contempt

As tribes, we fought with as many dirty tactics as could be implemented. Civilization grew and warfare became regimented. Warriors were respected for their power and skill. Each side respected the other. There were times allotted for the battle of the day. Lines were formed, broken, and reformed, but kept a predictable rhythm. Onlookers packed picnic baskets and were entertained by the gunfire and death. That has all changed.

The Americans defeated the British with primitive guerrilla warfare. It was learned from routine battles with disobedient Native tribes. They hid as the British marched in strict lines. They fired at their target with the benefit of stealth. The British looked upon this as uncivilized, but had to admit to its effectiveness. Even then, each nation had respect for the other.

World War II brought American forces into a dual war. The fighting against Germany was European, while the fighting against the Japanese took on a life of its own. America was fighting an unseen enemy in terrain they hadn’t yet encountered. Jungles, volcanoes, and beaches, were all difficult battlefields. But the worst part of the war with Japan was not their tactics, it was the disappearance of their identity.

The Japanese were seen as a faceless, unified enemy. The evidence of this was in our propaganda and confining them to concentration camps across the nation. Even decades after the war was ended, we have a social divide. Our relationship, unlike in wars previous, did not rebound. It was one of the victors and the defeated. Our history skims past the hardships of the Japanese and our delayed involvement, but emphasizes and exaggerates our heroism.

In all the wars since, at least from an American perspective, the enemy has been demonized. The common ground has been shifted. It may have once been level, but that is no longer the case. Now we can torture our captives, vandalize the dead, and reduce civilians to numbers on a chart without remorse.

America doesn’t take the time to understand the enemy. Their culture is misunderstood and mocked. In Vietnam, the first Iraq War, and the current one, the civilians are terrorized. Soldiers are told that the enemy can be among the masses. They are taught to fear anyone and everyone while being ridiculed for showing fear. They don’t see their enemy as having a purpose. The enemy is merely dirt between the tread of their boots.

I don’t know how we lost respect for our enemies. We haven’t fought a war on our soil in over one hundred forty years. Does that add to our detachment? The threat of our nation being attacked was very real in WWII. Today, it is a grossly exaggerated micro-possibility. Do we see our enemies today as faceless evil simply because we don’t understand them?

This has happened before. There were barbarians described by the Romans. They were without faces. Just a mass of unwashed, uncivilized filth to be looked on with disdain. They infiltrated and destroyed the world’s most powerful empire by exploiting its many flaws. Then they themselves went on to develop the most powerful empires the world has ever seen.

The tactic of defacing the enemy didn’t work for the Romans. Their torture and ruthless destruction of civilians only provided fodder for their defeat. The barbarians recruited easily those that were affected by Roman occupation. They used tribal tactics of dirty war to eat at the Roman’s decaying power. The Romans refused to negotiate or even consider the viewpoint of the barbarians because they lacked the respect to do so.

There can be no resolution without respect. Dehumanizing the enemy only serves selfish purposes. The fact that the enemy is fighting for their lives, their homes, and their families is completely lost. Our forces are already exhausted and stretched beyond their limits. Our economy is faltering on the backs of the ignored poor. The world turned their back on our foolish abstract war. Now that we have lost respect for our enemy, dehumanized them, and misunderstood them, history will repeat itself.