How Altruism is Degrading Our Military Capability
Dale Netherton
July 31, 2006
I watched two former military officers on Fox News the other night explain how ground troops were preferable to identify the enemy to avoid civilian casualties. No one mentioned the added danger to ground troops as the focus was on the protection of” innocent civilians”. Knowing the “innocent civilians” could be enemies in disguise didn’t seem to be a significant consideration. This oversight is the result of inculcating altruism into military strategy.
War is an activity that has the potential to obliterate a nation, a people or a political system. It is not an activity that can elevate compassion to a higher priority than victory. When an enemy will use any weapon or any tactic to achieve victory, fighting that enemy requires a recognition of this fact. When an altruistic concern for the “poor innocents” becomes a priority that endangers friendly troops, this hamstrings the effectiveness and the motivation of the war effort.
Had the concern with innocent civilians been the focus in the war with Japan and had we invaded with ground troops to “look the enemy in the eye” and try to minimize enemy civilian casualties estimates were we would have lost up to a million allied soldiers. Not only would that have been morally wrong but it would have drug out the war, drained our readiness and weakened our stature as a super power. A super power unwilling to use super power is only a paper tiger waiting for a challenge from every tin horn dictator that wants to topple us. Even though we did use the atom bomb, subsequent dictatorial thugs have seen our foreign policy become more and more appeasing and this has encouraged them to see how many of our buttons they can push. The bragging and threats are not the result of tough and immediate reaction by our government , but the timidity and compromising “packages” that make it worthwhile to stir up trouble with the expectation we will buy off the extortionists. Time and again we have fought wars without an expectation that our first priority was total and complete victory. We have troops stationed all over the world keeping the peace by patrolling borders of countries that should have been subdued and their regimes deposed. What has it gained us? North Korea is trying to extort concessions from us with a threat of nuclear capability. The Middle East if a hot bed of hate and discontent with many infiltrators into legally elected governments encouraging annihilation of Western culture. What gives these terrorists the notion that they can use such primitive tactics to destroy us? Their knowledge and awareness that we are sacrificial in our foreign policy and our military strategies.
Altruism demands sacrifice. The enemy is so altruistic that they willingly sacrifice their very lives just for the phony promises of the glory of martyrdom. But our altruism requires us to send aid to countries we are fighting, sacrifice our soldiers for the “innocent civilians” in countries we are fighting in, and denounce the treatment of prisoners who were willing to behead our soldiers. It is self interest that needs to be prominent if victory is to be our goal. In a war of survival ,which the war on terror is, compassion and kindness cannot be primaries. The truly innocent are our soldiers fighting to preserve our Western culture with its recognition of the individual rights of citizens. This is in contrast to a barbarian band of thugs wanting a theocracy for servitude and disgrace of those not swearing allegiance to their creed.
It has been repeatedly shown that compromise and appeasement has not brought us closer to peace. The illustration of Israel giving up land for peace shows the real agenda of the terrorist’s aim which they have openly declared. Yet Israel with altruistic ignorance continues to believe the impossible is preferable to recognizing the ruthlessness that the enemy is willing to inflict no matter what the concessions. A crushing defeat is the only lasting road to peace coupled with a declaration that should there be any movement toward aggression an instant response will be initiated. Any hope of compromise and concession or appeasement will only invite another attempt to start the same old tactics of desperation and destruction.
Altruism is an underexposed deadly moral code that is not only false and destructive, but disarming and used to justify the wars of the ages. Any remnants of this code mixed in any way with the morality of self interest undercuts effective human action. This can be shown whether it be in business, education, politics or the military. For victory is not a compromise or a sacrifice. It is a win. And we need to win. We have no other alternative if we are to survive as civilized people.
War is an activity that has the potential to obliterate a nation, a people or a political system. It is not an activity that can elevate compassion to a higher priority than victory. When an enemy will use any weapon or any tactic to achieve victory, fighting that enemy requires a recognition of this fact. When an altruistic concern for the “poor innocents” becomes a priority that endangers friendly troops, this hamstrings the effectiveness and the motivation of the war effort.
Had the concern with innocent civilians been the focus in the war with Japan and had we invaded with ground troops to “look the enemy in the eye” and try to minimize enemy civilian casualties estimates were we would have lost up to a million allied soldiers. Not only would that have been morally wrong but it would have drug out the war, drained our readiness and weakened our stature as a super power. A super power unwilling to use super power is only a paper tiger waiting for a challenge from every tin horn dictator that wants to topple us. Even though we did use the atom bomb, subsequent dictatorial thugs have seen our foreign policy become more and more appeasing and this has encouraged them to see how many of our buttons they can push. The bragging and threats are not the result of tough and immediate reaction by our government , but the timidity and compromising “packages” that make it worthwhile to stir up trouble with the expectation we will buy off the extortionists. Time and again we have fought wars without an expectation that our first priority was total and complete victory. We have troops stationed all over the world keeping the peace by patrolling borders of countries that should have been subdued and their regimes deposed. What has it gained us? North Korea is trying to extort concessions from us with a threat of nuclear capability. The Middle East if a hot bed of hate and discontent with many infiltrators into legally elected governments encouraging annihilation of Western culture. What gives these terrorists the notion that they can use such primitive tactics to destroy us? Their knowledge and awareness that we are sacrificial in our foreign policy and our military strategies.
Altruism demands sacrifice. The enemy is so altruistic that they willingly sacrifice their very lives just for the phony promises of the glory of martyrdom. But our altruism requires us to send aid to countries we are fighting, sacrifice our soldiers for the “innocent civilians” in countries we are fighting in, and denounce the treatment of prisoners who were willing to behead our soldiers. It is self interest that needs to be prominent if victory is to be our goal. In a war of survival ,which the war on terror is, compassion and kindness cannot be primaries. The truly innocent are our soldiers fighting to preserve our Western culture with its recognition of the individual rights of citizens. This is in contrast to a barbarian band of thugs wanting a theocracy for servitude and disgrace of those not swearing allegiance to their creed.
It has been repeatedly shown that compromise and appeasement has not brought us closer to peace. The illustration of Israel giving up land for peace shows the real agenda of the terrorist’s aim which they have openly declared. Yet Israel with altruistic ignorance continues to believe the impossible is preferable to recognizing the ruthlessness that the enemy is willing to inflict no matter what the concessions. A crushing defeat is the only lasting road to peace coupled with a declaration that should there be any movement toward aggression an instant response will be initiated. Any hope of compromise and concession or appeasement will only invite another attempt to start the same old tactics of desperation and destruction.
Altruism is an underexposed deadly moral code that is not only false and destructive, but disarming and used to justify the wars of the ages. Any remnants of this code mixed in any way with the morality of self interest undercuts effective human action. This can be shown whether it be in business, education, politics or the military. For victory is not a compromise or a sacrifice. It is a win. And we need to win. We have no other alternative if we are to survive as civilized people.
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