An Odd Idea: America Must Lose This War
By James T. Moore (08/07/07)
A stunning statement, I admit. But I believe you'll find it rates some serious soul searching.
I don’t know Jack Lessenberry from Adam. I am even less acquainted with Gwynne Dyer. But I must tell you this: I have read what both these men have to say, and what they say is so incredibly logical that it begs to be presented to you for your consideration. So here it is.
Lessenberry is a reporter for the Metro Times. In that capacity he has investigated and written about what Gwynne Dyer says concerning the Iraqi war. Dyer is a historian who has written and produced a spell-binding documentary series about the nature of war. And he should know. In his long military career, Dyer has served in three navies—America’s, Canada’s, and Great Britain’s. He has university degrees from all three countries, and a Ph.D in military and Middle Eastern history. So a neophyte, dumbbell, or kook, he is not.
Dyer says: “The United States needs to lose this war in Iraq, and lose it as soon as possible. Even more urgently, the whole world needs the U.S. to lose the war in Iraq. What is at stake here is the way we run the world for the next generation or more, and really bad things will happen if we get it wrong.”
The reason for this, Dyer claims, is that we have yet to grasp that we are no longer living in the old superpower world, i.e. us against communism. Our present military can, in fact, be effective only against weaker countries. War with a “serious” opponent would lead to casualties that the U.S. public would not tolerate for long.
What we need is not war, but a stable international order wherein nations use alternative methods to settle their differences. This was tried 60 years. It was called the United Nations, which is, in spite of its socialistic tendencies and internal scandals, is still meritorious in its “no wars” principles and ideals. Problem is, Dyer reminds us, this administration “spits on this idea” and in defiance of the United Nations, openly declares America’s right to intervene unilaterally anywhere in the world we want.
This has a disastrous downside. First, we will lose what credibility we have left as a "peaceful" nation. Second, other nations will feel justified in attempting to do the same thing: solve problems with the sword. Third, if America, the world’s greatest power, becomes a “rogue” state, other nations may have no choice but to follow suit, and that will kill any chance for future international order and peace.
This scenario, of being on a “perpetual war” footing, is particularly dangerous for America in yet another important way: our economy, which is now almost totally dependent on foreign investments.
You don’t, of course, hear anything about this in the “controlled” media, but we are now the biggest debtor (to foreign nations) in history, and running up $500 billion more every year on our “credit card.” This goes on, Dyer says, because it’s a confidence trick based on everybody else’s false perception that “the United States is centrally important for the world’s security, and our economy is centrally important for the world economy.”
It may have once been true, but no more. Foreign investments in America total approximately $8 trillion dollars. If those investments were suddenly withdrawn and moved elsewhere the value of our dollar would be cut in half overnight. And, in an arbitrary “doomsday” assessment, Dyer’s final observation is that this could well precipitate the end of democracy in this country, and America as a constitutional republic. What would then follow is too horrible to contemplate.
And just think, all this can happen, because we’re playing the world’s tough guy and refusing to get out of Iraq.
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