We Must End the Illusion of Military Dominance

We have simply not dedicated the resources to wage peace in the same determined, relentless way we have waged war. This must change.

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United States military analysts love strategies and the theories behind them. The theories provide what appear to be perfectly reasonable and rational approaches to warfighting, even offering a sense of certainty about the outcome. After all, they’ve been designed with military precision. Authorized personnel at the Pentagon or military think tanks are assigned to create strong, catchy names for the theories. A longtime theory is “Escalation Dominance,” which has a close cousin called “Full-Spectrum Dominance.”

Both theories promote the idea that effective deterrence comes from being able to defeat the enemy in every step of a potential conflict, in any place, and at any time, from small-scale skirmishes between proxy guerillas up to and including nuclear war, and possible escalation within a specific conflict. Such strategies would, in theory, deter any adversary from initiating any step up the escalation ladder.

Like all military strategies they sound convincing enough on paper, even alluring. What red-blooded American, or Russian, would walk away from dominance? But in the concrete, these theories fail to deliver, and we could quite likely end up with escalation disaster. Escalation Dominance has already failed given that Russia invaded Ukraine and took a substantial step up the escalation ladder, with perhaps more to come.

A hubris enervates such military theories, a woefully misplaced and dangerous self-confidence, not to mention a stunning disregard for the millions of lives sacrificed if such theories are put to the test, and fail. Gaming this out with computers is one thing, unleashing it on the world another. Reading the enemy’s mind once the escalation begins and missiles are flying is futile, even suicidal.

Some say Ukraine should not have relinquished its vast nuclear arsenal when the Cold War ended in exchange for protective assurances from the West. In the eyes of some commentators, President Zelensky implied that Ukraine might now have to develop its own nuclear deterrence program. Putin quickly responded with retaliatory threats. Meanwhile, military analysts tinker with their theories and fine-tune their messages as world events continue to stump them.

These military analysts are paid well, often by the U.S. government, weapons manufacturers, and the mass media, all of whom have an interest in warmaking. Military think tanks are funded with US taxpayer dollars, as are military research programs at American universities across the nation. We spend tens of millions of dollars playing computer war games. We spend close to $1 trillion a year funding personnel and machinery for actual warmaking.

Where are the millions for peace? Is it unfathomable to think that the same money, talent, and resources could be invested in creating a strategy for a new security arrangement in Europe that would include Russia? After the atrocities that Putin and his military have inflicted on Ukraine, it is a bitter pill to swallow. But the alternative is either a drawn-out proxy war with Russia which bleeds the Ukrainian and Russian people (while bleeding Western economies), or to continue up the escalation ladder with deadlier weapons delivered and deployed by Ukraine. In either case, far more die. And as the fog of war sets in, escalation dominance becomes escalation guesswork. At some point, the military must concede it possesses only a theory. Given their track record, risking all of humanity on one of their theories is a gamble for the delusional.

A new security arrangement including Russia would mean the gradual phase out of NATO. Russia, one of the major Petro-states, could be weaned off its fossil fuel exports and brought into a new economy of alternative energies. As opposed to our unkept promises of the 1990s, we would truly integrate the Russian economy into Western economies without the perceived threat of NATO. Compromises would be necessary, on both sides. We could slowly, gradually escalate towards peace.

Peace is no harder (or easier) than war, and yet we are obsessed with war. We have simply not dedicated the resources to wage peace in the same determined, relentless way we have waged war. No million dollar think tanks to develop peace strategies. No big dollar grants for university peace initiatives. No highly paid peace analysts.

We posit no sexy title for our strategy. Peace, and only peace. That’s it. We can split the atom and rocket to the stars. Surely we can resolve our disputes without incinerating each other. We need set our minds, money, and resources to it. Dominance is for tyrants. It must fall and humanity must prevail. Peace is everything.

Kevin Martin is President of Peace Action and Peace Action Education Fund, the country’s largest peace and disarmament organization with approximately 200,000 supporters nationwide. Brad Wolf, a former lawyer, professor, and community college dean, is co-founder of Peace Action Network of Lancaster and writes for World BEYOND War. Reprinted from Common Dreams with permission.

7 thoughts on “We Must End the Illusion of Military Dominance”

  1. “Russia, one of the major Petro-states, could be weaned off its fossil
    fuel exports and brought into a new economy of alternative energies”

    Why on Earth would they want to be part of the failed experiment in “alternative energies” and how would forcing them to impoverish their people and other people around the globe bring about peace?

    Leave this pipe dream out and the rest of the article isn’t half bad. And by the way, why should they accept this lousy deal when Saudi Arabia, also waging war, is allowed to continue on it’s merry way?Wouldn’t that demand seem just a tab bit hypocritical to the rest of the world?

    And one more thing, why does the peace movement need to tie a yoke around it’s own neck by pushing this green new deal nonsense? Peace with Russia but only if they go along with the Globalist utopia? Nah. Let’s just try for peace with Russia instead of trying to tie them into the globalist nonsense. They don’t trust the globalists for good reason, that alone is more than enough reason why this idea will never fly. Not to mention we have just seen what the world will look like, including Europe without Russian energy, not even Europe is interested in this feel good nonsense, they too have to have it forced upon their own people.

  2. What about an organization with all the nations united in it that would be a global forum for resolving conflicts? It could have peacekeeping forces with blue … no, turquoise helmets. Just brainstorming here.

    It’s funny how the authors’ peace plan is to get all the white people together. It’s like they’ve never heard of the rest of the world. Their plan sounds like a tie dye version of the US plan to neuter Russia then move on to China.

  3. Feb 7, 2022 The Warmongers Miscalculated

    https://youtu.be/IrjpcgutjQI

    Nov 9, 2016 Costs of War: the Human Toll of the Post-9/11 Wars By Brown University

    The Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs illustrates the human toll of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

    https://youtu.be/aVr0MSEW2SU

  4. 1.”Escalation Dominance has already failed given that Russia invaded Ukraine and took a substantial step up the escalation ladder, with perhaps more to come.” – Absolutely true.
    Let’s use the football analogy: This Japanese idea of capping the price of oil is a “hail mary”. The first week of July, 2022 in the strategy of letting Ukraine be the destroyed battlefield, these arethe rationalizations.

  5. Don’t be naive…Amerikkkas mentality and love for Wars and meddling in every country on this Planet is never going to change !!

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