War is the answer, let's have another one...

There's a nice article out on 'Wars on this, that and the other' care of the MinistryOfPropaganda blog, consider these "wars":

• War on Terrorism, also known as War on Terror
• War on Drugs and more War on Drugs
• War on Fat, sometimes also known as War on Waists
• War on Poverty and/or War on Want
• War on Pornography
• The War on Spam
• War on Crime and even more War on Crime
• War on Guns and another War on Guns

Looking at the list, and knowing how successful each and every one of them has been, you may well question whether another War on an Abstraction is really what we need.

Now a couple of the above are noble goals (Poverty and Spam in my book) but the question has to be about why we are so hopelessly inefficient at "winning" these wars.

I would suggest that each of these 'wars' requires social change in the 'good guys' as much as the 'bad guys'. Waging a 'war' on these abstractions is a way for politicians to indicate they care, then throw large amounts of money at any government department or private corporation that says it can help but ultimately achieve nothing.

The truth is that terrorism, drugs and crime are symptoms of poverty, acts of desperation. Obesity, pornography and spam are symptoms of consumerism, affluence and an unrestrained system of greed (free-market capitalism). My point is that our system teaches "Get as much as you can get for yourself and who cares who you have to step on". Such a system is only going to veer into hypocrisy when it starts trying to stop the most visible side effects of that system without asking citizens to reevaluate their priorities - not to mention corporate citizens: remember Corporations are people too.

If it's perfectly legal to sell people destructive substances like alcohol or tobacco (or a number of addictive pharmaceuticals that have been abused for profit) and this is done without any meaningful restraint; then why should anyone see selling illegal drugs as morally any different? Alcohol and tobacco kill more people each year than hard drugs and much of the problem with illegal drugs is that the supply is often poorly manufactured and therefore dangerous. Understand, I'm not advocating legalisation of all drugs or prohibition of tobacco and alcohol, I'm just saying that a 'War on drugs' seen in the light of a virtual open slather on alcohol and tobacco can only ever look ridiculous. (Sure, we don't sell it (directly) to babies/children - bully for us!)

Advertising 24 hours a day on television, radio, billboards, buses and in creepy guerilla marketing campaigns but then telling spammers that what they do is unwanted and illegal is also a little hypocritical. That same advertising used for fast/junk food when compared against various pleas for more healthy eating and efforts to curb child obesity also looks a little disingenuous.

In much the same way a war of aggression against terror is a bit of an oxymoron. The 'War on Terror', like all wars on abstractions, is doomed - it, and Western foreign policy in general, will create more terrorists than it can kill; many people will die on both sides and in the middle, much money will be wasted or funneled into corporate pockets and nothing will change.

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