Harry Patch and the Futility of War

I have not written in a while because of personal reasons but I thought I would write a quick note to honour Harry Patch, the last combat veteran of the First World War. Now those who know me know that I am not in the habit of paying tribute to soldiers and have always been vehemently anti-war. But Harry Patch was one of those rare men who had served in war but was willing to speak out against war and was even willing to suggest that soldiers are little more than pawns in the political games of the state. This is particularly important because few people are willing these days to speak out against WWI, a ridiculous war of Western Imperialism. With this in mind he made sure that there were no weapons (even ceremonial weapons) at his funeral and the anti-war song Where Have All the Flowers Gone was sung at his funeral. It really must have angered men like Tony Blair and Stephen Harper who, despite their transparent rhetoric, love war and are turned on by the idea of Western Nations imposing their will on others. 

We truly are a wretched race who let devils in suits systematically destroy the hopes of human dignity. But Harry Patch spoke out with historically significant credibility. Thanks  Harry . . . Rest in Peace. 

Remembrance Day

Remembrance/Veterans Day, has always been a holiday that has deeply troubled me. My feelings of unease stem largely from the fact that I believe the vast majority of wars have been entirely unnecessary and they have been instigated by a ruling elite for the primary reasons of increasing their wealth and power. These elites have consistently convinced average people that the military cause is, for one reason or another, noble and altruistic. So average people pay for the wars and fight the wars, while the rich and powerful seldom fight and make huge profits. Remembrance day continues to pay tribute to soldiers who died supposedly protecting some noble cause, but they actually died to pad the pockets of people who never do the fighting or dying. The First World War is the greatest case in point. WWI was really nothing short of a conflict for colonial power between the ruling-classes of various European nations and yet we celebrate it as though it were divinely inspired.

I have seen hundreds of war memorials over the years in a number of countries but I don’t remember seeing a single one that honours the millions of innocent people that have been killed who couldn’t or wouldn’t fight and have been the real victims of war. This is because, whether we want to admit it or not, our culture, like most cultures, is enamoured by the whole idea of military conflict. We think there is something inherently beautiful, romantic, and splendid about being a soldier and we celebrate war constantly. Organized sports, so prevalent in our society, is really just a glorification of military conflict in a more palatable and acceptable form. The uniformed soldiers of sports are like battalions in war who train like soldiers are organized like soldiers and go into ‘sudden death’ if there is no clear winner. Civilizations like the Romans understood this and made no pretence about the nature of organized sport. No one wants to remember the civilians and non-combatants with memorials even though these people didn’t volunteer and have been, by far, the largest group that have suffered in war. I honour those few veterans who actually want to remember war only so that we don’t make the same mistakes again. But I have seen very few veterans, particularly in Canada, who have been activists against war. Most of them seem to say that they abhor war but are the first ones to rally around the flag in the cause of another, usually neo-colonial, military effort.

Today I call on everyone to remember the millions of innocent people, many of them children, who have died because most men can’t grow-up and still want to play soldier and are willing to kill for the benefit of men like Dick Cheney who are multimillionaires because they start wars with no regard for suffering of others. For those of us who really oppose war, let us reclaim Remembrance day for the real victims of war and mourn our aggressive nature that allows us to be led by A-type men who, though they would never admit it publicly, secretly love war.

Lessons from the past

The other day I was looking through the August 25, 1915 edition of Punch, the great English magazine, and I happened across an article, obviously meant to be satirical, entitled Phases of a Year of War (From a Patriot’s notebook). I was immediately struck by the opening entry in this imaginary diary which read as follows: "Aug. 1914 – War declared. Rather startling. Imagine that it will be a tremendous business, involving great changes even in my obscure life. Am, forever, at once agreeably surprised by the reassuring battle-cry, ‘Business as Usual.’ The war is to be won, apparently, by our taking no notice of it, thus causing an immense feeling of depression among the enemy.”

It seems that the contemporary spin on war, which we have so ruthlessly experienced over the past 6 or 7 years, had its start a few generations ago. It seems that the leaders in Britain were already perfecting the art of propaganda in a way that Carl Rove and George Bush would be proud of. Or should we call it the art of ‘un-propaganda?” Because what this notebook from so many years ago really points to is the art of promoting indifference. Already at the beginning of WWI, politicians were encouraging their populations to ignore the war as much as possible and go about their ‘Business as Usual.’ Does everyone remember the days immediately following the events of September 11th the literal way in which the Bush administration applied the very same idea? Bush greeted frightened Americans and told them to go shopping as a response to their troubles. And in the years since then the Western Governments have done everything in their power to compel us to continue on with our business as usual and ignore the devastating conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people. Just as this anonymous writer in Punch eighty years ago noticed that the government was encouraging him to ignore the war, our governments, with tremendous help from the media, has done everything in its power to divert our attention from its terrible cause. Of course, nowadays our governments are smart enough not even to declare war, thereby making it even easier to go about our business with little or no concern for the raging conflict.

Anyway, lest we forget how long the rich and powerful have been encouraging our forgetfulness just pick up an eighty year old magazine to remind you that there is little new under the middle-eastern sun.

Success in War

March30th 2008
It is remarkable that even the majority of people who speak out against the war in Iraq voice their opposition within what is essentially a Western, Militarist paradigm. There has been plenty of opposition to the war but most of what I hear addresses the misinformation leading up to the war, certain fundamental mistakes made during initial months of the war, and a general lack of knowledge on the part of the United States concerning the nature of Iraqi society in general. Within this paradigm is commonplace to say that the war was a mistake and a failure. However, the war in Iraq can only be seen to be a failure and a mistake if you follow what is basically an American and militarist analysis. But I contend that the war was in no way a mistake and has been largely a complete success. I say this because I believe that the United States did not invade Iraq for any of the reason which are stated publicly and accepted by the majority of people. The US was not concerned about weapons of mass-destruction (Hanz Blix, the very man sent by the UN to investigate the weapons was the most vocally sceptical about their existence). Democracy was certainly not a US concern (the US supported Hussan’s dictatorship for years and continues to support dictatorships throughout the region.) Battling Islamic radicalism was not the issue (Iraq was hardly a hotbed of Islamic radicalism and if the US was truly interesting in undermining the constituency of Radical Islam they would settle the Palestinian issue because that would surely have the greatest impact on the growth of this ideology). The reasons for the war in Iraq are the same motivations for almost every war in history: money and power. War is business. The rich and powerful execute wars for very simple reasons: to increase their wealth and power. Analysed within this paradigm the war in Iraq has in fact been a roaring success. The military/industrial complex was feeling the end of the cold-war more than most people are willing to admit. The invasion of the middle-east has renewed the power and profits of the military/industrial complex and made billions of dollars for men like George Bush and Dick Cheney. Furthermore, recent events have guarantied this power and these profits for decades to come. The war in Iraq has been an incredible success because the reasons for the war have played out exactly like the rich and powerful men who instigated it had hoped. The resistance that the US has met with is perfect for Haliburton and Lockheed-Martin. The Iraqi resistance keeps the corporations busy and keeps the dollars flowing. Just as has so often occurred in history, the rich and powerful started a war in their own interests and convinced the majority of people to wave the flag and support it. How sad and pathetic is this? If ever there was an example of false consciousness this is it. We must stop lamenting that the invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake and a woeful failure – and start talking about how sad it is that it has been a remarkable success.

Poetry and War

Poets must be experts at remembering, but also at forgetting. But while remembering seems to be an infinitely complex web of construction and forgetting appears to be a simple act, things are not what they seem. Forgetting is much more complicated than remembering, just as thinking is always easier than non-thinking. Remembering has its own momentum and moves like a stone rolling down a hill. Forgetting requires the immeasurably difficult act of stopping the stone of remembering with mental power. The stone is most obviously visible in the ferocious momentum of war. The desire to go to war is a habit of history whose source is our inability to forget. Yet we are surprised each time a generation seems almost glad to go war. But the warriors are just remembering, and unavoidably being run over by the stone.