The army of the United States of America is no doubt the most equipped and most responsive army in the world. In 1775, the second continental congress passed a law that officially created what was then regarded as the continental army (Maslowski, 2007). According to Maslowski (2007), the continental army had been created for the sole purpose of protecting the 13 colonies and it consisted of 22,000 militia troops in Boston and an additional 5000 in New York. Moreover, the army was supposed to provide professional soldiers in the American revolutionary war against the invading British. Over the years, the global influence of the US has grown significantly. During this period , the country has been involved in numerous wars and conflicts that have not only lead to the loss of lives of thousands of people in the army but have left on their way a trail of destruction and extreme poverty in the countries in which they were waged. This paper assesses the series of perpetual wars that America has been engaged in and the effects it has had on American people. In addition, it seeks to link these wars that seemingly do not result in clear victories to operational inefficiencies in the army.
Lovell (2019) compares these wars to rituals in a cult, and to be specific he likens these wars that America has been engaged in, to the flower wars that took place in Aztec Empire. The wars by the Aztecs which lasted for more than fifty years saw the rival city-states clash with Aztecs under pre-arranged conditions. The losers were then captured for ritual sacrifice so as to appease the gods to not rein disaster on them. Just like America, the Aztecs began their forever wars after being subjected to adverse conditions that shook the entire empire. Their 9/11 was in the form of a great famine and as a result the Aztecs resolved that throwing an insignificant city-state to the wall every now and then would somehow fix their situation. This religious act of appeasement to the gods was considered a necessity and agreeable that it went on for decades, with the flower wars symbolizing the Aztec regional domination. While these rituals might look like a death cult in this day and age, the Aztecs believed they were upholding a voluntary rules-based order with their client states. The same scenario can be applied on the 17-year-old war that America has waged against Afghanistan as result of the 9/11 bombing. The operations of the army in this case, are being put to question. In essence, the United States invaded Afghanistan on the pretext of fighting terrorism as their intelligence indicated that the main suspect of the 9/11 bombing, Osama Bin Laden and his terror outfit, the Al-Qaeda group, could have been residing in that country. More than a decade and a half later, the United States troops are still in Afghanistan under the same pretext of fighting terrorism and trying to eliminate the Al-Qaeda and ISIL insurgents (Lovell, 2019). During all those years, scores of American soldiers’ lives as well as the lives of innocent locals have been lost, extreme poverty rates have sky rocketed and trillions of dollars have been wasted in the name of fighting terror.
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The glaring operational inefficiencies in the US army cannot be overlooked as they have done more harm than good. Ever since its inception, the US army has been involved in a myriad of military conflicts throughout the world. According to Elisa (2019), the number of recorded conflicts tally up to 134. The major conflicts that led to full-fledged war include the American Revolution which occurred between 1775 and 1783. The war was between the Americans and the British due to forced taxation in the colonies. From this revolution, out of the total conscripted soldiers, 4435 died and 6188 others were wounded. The next major war was the war of 1812 to 1815 that was also a war pegged between the Americans and the British over trade disputes and which resulted to 2,260 dead soldiers and a total of 4,505 injured. In 1861 to 1865, the infamous civil war occurred which was fight between the agricultural south and the industrial north. They fought over slaves and states’ rights. This civil war led to the deaths of 439,035 people. The world war 1 and world war 2 that was waged 50 and 80 years later respectively did not leave the US behind and as a result the US involvement claimed the lives of 344,959 soldiers throughout the period (Elisa, 2017). After world war 2, there was a relative sense of peace throughout the world. However, a battle between two different ideologies; Marxism and capitalism grew and resulted in even more wars. Between 1950 and 1953, the Korean war took place, the south of Korea was more inclined to capitalism and backed by the US while the north were Marxists followers under the USSR and thus a conflict ensued which resulted to fierce battle between the two factions. The Korean war claimed the lives of 54,246 people with 103,284 were considered severely injured ("America's Wars", 2017).
The Vietnam war was different in that it was the first war in which the US was completely overpowered and as a result, the enemy had their way. The war took place between 1961 and 1973 and was as a result of differences in ideologies between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The US joined capitalist southern Vietnam but withdrew in 1973 due to the fear of adding on to the number casualties that had already reached 90,220 ("America's Wars", 2017). The gulf war of 1991 is the only war in the recent years that is regarded as a success as the US army managed to kick out Iraq’s forces that had invaded Kuwait and the death count of the operation was below 2000 people. The US army is currently engaged either directly and indirectly in several other wars that include the Global war on terror, Afghanistan and the war against the Islamic State ("America's Wars", 2017).
From the wars mentioned above, it can be seen that Lovell (2019) comparison of the US with Aztecs is spot on. These wars have single-handedly led to the separation of families and friends with their fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. Moreover, the wars have led to depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among the veterans and an increase of people living with disabilities in the country. The trillions of dollars spent to facilitate these wars could have gone a long way in growing the US economy by investing in infrastructure, education and manufacturing (Ludwig, Naiman, Zerkel & Astore, 2019). The effects of these wars are so adverse that a group of veterans have come together to demand for action by the congress to bring to an end these wars that have stayed on for a long time such as the Afghan war and the Yemen war (Ludwig et al., 2019). The veterans are seeking for the congress to tighten the noose on the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that was passed unanimously by congress in 2001 to fight terrorism so as to ensure that the military and the United States resources are not misused. Furthermore, the veterans want the powers to authorize war be returned back to the congress where the constitution intended it to be.
The never-ending wars puts into contention the military strategies and operations that the US army has when it comes to neutralizing the enemy. The deaths that have resulted in different wars in past, that barely yielded any results, could have been avoided altogether if the military chose alternative strategies. Therefore, the responsibility is not only on the congress to seriously regulate the use of military but also on the army to come up with even better operation strategies that do not put the lives of people in jeopardy.
References
United States Army | History, Generals, Battles, & Structure. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-United-States-Army
Lovell, J. (2019). Americans Can't Give Up The Cult of War. Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/04/09/americans-cant-give-up-the-cult-of-war/
Elissa, H. (2019). Military Conflicts in U.S. History. Retrieved from https://www.infoplease.com/us/american-wars/military-conflicts-us-history
America's Wars. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/factsheets/fs_americas_wars.pdf
Ludwig, M., Naiman, R., Zerkel, M., & Astore, W. (2019). Veterans Demand Congress End the Forever Wars. Retrieved from
https://truthout.org/articles/veterans-demand-congress-end-the-forever-wars/
Maslowski, P. (2007). United States Department of Defense. Retrieved from https://www.fpri.org/article/2007/04/understanding-the-creation-of-the-u-s-armed-forces/
