A War of Aggression By Any Other Name…
The 1931 Mukden Incident
The 1939 German invasion of Poland
The 1940 German invasions of Norway and Denmark
The 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union
The 1941 Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran
The 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The 1967 The Six Day War
The 2003 US led invasion of Iraq
These are just some of the many examples of Preemptive or Preventative War. Some are cited as examples of both. Preventative War is a war or military action initiated to prevent another party from having the ability to attack, such as by destroying supplies or weapons technology. Preemptive War is simply striking first in the name of proactive self-defense. These are both means of implementation of the “Strategic Offensive Principle of War”.
Although the examples cited were all within the last hundred years, the Strategic Offensive Principle has been described by George Washington, Mao Zedong, Machiavelli, and Sun Tzu. Whether it’s called Preemptive or Preventative, attacks based on the Strategic Offensive Principle of War basically boil down to striking first, supposedly in self-defense. Unfortunately, the word “supposedly” is very relevant here. History has shown that often the basis for the attack is based on either a false flag or a flat out lie.
False Flags and Falsehoods
In the Mukden Incident, the Japanese attacked the Chinese based on the claim the Chinese had blown up a railway line as part of setting up for an attack against Japan. Evidence shows the railway was blown up by Japanese operatives instead.
Germany claimed the invasion of Poland was to stop Poland from invading them after Polish saboteurs had supposedly infiltrated Germany to help support the pending war of aggression. The Germans fabricated the evidence of the saboteurs.
The US invaded Iraq in 2003 under the pretense of preventing Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) or sharing them with terrorists. By 2005 it was clear Iraq did not have any significant WMD capabilities.
Recently, the US assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani claiming that doing so would prevent impending terror attacks. However, in the days since, these claims have been walked back and it appears no attacks were imminent.
Although there was a brief tit for tat, and it was feared by many the Soleimani assassination would spark a wider hot war spreading across the region, or perhaps resulting in World War III, for now tensions have thankfully diminished. Once again, on false pretenses, an attack was launched in so-called self-defense.
Principles We Teach Our Children
As parents, if our son, let’s call him Chad, walks up to his classmate, Jake, and decks him because he heard through the grapevine Jake was considering beating him up and stealing his lunch money tomorrow, would we think that was ok? Chad was the aggressor in this situation.
Let’s be honest, based on principle, if Chad punching out Jake is aggression, and therefore wrong, then one nation attacking another in proactive self-defense is also wrong. Scaling it up from one person attacking one person to one group attacking another, or one nation attacking another does not affect the principle.
Claims of proactive self-defense are simply excuses. Often proactive self-defense is based on lies or misinformation, sometimes given extra weight through false flag operations. Fear and a desire for invulnerable security have often not only subsumed our rights and liberties, it seems they have done the same to principle.
Preventative war and preemptive war are just terms we use to make aggression sound justifiable by cloaking them in a false pretense. Unfortunately, when it boils down to it, preventative and preemptive war, are just acts of aggression, wars of aggression dressed up so they don’t seem so scary and to try to hide the aggressors behind a mask. Preventative and preemptive attacks and wars are simply acts and wars of aggression by another name. Principles matter. Aggression is still wrong and changing the terminology doesn’t make them better or right.
Garrett Leeds is the founder of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Project