the Failure of war by wendell berry

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The Failure Of War By Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry , in his essay `The Failure of War ' claims that `modern war does not work as a solution to any problem except retribution ' and that it promotes a vicious cycle of violence and other social problems Supporters for war will claim that war answers the dilemma of national defense . But the agnostic , in return , will solicit to what level the cost even of a triumphant war of national defense - in life , wealth material

, foods , health , and liberty - may amount to a national overwhelm . National defense by way of war constantly entails some quantity of national defeat . Militarization in defense of freedom downsizes the freedom of the apologists . There is a crucial contradiction between war and freedom

In a contemporary war , fought with modern armaments and on the modern scale , neither side can bound to the adversary ' the harm that it does . These wars ruin the humanity . Modern war has not only made it unworkable to kill opponents ' without massacring non-warriors ' it has made it ineffectual to destroy your foe without spoiling yourself Modern wars have usually been fought to end war they have been fought for the sake of peace . To Berry most appalling weapons have been prepared , seemingly , to maintain and assure the peace of the world All we want is peace ' we utter as we increase inexorably our aptitude to make war . Yet in the last part of a century in which we have fought two combats to end war and numerous more to prevent war and keep peace , and in which scientific and hi-tech evolution has made war ever more horrifying and less manageable , we still , by policy , confer no contemplation to nonviolent approach of national defense . We stick to the discouraging paradox of making peace by producing war

Capital chastisement sinks us all to the same level of primal aggression , at which an act of brutality is rebuked by another deed of aggression . What the justifiers of these feats overlook is the fact - fixed by the history of quarrels steer clear of the history of war - that belligerence raises violence . Operations of violence committed in fairness ' or in assertion of rights ' or in resistance of peace do not impede violence . They set up and justify its prolongation

The most hazardous fallacy of the parties of violence is the notion that endorsed violence can put off or control illegal violence . If we devote to these small irrationalities the enormity of worldwide relations , we make , predictably , a few much larger idiocies . In foreign ' wars , we do not explicitly experience the harm that we wreak upon the rival . We pay monies to sanction the war , but that is nothing new , for we shell out war levies in era of peace as well . Quite the reverse , war is the great solution and opening of our corporate economy , which keeps going and prospers upon war . And thus great costs are engrossed in our fixation on...