli of what appear to be several cities—the ruins go on for miles…..these cities(ancient Bactria) were founded by Alexander and later destroyed by Genghis Khan….physical proof of the success of both conquerors.
Later Tamerlane’s progeny swept through on the way to India to found the Mogul dynasty….ruling Afghanistan for centuries….
And yes it is likely in the current western political climate that our lack of support to Iran’s youthful protesters will result in our incinerating them in retaliation to the result of our appeasement/weakness to excise a small infection…at a stage prior to it metastasizing into a nuclear threat.
to the west , winning a war is a binary outcome.
won or nought.
I ask again, is karzai going to be throwing political opponents in jail by the thousands in 10 or 15 years from now?
is he going to be another pahlavi, marcos or nguyen van thieu? an ‘ally’ to the west who exploits the support to entrench his corruption correctly believing the view from the west is ‘better the villain we know’?
hmmm?
Well documented that the Western way of war lay in technology and the overwhelming use of force and firepower. John Keegan in particular has documented this. The length of time this takes is another matter. The Crusades is another example of a protracted conflict.
Keegans reccomendation is to stay on the path, of technology and firepower. That doesnt mean bombing people back to the stoneage, this is a tactical decision. But that when conflict arises these are the advantages you build your plan around.
The use of airpower, the ability for small units to command huge firpower are all within the proper doctine. Essentially, if you take on a Western unit of battle, no matter how defined, you will be facing a technologically superior opponent who can rain fire down on you in multiple quanta over what you can bring.
Western society is capable of carrying out a long term conflict, BUT it needs support and explaination. When we were fuedal, this meant as long as the aristocracy was on board. Now it means broader segments.
Which is why moral imperatives in Western society are important. Afghanistan started out as “the good war” because it was a response ot being attacked. Iraq, whatever the jsutification, eventually was seen as otherwise.
But there is a difference between war and pacification. Important to remember. What is going on in Afghanistan is a hybrid of those two.
Hey, what happen to the war in Iraq ? Awfully quiet on that front or the media got disinterested ?