Raymond J. de Souza: It's time to end the 'endless war' talk
President Donald Trump was positively exultant over the '12 Day War' in Iran. After being badly outwitted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and maneuvered into a war that the United States had sought to avoid for more than twenty years, Trump decided that it was his achievement all along.
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An important achievement it was, and Netanyahu — often criticized in this space — deserves the credit that he is magnanimously sharing with Trump. After 46 years of spreading misery and mayhem, no tears are being shed for the mullahs in Tehran and their arc of mercenary proxies in the region.
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The Americans were in Iran for less than twelve hours of the twelve days. They could have taken a more leisurely approach if they wished, the Israelis having cleared Iranian airspace of any potential incoming fire. After the stealth bombers did their business, the air force could have put on an aerobatic show. If it were a NATO exercise, the Snowbirds could have made an appearance. With defense spending set to rise to 5 per cent of GDP, the Snowbirds may well become ubiquitous.
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The reason for the '12 Day War' branding exercise — Trump's commemorative crypto coin may soon be issued — is to answer the part of his MAGA coalition that in the name of opposing 'endless wars' seems to oppose all military action.
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The folly of the folks who oppose 'endless wars' — does anyone support them? — is that they have misdiagnosed the problem, which is not that the wars are 'endless.' It is that the aftermath has no proper end in mind. War is usually the easier part; it is the post-war part that can be much more difficult.
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Consider that last month, amidst celebrations of the 80th anniversary of VE day, no one lamented that American forces are still in Europe. Had in 1946 — the year Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Donald Trump were born — someone predicted that the president would command dozens of military installations in Germany even four score years later, it might have been considered that an 'endless war' was afoot.
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The Korean War began 75 years ago this week. American forces are still there. Are Germany and South Korea not better off than Vietnam, which American forces departed from fifty years ago?
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The reason that Trump is more exultant than Netanyahu is because the latter has a longer attention span, and also a better sense of history. Israel has won swift victories before. It won one in Gaza in 1967. But if there is no effective plan after the victory, a short war can give rise to endless turmoil. See also Lebanon 1982.
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The spectre of Afghanistan and Iraq is the perfervid cry of the 'endless war' folks. Yet, in both cases the intensive war phase was relatively short. Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln in May 2003 to declare 'major combat operations' in Iraq concluded. The fiasco that followed was not because the war was too long, but that the commitment to the aftermath was too short.
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