….THE FOLLY OF WAR?
Last week British troops finally pulled out of Northern Ireland a fter 38 years. It was the longest military operation in UK history. 
During the many visits I have made over the years to Northern Ireland, the main thing I observed was that the British military was never very effective at dealing with IRA terror.
In the end, after thousands of deaths and many more maimed, the conflict was brought to a conclusion- not by military means at all- but by diplomacy. Hard, long, diplomatic slogging, led by an American 
intermediary by the name of George Mitchell.
It took more than 2 years of enterprising and persistent diplomatic work by Senator Mitchell to end almost 40 years of military failure.
It also took a little humility on the part of some of the fiercest partisans in that nasty little conflict. Those included the former IRA man Gerry Adams and the Protestant religious extremist Ian Paisley. In fact it was Paisley’s toxic religious fanaticism that had as much to do with prolonging the conflict as the terrorist violence perpetrated by the IRA.
Nevertheless, the military action solved nothing.
Northern Ireland ought to serve as an enduring model and example of why attempts at military solutions to nationalist conflicts almost always fail. They are especially useless in situations where the "enemy" lives amongst the people and often enjoys their support and protection.
Military action as a means of defeating an enemy failed miserably in Vietnam, where the United States machine was sent packing by small men and women wearing pajamas.
Similarly it is failing in Iraq, where it has, for all intents and purposes, destroyed that country.
And it is failing in Afghanistan where the Americans and NATO forces are killing far too many civilians and turning the population against the invaders.
It’s difficult to say when our political leaders will recognize the stupidity of using military tools to build a country out of the Afghan chaos. It simply will not work. In fact, it is detstroying not just the lives of Afghani’s, it is destroying the lives of our own people in more ways than one.
As you read this, NATO soldiers are able to buy whatever drug of choice they wish…the poppies are growing at a greater rate than ever. Heroin production is expanding exponentially. We are losing on all fronts. It’s not the fault of our soldiers, though. The fault lies at the feet of the misguided men who sent them.
When will our political leaders come to their senses? (the film at the link was made in 2004, thousands of lives ago – it’s worth watching)
Thank you for including the video. It was a visceral reminder of the first time I realized the cost and waste of war.
When I was 14 my father took me to Changi Cemetery. The rows and rows and rows of crosses, so symmetrical, in their way, so beautiful. The view from the entry was quite amazing.
Then we started walking through the cemetery, reading the inscriptions. All those young men, 18, 19, 20. The officers, 21, 22. Even at 14 I knew that they were far too young to have died.
And the unmarked graves.
I was horrified in the way that only a 14 year old can be.
In Singapore that summer there were young Americans ans Australians on R&R or on their way to Viet Nam. I saw crosses for each one of them.
And started to believe, as I continue to believe, that war is never, ever, a solution. Never.