Achieving Peace Through Militarism

“Peace should be defined as more than just the absence of war1.” To achieve global peace, more than simply casting aside weapons must occur; complete disarmament must take place. However, westerners view of peace is a rather different idea. The modern state's approach to peace is through a justification of warfare and militarism. Wars are fought solely on the concept of achieving peace. Countries invade to overthrow what they believe to be corrupt governments and decide what is right for the citizens in these countries. If political ideologies clash, as they often do on a global level, wars fought to achieve peace often occur. The United Nations supports and funds these operations because they believe them to be for the good of humanity. The United States alone has begun countless wars that they are able to justify through their mission for democratic peace. The United States invaded Afghanistan to conquer the Taliban, but instead of mediating to resolve issues, they used force and involved other countries in a war that does not appear to have an end. In Iraq, the American government stated that they would help the Iraqi citizens by creating a “better” government. They wished to transform the state into a modern one, which is a rather ambitious goal. As long as the modern state can find a good reason to enter a country, one that will create a better living situation for the patrons, that state will go to war. This, to the American government, as well as the modern state’s view, is how to define peace: through militarism.

The threat of weapons of mass destruction leading to the war in Iraq caused a different use of the word peace in the political justification for war. President George Bush expressed his concern fo...

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...one another if they say it is for the goal of reaching global peace. Wars will continue to be fought in order to obtain this arbitrary goal and the modern state will continue to support them, as they can justify their violence. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been fought for years and made little progress. Although the Taliban has collapsed, the country has not been left in better shape. The Iraq War seemingly does not have a completion date, but the Americans refuse to leave the country at the present time. They require a justification for their entry, and this justification will come once peace has been reached. Both wars will go on, although we have learned that one lesson, if only one lesson, has been learned from the Iraq war: “ ‘transformation’ in the sense of modernization, is hopeless14.” A new purpose must be found as grounds to fight these wars.