Nation and Military #4

The logic of ‘deterrence’ as a mechanism of avoiding war is nothing but a great scam perpetuated by the world’s warmongers. The jingoists of the world use deterrence as an excuse to enlarge their military build-ups, yet this does not bring peace to the world but conflict on a greater scale. The world needs to get rid of this illusion that somehow expanding military activities can lead to peace. To counter something one must tackle its cause, not further it; as the proverb goes, fire does not extinguish fire. One does not store jars of petrol in one’s house in case a fire breaks out, but a fire extinguisher. Similarly, to achieve peace humans must work towards ending the causes of war (for the most part, nationalism) rather than increasing destructive capabilities.

War is not fought for its own sake, but to achieve some political end. But no end justifies destruction and killing on a mass scale. Nationalists think it is justified for people to fight each other for their nation, but an imaginary identity and its selfish interests are not worth the lives of real human beings. Yet unfortunately, the world has fallen for this divisive ideology, with countless conflicts as the result.

Rarely in war is there any such thing as true victory. Conflict turns out to be so costly that often even the winner is a loser. The pursuit of war as a means of national policy yields at best nationalist successes which do not necessarily outweigh the costs incurred. The victorious nation may have achieved its motives, but at too high an economic cost to justify them. War is almost always a lose-lose situation. It leaves societies ruined materially and fills them with hatred mentally.

It is humanity's greatest failure that there are organized forces for the purpose of destroying other humans. How pitiable is the social condition of this species, that humans' imaginary identities have alienated them so much from each other that they are willing to kill for their identity group. Militaries are an indicator of how we have been unable to supersede this primitive state of violence despite all our progress elsewhere.

But if and when we do manage to pacify ourselves, society will then be able to focus more on creating a better world. The resources humanity wastes today on creating insecurity and war will then be put to much better use on issues of development, progress, and an improvement of humanity’s condition. Add to that the millions of people who would then be involved in productive rather than destructive activities. With nationalism we can continue living in a world of conflict or with unity a world of peace.