Perpetual war

In current events

The concept of a Forever War has been used in opposition to United States military involvement since the Vietnam War. James Pinckney Harrison argues in The Endless War: Fifty Years of Struggle in Vietnam (1981) that the Vietnam War was "endless" due to the success of the communist revolution in nationalizing the people. The concept was used by Trần Văn Đôn, a general in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, in his book Our Endless War: Inside Vietnam (1978) .

American historian James Chace argues in his book Endless War: How we got involved in Central America (1983) argues that US policy in Central America is based upon the assumption that US hegemony is threatened within the region. According to Chace, US involvement in Central America worked towards resisting the domino affect of the spread of a "communist take-over," largely through establishing the credibility of US military. Though these policies were meant to deter conflict, they themselves created the conditions for instability in the region, which furthered a US response. This resulted in a self-perpetuating, or "endless," loop. He additionally argues US investment in pursing an expanding military presence in Central America reflects an endless preparation for war.

A key argument of Chace is that much this military involvement stems from a logic of US paranoia in reaction to the Cuban Revolution. A similar argument is put forward by David Keen, political economist and Professor of Complex Emergencies at the London School of Economics. His book Endless War? Hidden Function of the 'War on Terror' (2006) argues that the United States' strategies and tactics in the War On Terror use a "militaristic state-cased framework." This framework, though "counterproductive," has an "inner logic" and a "psychological function" of responding to the trauma of 9/11.

Noam Chomsky posits that a state of perpetual war is an aid to (and is promoted by) the powerful members of dominant political and economic classes, helping maintain their positions of economic and political superiority.

British journalist Robert Fisk, a critic of Western policies in the Middle East, argues that recent Western conflicts against the Middle East, after the end of the Cold War, have been part of a new perpetual war. He suggests that Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush launched attacks on Iraq, Sudan, and Afghanistan to distract the population from his domestic political problems. In addition, he claims that despite victorious claims after the first Gulf War that Saddam Hussein had been "defanged," he was again the target of Western attacks until his execution in 2006.

Similarly, Ted Koppel described the War on Terror as "Our Children's Children's War." Critics of Western policies have used the term "perpetual war" in reference to non-military "wars", such as the "War on Drugs", "War on Poverty", "War on Cancer", Lou Dobbs's "War on the Middle Class", or the "War on Terrorism", the "War on Women", or Bill O'Reilly's "War on Christmas".

In socioeconomics and politics

The economic make-up of the 5th century BC Athens-led Delian League also bears resemblance to the economic ramifications of preparing for Perpetual war. Aspects of any given empire, such as the British Empire and its relation to its domestic businesses that were owned by a wealthy minority of individuals, such as the East India Company, the Hudson's Bay Company, and De Beers, manifest an observed relationship between a minority of individuals influencing Empire or State policy, such as the Child's War in India, the Anglo-Mysore Wars in India, the Anglo-French conflicts on Hudson Bay in Canada, and the Second Boer War in South Africa, follow a pattern where the Empire allocates resources pursuing and sustaining policies that financially profit the Empire's domestic business's owners.

Military-industrial complex

The concept of a military-industrial complex was first suggested by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the idea that military action can be seen as a form of market-creation goes back at least as far as speeches beginning in 1930 prior to the publication of War Is a Racket in 1935. On January 16, 1961, President Eisenhower delivered his farewell speech expressing great concern for the direction of the newfound armaments industry post WWII. While recognizing the boom in economic growth after the war, he reminded the people of America that this was indeed a way of profiting off warfare and that if not regulated enough it could lead to the "grave" expansion of the armaments industry. For his warning of the thirst to profit from warfare through weapon production, Eisenhower coined the term "military industrial complex." He says, "The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." Eisenhower feared that the military industrial complex could lead to a state of perpetual war as the big armament industry will continue to profit from warfare. Additionally, NSC 68 can be used as a reference to understand U.S. President Harry S. Truman's reasoning for the continued build up the United State's nuclear arsenal and how this contributed to the Cold War. This concept is still present in today's policies as William D. Hartung states in his article The Doctrine of Armed Exceptionalism.

Cold war

The Cold War was a time of extreme tensions between the Soviet Union's interest of expansion of Communism and the NATO countries which operated on a dominantly capitalist economy. The Soviet Union was viewed as a threat to the American national government as well as its citizens. When the Soviet military reached Afghanistan, the United States took action in training the people of the middle eastern nations to combat the Soviet Army. During the Soviet-Afghan War under the Carter administration, the CIA gave a lot of aid and training to the Islamic Jihadists and helped fund Wahhabi Universities in Afghanistan, Pakistan as well as Iraq. In 1979, Osama Bin Laden was assigned to the CIA and received U.S. military training. In 1985, President Reagan met with Islamic Jihadists at the White House. Under Reagan's presidency, these Islamic Jihadists were known as "freedom fighters," but were later relabeled as "Islamic terrorists" under President George W. Bush's administration.

Middle east and west

The Global War on Terror was declared in 2001 by President George W. Bush, following the attacks on the world trade center. However, though President Bush's coined term of the "War on Terror" is argued to not be the beginning of a war, rather apart of a longer lasting war apart of a wider and deeper issue. This In 1996, Osama Bin Laden, of Al Qaeda, made threat to the United States, by making a declaration of war. The growing tensions of the middle east is suggested by Laurence Andrew Dobrot, to be very wide cultural misunderstandings and faults of the west in not making peace with the middle east. As the Deputy Director for the Missile Defense Agency’s Airborne Laser Program, Dobrot, examines the hostility which has been continuous not only since 2001, but since the birth of Wahhabism.

Dobrot proposed that the U.S should recognize the cultural hostility of the tribal Arabs in order to make the first steps towards progression of making peace.

The Crusades arose as European expansion was growing at the peak of unified Islamic dominance. As the Crusades marked the beginning of conflict between the Christian countries and Islamic countries, some say that the so-called war on terror is a continuation of the Crusades. On September 16, 2001, in a speech, President Bush referred to the War on terror as a crusade. He said:

No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and then emerging all in the same day to fly their aircraft - fly U.S. aircraft into buildings full of innocent people - and show no remorse. This is a new kind of -- a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I'm going to be patient.

Andrew Bacevich described Bush's naming of the war on terror as a crusade as something which does not make the war separate, rather something that shows that it is part of an "eternal war."

War on Drugs

The War on Drugs was declared by President Nixon in 1971, during a period where drugs were perceived and used as an act of rebellion by the younger generation. This was just after the 60's counterculture as psychedelic drugs and marijuana were explored amidst large masses of political protests during the Vietnam war. The War on Drugs was later picked up by the Reagan administration as First Lady Nancy Reagan spread the message with her slogan "Just Say No" to drugs. Though coined by Ronald Reagan, the policies which his administration implemented existed stretching back to Woodrow Wilson's Presidency. Security measures were taken under Reagan, to ensure restrictions be put on drugs. The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 was passed so that pharmaceutical companies may keep track of the distributions and maintain restrictions on certain types of drugs. In 1988 the Office of National Drug Control Policy was set to pass more regulations and restrictions on drug policies yet the media labeled the agency directors are the "drug czars." Under George Bush's administration, a significant increase of actions were taken toward the war on drugs, including militant force, student drug testing, and drug raids.

The War on Drugs received lots of critical reception from Political figures as well as political critics, such as President Obama and Pat Robertson. Pat Robertson said that the war on drugs must come to an end as there is a mass incarceration of drug users, who did not commit any violent acts, serving time. He says, “We here in America make up 5 percent of the world’s population, but we make up 25 percent of jailed prisoners," in reference to the war on drugs.

With the advent of perpetual war, communities have begun to construct War Memorials with names of the dead while the wars are ongoing. See the Northwood Community Park's memorial which has space for 8,000 names (approximately 4,500 used at time of construction) and plans to update it yearly.

Thomas Hobbes

Political Philosopher Thomas Hobbes succinctly wrote in 1651 that a hypothetical State of nature was a condition of perpetual war. The following quotation from chapter 13 of his book Leviathan explores the causes and effects of perpetual war:

So that in the nature of man we find three principal causes of quarrel. First, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly, glory.

The first maketh man invade for gain; the second, for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of other men’s persons, wives, children, and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.

Hereby it is manifest that, during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war as is of every man against every man. For ‘war’ consisteth not in battle only or the act of fighting, but in a tract of time wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known, and therefore the notion of ‘time’ is to be considered in the nature of war, as it is in the nature of weather. ...

Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time or war where every man is enemy to every man, the same is consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the earth, no navigation nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea, no commodious building, no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force, no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and, which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Sun Tzu

Ancient war advisor Sun Tzu expressed views in the 6th century BC about perpetual war. The following quotation from chapter 2, Waging War, of his book The Art of War suggests the negative impacts of prolonged war:

Sun Tzŭ said: ... When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, the men's weapons will grow dull and their ardour will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.... There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.... In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Historian Alexis de Tocqueville made predictions in 1840 concerning perpetual war in democratic countries. The following is from Volume 2, chapter 22, "Why Democratic Nations Naturally Desire Peace and Democratic Armies, War", 18th paragraph, in his book, Democracy in America:

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. Not indeed that after every victory it is to be apprehended that the victorious generals will possess themselves by force of the supreme power, after the manner of Sulla and Caesar; the danger is of another kind. War does not always give over democratic communities to military government, but it must invariably and immeasurably increase the powers of civil government; it must almost compulsorily concentrate the direction of all men and the management of all things in the hands of the administration. If it does not lead to despotism by sudden violence, it prepares men for it more gently by their habits. All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish it. This is the first axiom of the science.

Relationship with the democratic republic

The development of a relationship network between people who wield political and economic power as well as those who own capital in companies that financially profit from warfare have a relationship to records influencing public opinion of war through the influence of mass media outlets. These may also include the presentation for the causes of war, the effects of war, and the Censorship of war. The following authors, have suggested that entering a state of perpetual war becomes progressively easier in a modern democratic republic, such as the United States:

Fiction