In Memoriam
As Memorial Day came and went, the thought that lingered was how terrible it must be to live in a weak country.
Fear always. Bad deals with bad neighbors. Invasion. Chaos. Flight. Poverty. Disease.
All because a weak country cannot choose its wars.
Throughout U.S. history, we have chosen every one of our wars.
Yes, Pearl Harbor was a sneak attack. But for us the Great War had already begun in 1917, when we decided it was our business whether Germany or Russia would dominate Europe in a fight that did not end (as we then believed) until 1992.
To choose one’s wars is the privilege of the great.
Ukraine suffers because, though fierce and brave, it was too weak to choose its wars.
Some eight million Ukrainians have been driven from their homes since Russia’s invasion and now live abroad as refugees. Some 24,000 Ukrainian civilians have been wounded, of whom 9,000 have died so far. Military casualties exceed 125,000, with perhaps 16,000 killed.
It turns out that Russia is also weak: it did not get the war it thought it was choosing. In the war it got, more than 100,000 Russian soldiers have been wounded, and more than 20,000 killed.
The combined weakness of Russia and Ukraine means no end to the conflict is in sight.
Violent deaths of Iraqi civilians resulting from the U.S. invasion are estimated to number as many as half a million, with total “excess” deaths reaching toward 1 million.
Every year, 15,000 to 20,000 Africans die directly from armed conflict, while total war-caused African deaths during this century alone reach well into the millions.
From 2011-2016, some 86,000 Syrians civilians died directly in that country’s war (who is fighting whom, again?), but there have been almost a million total excess deaths since that conflict began in 2011.
Deaths by torture during the Syrian war exceed 15,000.
From January 2018 through January 2019, the United States and its allies mounted some 4,500 air strikes against Syrian targets. The resulting number of casualties are unknown. Because Syria is weak and no threat to the United States, most Americans were unaware this was happening.
During the Vietnam war, well over 10% of the Vietnamese people were killed. That included as many as 2 million civilians from North and South Vietnam, about 1.1 million North Vietnam and Viet Cong fighters, and approximately 200,000 to 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers. That’s roughly 10 to 15 times the body count from Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
In addition, 60,000 Americans died in the Vietnam war. Sixty thousand to three million. That’s the strong country/weak country spread.
And you don’t want to get caught on the wrong side of that line.
Roughly 50,000 to 100,000 Cambodians were killed directly in the U.S.-Vietnam war. Some three million, about 20% of the entire population, died in the genocide that ensued amid the resulting civic collapse.
Because Stalin had made his country too weak to prevent the German invasion, some 25 million Russians died in WWII.
Seven million Jews died because they had no country.
Gaul was inhabited by relatively primitive tribes when Caesar chose to veni, vidi, vici the hell out of them. Because the tribes were weak, the Imperator could credibly claim to have killed one million Gauls and enslaved another million. Though he almost certainly exaggerated the fatalities, the one million enslaved may be accurate. As the largest source of war revenue, the slaves would have been counted carefully.
Many of the slaughtered Gauls were women and children killed during the sack of conquered towns. Whether slaughtered or enslaved, the women typically were first raped — because what could their dead husbands or sons do? If enslaved, the women’s bodies remained at their owners’ disposal for the rest of their lives. This is what it means to be from a weak country.
Because babies are no use as slaves, essentially all infant children from resisting tribes were hacked to death or tossed alive onto funeral pyres.
As Memorial Day came and went, what seems most remarkable to us is how Americans across the political spectrum talk, act, and vote as if the United States faced no risk of becoming a weak nation; how we have become obsessed with ever more divisive fights over ever more eccentric supposed rights and especially how rarely either side in the argument even bothers to claim the new right will make us a stronger nation.
When did it stop being an expectation that political argument would have as its touchstone the good of the nation? How long will we be numbered among the strong if this continues.
P.S. Come join George Gilder and his other Eagle colleagues on an incredible cruise! We set sail on Dec. 4 for 16 days, embarking on a memorable journey that combines fascinating history, vibrant culture and picturesque scenery. Enjoy seminars on the days we are cruising from one destination to another, as well as dinners with members of the Eagle team. Just some of the places we’ll visit are Mexico, Belize, Panama, Ecuador and more! Click here now for all the details.