Sociology of War - Term Paper Example

«Sociology of War» Introduction War and terrorism are considered as a threat to human civilization because of the immense damages it causes to human life and properties. We are still remembering the outcomes of the two world wars and the immense damages it caused to the human life and properties. The recent Iraq war put many of the Iraqis into miserable living conditions, and the people of Afghanistan and the Palestine people are still facing wars in different forms. In short, the ultimate result of war and terrorism are poverty and financial crisis because of the huge wealth utilization in the non productive sector. So, nobody wants to be involved in a war because of the casualties and negative effects it may cause to the human generation; but still war in different forms is a reality in our society. Even though most of the outcomes of war are destructive, some constructive outcomes may also come out after the wars. For example, war can cause advancements in technology which can be utilized in the constructive sectors later. For example, the missile or rocket technology developed for the war purpose can be utilized in sending artificial satellites to space. Jet planes developed for the war purpose, is being utilized in providing emergency help to the needy people when they are affected by natural calamities like earth quake, storm, flood, tsunami etc. Moreover, war can help countries in clearing out the misunderstandings between them and also it can destroy evils from the society. For example, the old enemies Germany and France are good friends now. They were engaged in severe fighting for almost three generations, but after all that fighting and the wars that have takenplace, they learnt to cooperate with each other. In short sociological perspectives of wars include both positive and negative aspects even though negative outcomes may dominate the positive outcomes. The third positive outcome of war is the removal of antisocial elements like terrorists and terrorist groups from the society. For example Saddam Husain was considered as an evil not only by the Americans but even by some communities of Iraq and Kuwait as well. The Gulf war resulted in the isolation of Saddam from the power which can be considered as another achievement of war. It was not possible to remove Saddam from power by any other means. The current war on terror happening at the Afghan frontiers and Iraq are intended to remove terrorism form the world. The fundamental terrorist groups like Taliban and Al-Qaida can be removed through war alone. Social Science theories that try to account for conflict both within and between societies, commonly focus on the clash of cultures, understood as the clash of core values and ethnic and religious commitments. This paper critically reflects on the complex relationship between cultures and war. Relationship between cultures and war “It is widely known that the roots of contemporary terrorism originated in Afghanistan when United States sponsored Afghan mujahideen in their bid to repel Soviet Union which resulted in the formation of CIA trained terrorists united under the banner of Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda (Ahmed, p.3). Afghanistan is an uncivilized country which is misused by many of the western countries for safeguarding their interests. Both United Sates and former Soviet Union were equally responsible for the present conditions in Afghanistan. In fact America is responsible for the Talibanism in Afghanistan. When Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan towards the end of twentieth century, United States did everything possible to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Ahmed (2005) has mentioned that “in their attempt to expel Soviet Union from Afghanistan, United States tried to manufacture an extremist religious ideology in Afghanistan in the company of the local feudal community groups. Moreover, United Sates spent millions of dollars in spreading school books in Afghanistan which explain the war value of murder and fanaticism” (Ahmed, p.8). If it was the cold war between US and Soviet Union which threatened the global peace efforts in the twentieth century, it is the terrorism which gives sleepless nights to the political leaders of even superpowers or other prominent countries now. United States never thought that they will face the consequences of their action in future, when they cultivate religious fundamentalism in Afghanistan in order to expel Soviet troops. America deliberately cultivated strong patriotism and religious fundamentalism in the veins of the Afghan people. They educated the Afghan people that Soviet led communism may destroy religion from Afghanistan so that the dominant Muslim population in Afghanistan may be forced to avoid their religious beliefs in future. In other words, America tried to provoke the religious beliefs and fundamentalism in Afghanistan as they calculated that the clash between religion and politics may succeed in expelling Soviet Union from Afghanistan and they can easily decide the future of Afghanistan. America’s calculations were partly right and partly wrong. Even though they succeeded in expelling Soviet Union from Afghanistan suing the religious cards, they failed to anticipate a future conflict between their own culture (Christian) and Afghan culture (Muslim). “The frequency, intensity and violence of wars are greatly enhanced by beliefs in different gods” (Ignatieff, The Warriors Honour, p.54). Even though, Christianity and Islam are two prominent Abrahamic religions which have some common elements of belief, the core beliefs are different. While Christians accept Jesus as their saviour, Islam looks for Allah and Mohammad Nabi for getting salvation. Muslims all over the world believe that America has a hidden agenda of baptizing the entire world. In fact the clashes between America and Muslim countries originated from the above belief which is evident in Afghanistan also. India is constantly complaining about the involvement of Pak military groups in terrorist activities in their territories. The recent Mumbai terrorist attack and the parliament attack were sponsored by Pakistan according to the Indian government. India is a secular democratic country even though, Hindus are the dominant religion. Muslims in Pakistan believe that the Indian Muslims are suffering from the hands of the dominant Hindu community and they are citing the example of the destruction of Babri Masjid in India in order to strengthen their claim. Moreover, Pak Muslims believe that the Indian state Kashmir belongs to them and India is suppressing the agitations of Kashmiri people for freedom. The above beliefs resulted in two major wars between India and Pakistan in the twentieth century and the third war was on card after the recent Mumbai attack. Carol (2006)’s argument “War plans are the government’s main means to envisioning what would happen were nuclear weapons used, and they deeply influenced the views of the military officers and others who would act in a crisis” (Carroll,p.244), is relevant here. When Pakistan and India came closer to a third war at the beginning of the twenty first century, world leaders interfered in the matter because of their concerns about the possible huge damages an India –Pakistan battle may contribute to Indians and Pakistanis. Both India and Pakistan are believed to be having a variety of nuclear arsenal which could be used in a future battle between these two nuclear powers. In short, the cultural and communal differences are the major reason for the conflicts between India and Pakistan and the interference of world leaders prevented the world from witnessing another nuclear battle. Sri Lanka was another country which faced severe battles between cultures in the recent past. Tamils and Sinhalese are the two prominent cultures in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka faced severe threats from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) in the recent past as LLTTE tried to establish an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government succeeded in defeating the efforts of LTTE when they recently killed many of the LTTE militants including their leader Prabhakaran in a violent battle. Middle East is another region in the world in which bloody war is still going on because of the conflicts between Jews and Muslims. Jerusalem is a sacred place for Jews, Christians and the Muslims. Even though, Christians stay away from making any troubles in this region, Jews and Muslims are not so. Both these prominent cultures engage in fierce battle for dominance in Palestine and Middle East. With their superior abilities and military power, Jews or Israel is denying even basic rights to the Palestinians in Middle East. The BBC documentary, The Power of Nightmares part1, "Baby it is Cold Outside” explores the origins of Islamic fundamentalism in Middle East and neoconservatism in America during the middle of twentieth century. The film argues that both these two movements were born out of failure of the earlier liberal movements to make better world. Both these movements are responsible for today’s nightmares across Middle East (The Power of Nightmares:"Baby it is Cold Outside). On the other hand the recent Iraq war was fought because of the theory of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) possessed by Saddam Husain. But even after the execution of Saddam America failed to locate any WMD in Iraq so far. Now political analysts have a better picture about the reasons of Iraq war. It was fought for exploiting the oil and fresh water resources of Iraq in order to solve the energy crisis and fresh water shortages in America. “The laws of war and the rule of civilian immunity is not observed in none of the wars like Palestine, Northern Ireland, the Basque country or in the Tamil struggle in Sri Lanka” (Ignatieff, The Lessor Evil, p.103). International laws are there even for conducting a war. Civilian casualties should be avoided as much as possible as per the agreed international laws with respect to wars. But in most of the wars these laws were not observed and the ultimate victims would be the common public. In short, no region is currently free from cultural conflicts. “The basic gap between the government and the people and the revolutionary nature of the modernising programs of the administration is a major reason for the increased terrorism and clashes in the world” (Ahmed, p.7). Some of the governments want to keep the conflicts or clashes between cultures in the lime light in order to shift the people’s attention from the core problems of the country. For example, Pakistan is a country which is facing severe economic problems and poverty because of the increased domestic violence, lack of economic development and the visionless government or administration. The Pak administration always tries to make troubles in India in order to provoke the feelings of the fundamental Muslim groups in Pakistan in order to stay away from the internal agitations against the government. The Muslim fundamental groups in Pakistan are keener in creating problems in India rather than settling their internal issues. Recently, former Pak president and military leader Gen. Parvez Mush raff confessed that he deliberately tried to create problems in Kashmir at the time of his administration. It is better to understand the argument of Ahmed, 2005) that “military dictatorship and repressive governments have long used the word “terrorist” to characterise the opposition to their rule. Thus the administration had moved to legitimate their politics of state terrorism and repression” (Ahmed, p.4). When Kennedy gave frightening war footing speech in July 1961, including the announcement of SAC alerts, draft calls and bomb shelter programs, Moscow reacted with the construction of the Berlin wall in August and on the last day of that moth with the resumption of nuclear tests (Carroll, p.253). It is evident from the above example that in most of the global conflicts between cultures, politicians play a vital role. Politicians need public support in order to win elections or stay in power. It is difficult for the politicians to fulfil the expectations of the public while they are in power. As a result, in all probabilities, they will lose future elections. The only way of sustaining power or winning an election is possible through playing political cards properly. In other words, American leaders try to educate public about the possible threats from China and Soviet Union like countries and they seek vote for a stable and safe America. Another major reason for war between cultures is the differences in political ideologies. Democracy and communism are the two prominent political themes in the current world. Even though communism was destroyed in Europe, in some other parts of the world, it is still operating successfully. China, Cuba etc are examples. It is a fact that America engage in serious cold war between China and Cuba at present, simply because of the ideological differences. Carroll (2006) has argued that “every American military entity is organized itself against two enemies: the communist monolith and the other American military entity. Every self protective move by one service branch produced equal or greater moves by the others, leading into an action- reaction dynamic that began to resemble the released energy of fission” (Carroll, p.234). Recent reports showed that America and China are engaged in severe cyber battle at present. Publicly, America and China are in good relationships, but privately these two prominent countries trying to destabilize each other because of the political differences. So far we have discussed the war and conflicts between different cultures. But wars are occurring not only between different cultures, but even with the same cultures as well. Ignatieff (1998) has mentioned that “there are no wars more savage than civil wars, no hatreds more intractable than those between the closest kin” (Ignatieff, The Warriors Honour, p.48). In most of the African countries, civil wars between same cultures are a common thing. These wars are occurring. not because of the religious reasons alone, but because of poverty and the economic imbalances in different regions of the same country. Even in Iraq, as mentioned earlier, Saddam was accused of killing thousands of Shia Muslims when he was in power. Both Shias and Sunnis are prominent communities in Islam. But, they differ in some of their religious beliefs, and customs which resulted in conflicts between different communities in Islam. The most dangerous aspect of wars is the probability of occurring communal division in the global communally. For example, many people believe that in most of the terrorist attacks and clashes across the world, Muslims are at one end. If it was Al-Qaida responsible for the 9/11, it was Lashkar-e Taiba, accused of conducting the Mumbai attack and the Hamas responsible for the violence in Palestine. In other words, the stamping of Muslim community as the major contributors of wars and terrorism is taking place in global politics. In fact, it is a fact that only a minor portion of the Muslim community support war and terrorism whereas majority of the Muslims are peace lovers. But, after 9/11, in American and European airports, all the Muslims forced to undergo vigorous body checks because of the above stamping of Muslim community as the prophets of terrorism. Conclusions When we analyse the recent wars with the past wars, we can see that most of the current wars were not fought for economic reasons, but because of religious fundamentalism and cultural conflicts. Bin laden and Mulla Omar are fighting on behalf of their religious beliefs in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pakistan is creating problems in Indian territories in order to safeguard the interests of Muslims. LTTE fought for an independent Tamil state rather than anything else. Israel - Arab conflict is also happening because of fundamental differences in religious beliefs and cultural differences. In short, most of the wars in the world are happening because of the fundamental differences in the core beliefs of religions and cultures. Works Cited 1. Ahmed, Nafeez Mosaddeq. The War on truth. 9/11, Disinformation, and the Anatomy of Terrorism. Publisher: Olive Branch Press; 1st edition (April 15, 2005) 2. Carroll, James. House of War. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1St Edition edition (May 4, 2006) 3. Ignatieff, Michael. The Warriors Honour: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience. Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (October 15, 1998) 4. Ignatieff, Michael. The Lessor Evil. Publisher: Princeton University Press; First Edition (April 12, 2004) 5. “The Power of Nightmares:"Baby it is Cold Outside”. 17 October 2010. Read More