OPINION: Beware the perils of peace

The Middle East is and has always been a seemingly mysterious and faraway land for most Americans even though we have been commercially involved with the region since our very early years.

We were originally at war with the Muslims instigated over free navigation of the seas and their pirating in the late 1700s, which is when Tripoli and Leathernecks entered the Marine vocabulary. With these adversaries, others warned Jefferson that money and fear were the only two conditions that could be used as a basis for negotiations.

Following modern-day world involvement with the Middle East that began in 1908 with the first major oil find by the British in Iran (then Persia), we now find ourselves to have negotiated a recent nuclear agreement with them that seems to offer only money without a condition they would fear. What has changed over the two centuries? Only our fear of martial conflict it seems. How can we survive as a nation in a world where war seems endless and is endless, if we fear such?

The driving force of Western Civilization and the U.S. in particular has been the concept of individual and economic freedom. That combination may be the most influential intellectual force the world has known and led to the U.S. becoming a worldwide economic and military power. The wisdom of history suggests that we must extract the past lessons that apply to today’s role of a superpower. Ignoring the patterns of history is a false choice and is to risk repeating the mistakes that have toppled other nations.

Another historian notes that we are living in an “ahistorical age — an era when too many people are willing to invest in a dangerous delusion that science, technology, and the information superhighway make us immune to history.”

For thousands of years, wars among nations and societies have left a deep imprint upon the social life and culture of those involved. War is not something desired but something that seems inevitable. As Will Durant informed us some time ago, war is one of the constants of history with only 268 years out of the last 3,421 years being free of it.

An important implication is whether the U.S. will experience the same ultimate fate as the major democracies and superpowers of the past? It is not inconceivable as internal and external forces can be equally dangerous, as freedom is not a universal value. Maybe Thucydides was correct in his analysis that, “…peace is an armistice in a war that is continually going on...,” and, just maybe, peace truly is far too complex for humanity to attain. It certainly has been during my lifetime that includes much of the 20th century, the bloodiest century of all.

It may not be politically correct; but it must be said that if we fear war, then we risk the fate of our nation! That is the unspoken national alternative that every political body must accept from past history for as long as mankind survives. And that is what underlies the general discontent by our citizens with the nuclear treaty — that it was negotiated because of our fear for an enemy that calls for our destruction.

Our citizens fear that money will not buy a lasting peace, and that a nuclear Iran is now guaranteed. History supports their fear! A lasting bit of advice from the ages to all of us is to not take lightly the perils of peace, and “that our enemies will go as far as our hesitation.” That has been our history and it has not served the world or us well.

Spencer, of Frankford, Delaware, is retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who served during World War II.