The Face of the Enemy

Unless we get a wireless connection at our hotel this weekend, this will probably be my last post until I get back from IkkiCon. So, everyone have a great weekend and indulge my returning to a less frivolous subject...

In the movie, 'Crimson Tide', LCDR Hunter (Denzel Washington's character) comments that 'in the nuclear world, the real enemy is war itself'. This comes at a point in the movie where the ship's officers are also discussing Von Clausewitz and his maxim that war is the continuation of politics through other means. In times past, and perhaps even the recent past, these maxims were appropriate, though I think Hunter's assessment is the truest for the post-nuclear, ideological world. As someone who has read Karl von Clausewitz, his work, while still quoted by military historians far and wide, is dated, more appropriate for the 18th and 19th century, when war was a little more personal. By time the horrors of the 20th century permeated our consciousness, the idea of personal war was more or less laughable; however, the nature of war has changed once more.

To me, war has become less the instrument of politics and more the instrument of ideology. Now, some may lump ideology into politics, and that is well, but more and more war has transcended the idea of borders into what we see today. Perhaps it is the overwhelming images of suicide bombers and insurgencies that makes me see it as such, but I doubt it. Until the 1970's war was fought more or less within the borders of the nations that were fighting the war. Now, it can be fought anywhere an idea is threatened or maintained.

What, then, does this mean for the future? Perhaps the maxim should now be, 'war is the continuation of ideology through other means' since politics cannot completely contain (and we have seen that far too often) ideas, for good or ill. So, maybe the new face of the enemy is not war itself, but the idea that war can shape ideology and push traditional politics and methodology of war aside. Clearly, this is evident in many of the current crises around the globe, and will likely continue to remain so until something replaces the wars of ideas.

I am really not so sure how much sense I make, but simply some random thoughts I had today about the nature of war and I wanted to put them to page in case I lost them. I am not so much treating this as theory so much as a musing on the subject.

C.