Excuses For War
Why are we so interested in Afghanistan? Isn't it just a pile of rocks? The average wage in that country is only $350 per year, yet look at all the people that tried to conquer that country. What would you say if I told you that Afghanistan is a very rich country and it has been kept a secret? I know what you would say, you would say that I had a screw loose. Well it is a very rich country and I do not have a screw loose. It turns out that there are trillions of dollars worth of rare minerals in that country, and the American public never suspected it. The U.N. Has just released a report verifying this fact. Here we are, fighting there and losing soldiers and we were wondering why. We had been told that we were fighting terrorists. Well that sounded good and could have been partially true, but could the real reason be that American companies are chafing at the bit to start digging out those ores?
Battleship Maine For every reason we are told for why we are doing something, there always seems to be an alternate reason that might be true. An example of this was why we got into World War II. Some say that Roosevelt just couldn't wait to help crush the Germans. The conspiracy is said to go even further, it is said that Roosevelt knew the Japanese were going to attack and Pearl Harbor was set up in such a way as to attract the attack, because we knew that the Germans would declare war when the Japanese attacked. We also are said to have known that we could beat the Japanese and drive them back and we were getting worried about the way they were spreading out and taking resources. We didn't know however that it would be so hard to do. There is no way to verify this, but there are little clues here and there. One of them was a statement by Churchill. He was surprised at how Roosevelt wanted to get into the war.The Spanish American War really didn't have anything to do with the explosion of the Battleship Maine, according to many. It is said that we knew that the Spanish didn't blow it up. The real cause of the explosion was said to be an undetected fire in one of the coal bunkers. The ship had been sent to Havana harbor to protect our interests during the Cuban revolt against Spain. Here was a chance to for us to use public opinion, which blamed the Spanish, to acquire different territories that were owned by the Spanish. We knew that the Spanish were no match for us.
Crusades Actually making up excuses for wars is not a new game. It has been going on for thousands of years. It was much easier to do in ancient times because who would dare question an emperor or king? It was also easier to go to war because most of the time no excuse was necessary, the monarchy just did what they wanted. The crusades were a great example of making an excuse to declare war. The reason was supposed to be to make the passage to Jerusalem safe for Christians, because the Turks were now in power over the routes. The real reason is that it was believed that untold riches waited for those who were brave enough to take them. The proof of this is that even the homes of the Christians in many areas were looted without regard for their religion. A second reason for the crusade was the fact that the pope at the time had promised the soldiers a plenary indulgence that would shorten their time in purgatory and for some that was the only reason that they were there. At the beginning of World War II Hitler had made an excuse that he wanted to reunite all German speaking people. As we all know the truth was that he wanted to really conquer the world.
Napoleon Napoleon invaded many countries under the guise of spreading the French Revolution. He was very successful in many of them. He even took over the papal states in Italy. Was he really interested in creating a revolutionary government? According to many historians his aims were really to conquer all of Europe and then the rest of the world. We can see this when he even went into Africa. He had invaded Egypt and Syria. The idea was to protect trade routes that he wanted to use. This did not work out for him because the local opposition combined with British naval power was just too much for him. Not all wars have excuses however. When Persia demanded that the Greek states become submissive to it, most of them did and hardly noticed any difference. Sparta and Athens did not, because it is thought that they valued their freedom over their lives and their views of Persia was that of a brutal tyrant. They refused Persian control even though they knew that a vast army was coming to conquer them. The system of government would have been destroyed if both Athens and Sparta had they submitted. World War I had its excuses. Supposedly one of those excuses was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by Serbian Black Hand terrorists in Sarajevo. Isn't it amazing how there are always problems in that part of the world? Many historians ask the question of why this event wasn't dealt with differently? We Americans never entered a world war when our presidents were assassinated. The truth of the matter was that World War I was a battle over territory. Expansionism and nationalism were big causes. There had even been several other troubling events before the assassination that had been settled without going to war. Excuses, excuses, excuses, there are plenty of those around and it seems that we have more of them than ever. It is getting harder and harder to find the real reasons for what we do, since everything is kept so secret from the general public. All we can hope for is more disclosure by government so that we have a clearer picture of events around us. |
