http://www.unmc.edu/Community/ruralmeded/FM_GP/not_for_the_faint.htm
During one war in recent American history, it was apparent that one side was
losing. Their cities were being overrun and devastated. Their economy was choked
by blockade. Their hope of attracting the support of other nations was cutoff.
Few other countries could help due to a string of other problems. Their currency
was bankrupt. Some of the more desperate supporters decided to break through the
blockade and take the war into the cities of the enemy, so that their citizens
would also suffer the same fears and degradations. They attempted to set fire to
the tallest and grandest buildings in New York City. Sound familiar, and recent?
Not so.
This war happened to be the war between the states. The time was November 1864.
The method was phosphorous incendiaries that were developed by the ancient
Greeks. The target was New York City. Fortunately the terrorists were not as
well prepared. In their haste to get away and not have the fires discovered for
a time, they closed the doors and windows after setting the fire. Had they
understood the technology and given the fires enough air, several hotels and
potentially a good part of the business section of town, would have gone up in
flames. (History Channel and
http://americanhistory.about.com/library/prm/blattackonnewyork1.htm )
After WWII significant resources were devoted to preventing German leaders and
troops from escaping to continue a guerilla war. Without the atomic bomb, this
is likely to have been the situation in Japan where the people and leaders were
willing to continue the conflict indefinitely and house to house.
The point is that no nation or country is safe from dissident peoples or
populations, especially in more modern times. when the South was completely
overrun, the restoration could begin. In much of the South, this moved at a
rapid pace. In other areas, the restoration has yet to occur, over a century
later. Although we have improved as a nation in many areas, we do not understand
several limitations that we still have.
Our form of government is probably the most demanding form of government on the
planet. Even though we have been blessed with abundant resources, we must
continually ask ourselves where we can best spend our resources in this nation.
It is not a question whether we should continue to contain violence and those
who would disrupt order. We cannot, however, afford to put out fires all over
the nation and the world, for this is the trap that terrorists would set for us.
We also cannot control the destiny of a nation by outside military means for
more than a brief time. There is no easy answer to this dilemma.
I also have a more important question. What do we do with nations once we have
taken over control for a time? We have shown the ability to work with nations
such as Germany and Japan who had temporary disruptions of education and health
and economics. The question is "Can we take nations that have chronic poverty
and hopelessness, and help them to restore hope and a future?"
Our track record in this category is abysmal, even in our own nation where
residuals of past civil and cultural wars contribute to hopelessness in our own
citizens.
If we are not prepared to make the effort to do this, then why waste the
resources only to create a festering wound that refuses to heal - one that
continues to spawn destruction? My question is not whether we should fight the
war, but are we prepared to make the sacrifices that would win the peace?
Our best training grounds for this are within our own borders. Poverty is still
very alive and hopelessness is all too present in our nation. Hopelessness
breeds violence, injustice, intolerance, and abuse of all types. It is these
that fill our news pages, our prisons, and our cemeteries. I am indeed proud to
be on the front lines in working in this area, along with teachers, civil
servants, nurses, community organizations, churches, and others.
We will need as many of us of all ages to bear this burden, for although the
burden of a military victory is on the young, the burden of winning the peace is
shared by all.
Robert Bowman, M.D.
Family Physician
rbowman@unmc.edu
Oh and by the way, it would help if we raised the salaries and respect given to
schoolteachers as a start toward this process.
Posted 09/30/2002 10:44 AM on "Academic Family Medicine Discussion."
Addition 10/4/2002, little did I know that President Kennedy addressed most of
this, from the sacrifices all the way to the schoolteacher part, in 1961.
See
Kennedy and Crisis