The tyranny of chaos

In writing yesterday's essay where I referred to a quote by Martin Luther, I came across a number of other good quotes.

In a recent debate with a pro-war reader on the Iraq Aggression, I used the phrase 'dictatorship of chaos' to describe the situation there. I think I should've used the 'tyranny of chaos' but the main point remains unaffected.

One of the worst self-delusions people make when going to war is that noble objectives render irrelevant the disastrous consequences that are inevitable in any war. Those disastrous consequences being destruction, death and displacement.

In other words, innocent people will necessarily lose their lives, homes and livelihoods. Simply having something called a democratically elected will not reverse those things.

This reader mocked my use of the phrase 'dictatorship of chaos.' "Where the hell did that come from?" he asked.

I've lived near two warzones, have visited a refugee camp and have friends who've fled warzones, so referring to the chaos as a type of tyranny seems completely self-evident to me.

Maybe it's not tyranny for the guys with the guns, though I suspect it is to some extent. But I've said it a million times: it's not the guys with the guns who are most destroyed by war.

Saddam Hussein was recently sentenced to death for his role in killing 148 people in a village in 1982.

In Iraq, over 150,000 civilians have lost their lives since the beginning of the aggression. That's according to the official Iraqi minister of health; other sources put the figure much higher.

In Saddam can be punished for the deaths of 148 people, who will be held accountable for a death count more than ONE HUNDRED TIMES HIGHER (and counting) in the current unnecessary aggressive war of choice?

There is a specious moral distinction made between intentional killing and pursuing a course of action which will inevitably lead to the deaths of innocent people.

What it boils down to is this: In deciding whether to go to war, one must take into account the unintended consequences, not just the intended ones.

Living conditions have deteroriated rapidly since the beginning of the aggression. Not since 1979 or some distant date, but since 2003. Not that things were great under Saddam, but things have gotten worse since his departure. This can be demonstrated with measurable statistics, which are more concrete to me than self-interested government pronouncements or second-hand stories from well-meaning troops in the field; policy by anecdote is always a bad idea.

So people are no longer dying because the government ordered their deaths. But they are dying because they don't have clean drinking water or modest medical care, things that had been previously available. What's the difference? Dead is dead.

If you die from a bullet wound, does it really matter if the shooter was targetting you or not? Whether you die from organized state violence or random, chaotic violence, what's the difference? There aren't different degrees of being dead.

This quote I found says it all:

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?" -Gandhi




Here are some other quotes I came across regarding war and the lust for war.

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." - George Washington

"Nothing good ever comes of violence." -Martin Luther

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official..." -Theodore Roosevelt

"The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all." -Tacitus

"Peace is constructed, not fought for." -Brent Davis

"The worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being." -Ellen Key

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -James Madison

"Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. " -James Madison

"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." -James Madison

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." -George Orwell (the American version of the nationalist being called the patriot).

"It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them." -Alfred Adler