The Real WW IV

This article can be found here.

November 18, 2009.

To some, the war on terror is World War IV, and Bacevich admits that calling it a global war has its benefits, because it’s an easy historical analogy to place the war into in order to incite the attention of the population; but he also finds it to be misleading. One, it ignores the fact that Americans have become more fascinated with the use of military power since Vietnam. Also, calling it WW IV it erases a lot of complicated history that this analogy ignores. Modern society has created a “simplicity” of current historical understandings. For example, history leading up to this war is usually written in three parts: Cold War, Post Cold War, Post 9/11. But the real war began in 1980 under Jimmy Carter. Carter gave a series of speeches talking about what was going on in American society, problems that were much deeper than unemployment. He belived Americans had turned away from what mattered; they now worship consumption. Oil is used to create this “stuff” that we desire so much of, so we constantly want more of the oil in order to satiate this desire. The Carter Doctrine in 1980 called upon the “preservation of the American way of life”. It said we should cut down on the things we buy and go back to other values, like religion. Does “freedom” have to refer solely to economic freedom, the freedom to buy “stuff”? He examines “The Road Not Taken” when America chose the easy route by voting for Reagan over Cater. Doing so allowed them to avoiding the issue of consumerism, and ultimately militarism.
He also cites 2 competing US interests in the MidEast: our increasing oil dependence and our alliance with Israel. He found that the legacy of the 1991 Gulf War had only increased US commitments to this war. Public support for the Iraq War following 9/11 was characterized by "self-induced historical amnesia" and uncritical attitudes toward military power.