Great wars have gone but terrorist attacks are here to stay

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9: This year, Remembrance Day falls on 11/11/11. There’s nothing ultra-special about that, just a quirk in the calendar.

But, for the millions of soldiers who died in what was then called the Great War, it’s a quirk they’d never experience. Of course, only a rare few would have lived this long anyhow.

The sad thing about that long ago time of 11am on 11th November 1918 was that a few people really did believe that there would no longer be wars of that magnitude ever again.

However, just 21 years later, in September 1939, an even greater war got underway. 

In 2011, some 93 years after the end of WWl, and 66 years after the end of WWll, it does seem possible that the era or time of huge global shooting wars is over.

Perhaps the era really ended when Intercontinental Ballistic or Guided missiles that could span the globe reached their apotheosis thereby assuring that no war-starting nation could defend itself against its own major or minor — is there is such a fate? — obliteration.

Since the turn of this century, it seems that small-scale terrorism with large-scale objectives is the new method of waging war.

It also seems that in today’s global village, the most-developed countries have so connected and inter-connected themselves that there are no longer any clear guidelines as to which country is a mortal enemy of another.

Quasi-communist China a mortal enemy of the USA?  Hardly likely. China and the USA are, quite literally, in each other’s pockets.  China’s hoard of US dollars means that China needs to make sure that super-power USA doesn’t implode economically; and that the world trades and creates wealth and does not make war.

Possible wars

Israel going to war to take out Iran’s developing nuclear capability? Possible, but about as unwise as President Kennedy’s ill-fated ‘Bay of Pigs’ venture. 

Israel refusing to agree — ultimately — to a Palestinian State? Foolhardy, given Israel’s increasing isolation as the ‘Arab Spring’ continues its rippling rise.

In all, it seems to me that the era of massive military wars on the scale of WWl and WWll is over.

It seems to me that we are already in a new era of terrorist wars where small bands can strike with more immediate impact than even a nuclear strike. This has happened already. It happened on 9/11.

On that day, 19 men disrupted the whole of the USA, drove the US President underground, took every airplane out of the US skies, and shut down almost all US commerce for one day. Just as if there had been a strategic nuclear strike by hundreds of nuclear-tipped missiles.

In other countries, gangs of ill-disciplined gunmen in some sort of ragtag uniform run amok and shoot, kill, and rape as if there is no law or consequence. For now, the world stands by and allows this behaviour.

But no longer does there seem to be the capacity, the will, or even the desire for any large number of countries to join together in order to wage war on the scale last seen in 1939-1945 and before that in 1914-1918.

The sustained NATO fighter-bomber involvement in Libya was hedged about with all sorts of restrictions, and it only proceeded after reasoned debate and the granting of permissions in the United Nations.

On this 11/11/11, I don’t think that I or the world has seen the end of war. However, I do think that we have seen the end of great wars.