Afghanistan,War and Military Occupation

Afghanistan is another international tragedy which will be difficult if not impossible for western powers to resolve. I agree with the new policy to withdraw our troops by 2014 and to start reducing their deployment in 2013. Evens so, we have a duty to try and prevent chaos during the period of withdrawal. There was very little justification  for invasion in the first place. It is better to prevent terrorism by policing operations and the use of intelligence; intelligence in all the meanings of the word.

It is difficult to completely control the actions of a nation's servicemen even when those servicemen completely share common values. Atrocities have been committed by soldiers on duty even though their political masters have have ordered them to act with restraint. This is one of the unfortunate consequences of both war and occupation.

If it is difficult to completely control soldiers who share the same values as you , what chance  do you have to control or influence a nation which does not share most of your opinions?

It is my view that war and occupation of another state can rarely be justified on either moral or pragmatic grounds. In recent history, I can only support one war and that was the Second World War. Diplomacy had failed to prevent, Hitler, a crazed maniac from subverting liberal secular democracy to impose a tyranny based on semi-religious beliefs.  However, war could not prevent him and his henchmen committing some of the biggest crimes in history.

The occupation of Western Germany by American, British and French forces was accepted, in peace, by the German people for a number of reasons: fear of the Soviet Union, shared values with the USA, Britain and France and perhaps a sense of guilt. It should be remembered that most of the German people did not support Hitler or his policies and he never received majority support in any election.

The Soviet Union was un-able to occupy the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe without resentment or in some cases violent opposition. Even though Russia shared European values with the states that it occupied it ultimately failed to impose its will.

The Second World war had undesirable and unforeseen consequences. The USA was almost forced into developing nuclear weapons because of the fear that Germany would acquire them first. Hitler, without doubt, would have used them without restraint against any nation that opposed him and there would have been a worse holocaust. The cost of using these weapons, against Japanese civilians, was then assessed against the benefit of shortening the war and saving military lives. A diabolical inhuman calculation was, therefore, imposed upon the most liberal of politicians. This was the unfortunate result of the opposition to tyranny.

There are now dangers of another war breaking out in the Middle East. Israel has been allowed by the Western Powers to obtain Nuclear weapons. Israel is allowed to defend itself. The Israeli nation has an absolute right to exist. Every nation should consider what happened in the Second World war especially Middle Eastern neighbours. This does not mean that Israel should not act with restraint.  Its policy of occupying Palestinian territory will eventually be seen by history to be a diplomatic mistake. Nuclear proliferation in the Middle East was an error which should not have been allowed to happen. It looks as though Iran too wants to arm itself with Nuclear weapons to protect itself from perceived threats from its neighbours. This is the dangerous consequence of allowing Israel to arm themselves with weapons of mass destruction. Can we expect Israel to act with restraint when the leaders of Iran have stated that they want to eliminate its nation completely?  Would the USA, France or Britain act with restraint if confronted with a similar situation?  I don't think so; there would be a pre-emptive non-nuclear strike. Their citizens would expect nothing less. There will, therefore, probably be another war  in the Middle East. It looks as though diplomacy will fail because of fear and hatred.

Nuclear proliferation has been one of the biggest threats to world peace and all this has been a result of un-preventable tyranny, war and occupation. Nuclear weapons must be removed from the diplomatic equation otherwise at some time in the future a maniac like Hitler will use them. The dangers of Nuclear war do not recede because of increased "deterrence" they only accumulate. Every nation needs to rid itself of these weapons as a matter of priority. Unfortunately, I doubt that this will ever happen. Human Beings, underneath it all, are just animals that are unable to control the dangers of their own ingenuity.