The Perfect War

Those of you who read my blog regularly will know that I'm a fan of George Orwell and have read 1984 several times. The reason is that it seems to become more prophetic as time goes on. For those of you not familiar with the book, one of the key elements is that the world is divided into three warring states, Eastasia, Eurasia and Oceania. Britain is in Oceania which is permanently at war with one of the other states with troops purportedly fighting valiantly in some far flung land. They alternate alliances randomly with no one side ever winning or losing. The continuing war effort is the excuse the government uses to keep everyone in near poverty, ensure constant shortages of goods and to bring in draconian measures to spy on the population and prevent movement and thereby possible subversion. The workers are required to attend daily  'two minutes hate' where they watch films and listen to reports designed to stir up hatred and fear of the evil slant-eyed foreigners who eat babies, rape women and carry out obscene atrocities. The government even bomb their own cities from time to time to prevent the public becoming complacent.

I'm not suggesting that the above is going on but I can't help but notice the parallels with Syria.  There are four factions; each with their own patch of land and each fighting for different causes, there is no one common enemy. No one faction has the military might to win a land-based war outright without the assistance of a major power putting boots on the ground and ,understandably, the major powers are unwilling to commit troops. They would much rather bomb them from the air with minimal risk to personnel. The Americans have been bombing for four years and there doesn't seem to be an end to. In fact the opposite seems to be true as it serves as an excellent recruiting tool for ISIS (or DAESH if you prefer) by securing a flood of new recruits. 

There is an argument that war is good for the economy in terms of arms, ammunition and vehicles manufactured then sold. You make something then blow it up so you have to make another one. Britain is a top supplier of arms and you don't get to be top without recognizing a sales opportunity when you see one. Each faction is being supplied by a different major power, even if it's not directly and perhaps some are even supplying more than one. 

So, we have a situation where we have an unwinnable war using a large amount of armaments made by the West and Russia. These powers, including the Saudis, are fighting a war by proxy in the Middle East. There is minimal risk to Western troops thereby avoiding the political opposition generated by pictures of dead and wounded soldiers. It's far enough away so the general public only have a vague idea where it is so it is not a direct threat to them. The terrorist attacks carried out by Islamist extremists cause panic and alarm which gives the politicians a mandate from the public to continue military action and bring in new laws that infringe our civil liberties in ways that would not be tolerated under different circumstances. Although we don't have the daily 'two minutes hate' we do have the press who do an equally efficient job of spreading hate and fear. If they play their cards right and with a bit of careful planning and manipulation, the powers that be can probably keep the war going indefinitely.

I'm not making a political point here and this is nothing new, Orwell foresaw it in 1948. No need to worry though, just remember, War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery and Ignorance is Strength... and Big Brother loves you.