Is War An Art or Is War A Disease?

The founders of The United States of America, especially the one who wrote The Bill of Rights, and is called "the father of the Constitution", declared that war is a disease.

Not only had he been in on the very beginning of the nation, on getting it off to a good start, later he was in the Cabinet of a president, as Secretary of State.

As if that was not enough, later he was elected by his constituents to be in the congress for a while.

Then, to top it all off the people even elected him to be President of the United States of America!

Collecting his thoughts after that experience, yes, collecting his thoughts about the most wonderful essence any nation can have, public liberty, he declared:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied : and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Those truths are well established.

(The Greatest Source of Power Toxins?, emphasis added). To the first Americans, war is the greatest enemy of public liberty, because it is the carrier of the germs of every other sick enemy of public liberty.

If that saying of James Madison is a true saying, since we have had open warfare for the past decade, would that be enough time to test the Madison hypothesis a bit?

Lets get right to the gist of it by analyzing some recent comments by those who spend their entire lives in war or in the preparation for war:

The notion of using martial law (a technique abandoned just before WWI replacing it with the propaganda technique) to keep the people in their place, has been openly contemplated by the military:

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report.

The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S.

(Phoenix Biz Journal). The plans are in place, they are simply waiting for the people to get fed up so they can fed up.

(The Government of The Government, emphasis added). The plans are in place and will be used if what they consider to be too many people complaining (about the economic state of affairs, in a manner they do not like) should take place?

That sounds sick to me.

The U.S. Army War College no longer teaches that war is the worst disease, it now teaches that "war is an art", yes, they see themselves as masters of war, masters of fine art.

And these war colleges cost big bucks, weapons cost big bucks, wars cost big bucks, preparing for war costs big bucks, so like a Monet or a Van Gogh, art costs big bucks.

And if there isn't enough to go around after all the art of war is funded, if you complain about it The U.S. Amy War College will send an art brigade your way so you can learn to appreciate their art, or else.

Ok, one more, then lets go back outside and play pretend everything is hunky dory in the Absolute USA:

Pentagonia, capitol of Bullshitistan, well aware of the current political climate, has declared who its greatest enemy is, believing it is health care:

The U.S. military keeps searching the horizon for a peer competitor, the challenger that must be taken seriously. Is it China? What about an oil rich and resurgent Russia?

But the threat that is most likely to hobble U.S. military capabilities is not a peer competitor, rather it is health care.

(The Enemy the Pentagon Should Fear Most: Health Care, National Defense Magazine). We have been pointing out this very strange ideology for a while now, using "MOMCOM" symbolism to isolate the militant energy fighting against the middle class and poor in the United States.

(Deja Vu - Guns v. Butter Election Looms, emphasis added). You might be wondering how this "war is art" meme began.

It began with the teachings of a Chinese general who wrote a book "The Art of War" which eventually found its way into the libraries of The U.S. Army War Colleges.

It then infected the minds of the students of war, the "artists" who do war, who once upon a time would have been doctors learning how to prevent the disease of war.

Now, instead they get a degree in the Chinese philosophy, not the original American philosophy:

Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

...

3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline.

5,6. The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.

10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

11. These five heads should be familiar to every general: he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail.

(The Art of War, see also this, this, and this). So, since your health is their enemy then you are their enemy, and since art is expensive, if you complain in the streets about not having a home, job, or food, they will capture your country whole and intact, because that is considered to be supreme excellence in their "art of war".

Remember their "art" dictates:

"The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives ...

The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness ...

By method and discipline are to be understood the marshaling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure."

(ibid, links added). That the art of war even controls the building of the roads explains a lot about our infrastructure?

Yeah, James Madison, I get your drift.

The next post in this series is here.