When is a war not a war?
- By Brad Franklin
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E-mail China.org.cn, January 20, 2015
About two years ago in the United States there was an instance of a fundamentalist Christian group that denigrated members of the U.S. military who had served in foreign wars, even mocking the funerals of some who had been killed. They were reviled by the general population and they eventually faded from view but no one was suggesting that even the disgusting practice of heaping scorn on the soldiers and their families was cause for anyone to get shot. There are extremists in every religion who feel they are right and everyone else is wrong and their actions are often repugnant. However, the Muslims seem to be more prepared than others to resort to violence when they feel their religious toes have been trodden upon. In recent years Muslim extremists seem to have found much to offend them and have reacted with what appears to most people to be terrorism and a totally disproportionate amount of violence.
So if there's bloodshed and if we're fighting back against it, why isn't the war of terror a war? I suggest that a war is an event that, historically, has involved two forces or groups of forces and that has an identifiable beginning and an ending. We can use as examples the two world wars, the Vietnam War and many others down through the years. You can, if nothing else, put dates on them; when they started and when they were officially over. I find it very difficult to trace a beginning to the so-called war on terror. There have been people killing and assaulting other people in the name of one God or another down through the centuries. Indeed, the recent deaths in Paris, tragic though they certainly are, are mild incidents compared with some of the religion-inspired terrorism that took place in historical times. Similarly, and to our shame and sorrow, there is no indication that this kind of thing will ever be wholly resolved. ISIS will be defeated, as will Boko Haram but religious zealots and terrorists are an ever-shifting target. When they are slapped down in one place they'll pop up in another.
Mankind, which holds itself up as being the most civilized species on the planet has not, for all its sophistication and technical advances, figured out how to get along. We should have evolved to the point at which we can either agree or at least allow the other guy to go his own way without taking it personally. There is no end in sight to the struggle to curb those who say they are right and everyone else is wrong. This isn't a war, it's just an unending series of barbaric battles. More's the pity.
Brad Franklin is a former political reporter, newscaster and federal government employee in Canada. He is a regular columnist for China's English Salon magazine and lives on Vancouver Island.
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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