The Changing of the Seasons of War

In many ways, life moves along like the seasons. There are distinct phases and general characteristics of the stages like snow in winter and a beating sun in the summer. One cannot often tell when one season begins and another ends. However, it is clear when one is in the ‘thick of it’ while shoveling snow or raking leaves. The exact inflection point usually cannot be discerned until one looks back and reflects upon the past.

So it is, I believe, with politics. Specifically, I believe we are seeing the transition from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan from a Republican or Bush venture into one of the Democratic Party and Obama. Just as the Vietnam War was begun by Democratic president Lyndon Johnson, the war was inherited by the Republicans and Nixon upon his election and shortly became a Republican war. With that transition, the opposition to the war moved from the Right to the Left even though both were intellectually apologetic for the war.

Today’s conflicts are those in Iraq and Afghanistan (and to some extent Pakistan). What began as a Republican war and one in which the GOP defended with passion has now become a Democratic war. George Will’s departure from the last seven years of rhetoric from the Republican Party will, in my view, be seen as the inflection point.

Soon after Will’s piece (to which he was attacked by many on the Right not yet ready to cede the war to Obama) the National Review published a piece saying maybe it was time to end the military’s occupation. The Right, with the passing of executive power and the military to the Left, has begun to intellectually leave its defense of the war behind.

Over the next months I suspect you will begin to hear more calls from the Right to look at exit strategies and calculate the costs that the wars are continuing to rack up. It will become increasingly critical of the military strategy and nation building. It will question the wisdom of occupying forces or spreading democracy at the end of a gun. And the Left will defend the conflict until it finds a politically acceptable exit strategy.

Make no mistake, this will not be a struggle that reflects a change in identity of either the Right or Left. Both sides are more than happy to express military supremacy around the world with only slight twists on their motivations. There is no ‘anti-war party’ unless one looks away from the Democrats and Republicans. Both enjoy the power of the state when they hold the reins.

As we watch the passing of the seasons and the transition from a Right-wing to Left-wing war it is important for those of us who abhor war and its destruction to reflect on how to prevent its rise again. The anti-war on the Right will have the next opportunity to change the face of a major political party. The anti-war Left failed to change the philosophy of the Democrats when they had a Republican war. Now it is the time to begin thinking of how to change the Republican Party into the anti-war party and end the cycle.

This is why it is important to watch the weather. In my view we clearly have the beginning of hostility within the Republican ranks towards the use of the military. We must seize upon this opportunity and convince as many of the rank and file about the shortcomings of unfettered executive power, a failure to heed the Constitution’s declaration of war provision, and the maintenance of a large standing army with bases all over the world (and funding it with fiat dollars).

It is quite possible that this ‘window’ to push for a return to the Constitution and a smaller military will be a short one. Perhaps in 2012 the GOP will once again hold the power. So for those in the GOP ranks we might have only a few years to convince our fellow activists to question what an appropriate role for the military should be.

So let us not hesitate to promote the Constitution and question our military presence all around the world. This is not a time to move slow. It is time to push for a return to the foreign policy of most of our Founding Fathers; one of a humble nation that leads by example not force.

It is time to roll up the sleeves and get to work. The seasons are swift and if you wait too long you’ll find yourself wearing shorts in a snowstorm and lamenting another missed opportunity.

Comments

[Georg Thomas]

I think you are making a very important point, Eric.

And its validity transcends the important war issue.

If the Republicans (or indeed other political forces, including Democrats willing to learn and change) do not move to fundamentally different positions (on war, the need of free markets, free-market-based medical care, the sanctity of the rule of law etc.) their return to power will be nothging but a return to the status quo that has America in its present mess.

The excesses of Obama may give rise to Republican complacency - there are signs of it in the health care debate - as if the Republican favoured status quo were anything to endorse.

[Brutus]

Great article, Eric. Thanks.