The American way of war

By Dr. Michael R. Bowen
web posted December 10, 2001

Recently the news media reported an interview with an Afghan
truck driver who had been smuggling fuel to the Taliban. He and
his fellows, traveling with several trucks, had been driving by day
and hiding by night. One night they had been rudely awakened
by rifle barrels in their faces, and they were handcuffed and
hauled away to a nearby sand dune while the leader of their
captors spoke into a radio. Moments later the convoy of fuel
trucks was destroyed by aircraft. The attacking soldiers then
removed the handcuffs and told the driver and his men to get
lost. The soldiers did the same. From the descriptions of the
soldiers' equipment, uniforms, and methods, it was deduced that
they were American Special Forces personnel.

It was a very gratifying read. Our commandos appearing from
nowhere, destroying enemy assets, and disappearing again.
That's the way to rattle their cages!

But to see what's really great about the story, try imagining how
things would have been if the truckers had been Americans and
the attackers Taliban, or any of the many other peoples with
whom we have been at war throughout our history. The convoy
would have been destroyed all right, but with the crew inside it.
Since these were American soldiers, the crew was captured,
handcuffed, and then released after the mission had been
accomplished.

In the bloody Spring of 1945, a strange westward migration
took place in Germany. As the Soviet army closed in from the
East, and the Allies from the West, Germans hurried to place
themselves in a position to be captured by the Americans. They
knew well what would happen if the Soviets captured them: rape
and murder. But if the Americans captured them, they would be
fed. There would be no rape; in fact at least one American
soldier was executed for that offense. Can you imagine the Nazis
or the Japanese executing a soldier for rape?

For years, in Europe and in Asia, the appearance of a body of
young men with weapons meant murder and rapine. Unless they
were GIs, that is: in that case it meant chocolate bars, chewing
gum, cigarettes, spare rations. One of the most moving Norman
Rockwell paintings from the period was a Thanksgiving magazine
cover showing a little Italian girl in ragged clothes, a plate of GI
rations on her knees, saying grace. Draped over her frail form is
an American serviceman's jacket. And of course we went on to
repeat that little scene on a titanic scale all over Europe and Asia
after the war.

My father recalls being camped outside Manila the night before
an attack to drive out the Japanese. Two starving girls came into
camp, trying to sell themselves for food. Those young men,
deprived of female companionship for who knows how long,
knowing that it might be the last night of their lives: what did they
do?  They gave those girls food and clothes, and sent them on
their way unmolested. They were mortified that someone had to
humiliate themselves the way those girls did.

It's not necessary to pretend there's never been an American
atrocity; it's still clear that Americans don't fight for plunder and
domination. Some of our causes have been less enlightened than
others, but a review of our history shows that, more and more,
our battles have been fought to save others or to defend
ourselves, not to enlarge our power or riches. Our enemies,
thinking us fools, have again and again found to their great
surprise that although we are magnanimous in victory, we are
relentless in war. They have been surprised because they thought
the two attributes are contradictory, and that is the essence of
their misunderstanding of America. We fight, and fight hard,
because we hate war. It's not a sport for us, not an opportunity;
it's a very dirty job that must be done to prevent something
worse: the loss of our liberty.

We're already free; we can't become more free by invading
other countries, or even by just randomly blowing up parts of
them. We have nothing to gain from war, but everything to lose
from not fighting back. Once we have secured our freedom,
we'd just as soon go home. That's why the worst mistake
another people can make is to force us to take up arms. And
that's why an American victory is the best defeat our enemies
could ever know.

Dr. Michael Bowen, a former Naval officer, has a private
medical practice in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. He writes the
weekly Tuesday column "The Basics", and occasional guest
columns, too, for http://www.americasvoices.org/, a conservative
political opinion and educational web site. His columns also
appear in other popular Internet sites, including
http://www.opinionet.com/ and http://www.etherzone.com/.
Email him at MBowen@americasvoices.org.

Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com