Howard Zinn: War Is Not A Solution For Terrorism

[kpete]

War is not a solution for terrorism
Howard Zinn
September 2, 2006

THERE IS SOMETHING important to be learned from the recent experience of the United States and Israel in the Middle East: that massive military attacks, inevitably indiscriminate, are not only morally reprehensible, but useless in achieving the stated aims of those who carry them out.

The United States, in three years of war, which began with shock-and-awe bombardment and goes on with day-to-day violence and chaos, has been an utter failure in its claimed objective of bringing democracy and stability to Iraq. The Israeli invasion and bombing of Lebanon has not brought security to Israel; indeed it has increased the number of its enemies, whether in Hezbollah or Hamas or among Arabs who belong to neither of those groups.

I remember John Hersey's novel, ``The War Lover," in which a macho American pilot, who loves to drop bombs on people and also to boast about his sexual conquests, turns out to be impotent. President Bush, strutting in his flight jacket on an aircraft carrier and announcing victory in Iraq, has turned out to be much like the Hersey character, his words equally boastful, his military machine impotent.

The history of wars fought since the end of World War II reveals the futility of large-scale violence. The United States and the Soviet Union, despite their enormous firepower, were unable to defeat resistance movements in small, weak nations -- the United States in Vietnam, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan -- and were forced to withdraw.

more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/02/war_is_not_a_solution_for_terrorism/

[PresidentWar]

1. Been a fan of Zinn's since "A Peoples' History of The United States"

He's brilliant. A great book end to Chomsky.

[CollegeDUer]

2. His recent work I haven't found as powerful as the previous work

But he is always a master storyteller and historian, and he still has a better grasp on truth than his counterparts in the mainstream media.

[demigoddess]

3. he is right, terrorism cannot be fought with guns and democracy has to be

earned and fought for to achieve. On the other hand, he is wrong about *. * is impotent and probably always has been, in more ways than one.

[knowbody0]

4. and the French in Algiers

the big bullies always lose.