I've argued long and hard here before that the Iraq war wasn't existential
In a sense, for the US, the war against fascism was clearly not existential either. Germany and Japan were so far away, it would be years before UK and China would fall to cause a problem for the US.
In another sense, as far as Great Britain is concerned, even subjugation by Hitler was not exactly an existential issue. The british people under german rule can surely continue to exist, just as Vichy France did, by and large. Of course for a few jews, that would be an existential issue, but there are too few jews to make a difference in the big balance sheet of living humans.
The need for americans to occupy Japan was not existential either, MacArthur's role ranging from making sense of Tokyo's urban planning, to attempts to standardize japanese names, and even his proposal that that Hirohito must not be executed, are not existential problems to the US.
The war to push back the North Koreans when they invaded Seoul was also not existential either. Even if Korea was united under a communist regime, what's there to say that China would not eventually also drift apart from the USSR over their massive human losses from that war, with the great victory that united the Korean Peninsula?
Or perhaps if someone enters my house, take everything, burn it down, I should also remember that since my family was not there, and I have insurance and sufficient net worth to rebuild, this is not an existential problem.
The reality is, history has a sense of moving on with everyone having their own views on how to proceed. I must remind you that not only were there pacifist voices in England, up till Pearl Harbor, many in the US regarded all these external wars as non-integral issues to its existence.
And how we can be sure that the combined China USSR behemoth would unravel without the trials of Korea and Vietnam, it is very hard to divine. We are not gods, but mere mortals.
As for what is done is Iraq, whether the US should leave now that worldwide jihadists have poured in aiding the insurgents, that in some sense is not a short term existential problem.
Even if LA, SF, Chicago, DC were all to be levelled tomorrow, the US will still exist in some shape and form.
So why do I find your existential argument specious? Simple, Existence alone is not the issue. It is not enough to exist, but we must know that we exist. There are worse things in life than dying. |
