Tradition Of Attrition

 Sherman's March to the sea.

The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

These are days that will live in infamy, if I may borrow a line from another corner of history. 

When I was in school and learned about these events, I learned another word: Attrition, the action or process of gradually reducing the strength or effectiveness of someone or something through sustained attack or pressure. When General William Tecusheh Sherman tore through Georgia with sixty thousand troops, he and our boys in blue left nothing standing, aiming to demoralize the Confederacy and hasten the end of the war. Likewise the decision by newly minted President Harry Truman to use an atomic weapons on a civilian target in Japan rather than a demonstration of the power available, he chose to wait just three days before detonating a second device on another Japanese city. The rationale historically given was to "hasten the end of the war" and "save lives." American troops' lives. Not Japanese civilians. 

I selected these events out of a myriad of others, including the Allied bombing of Dresden in World War II to remind us all that history is written by the victors, which does not mean that what happened is instantly understood or forgiveable. 

Now I will toss out another word: benevolence, the quality of being well meaning; kindness.There are times when the phrase "benevolent dictator" gets tossed around in an attempt to make the actions of an authoritarian ruler are excused because the autocrat in question is seen to be acting "for the common good." The military takeover of our own cities, the masked kidnappers sweeping our streets in an wild-eyed attempt at immigration reform, the use of the United States military and its weaponry to "obliterate" nuclear programs in other countries or disintegrate a boat suspected of carrying drugs are not acts of benevolence. They are acts of attrition, meant to send fear into the hearts of those who might dare to oppose the current regime. 

If the intent was, to borrow an unfortunate term from another bygone era, to creat "shock and awe," then I suppose the response would be "mission accomplished." If the hope was to unite the country and eventually the rest of the world, I would suggest another strategy.