How have leaders gained the consent of their peoples to wage wars?
Leaders have adopted several tactics and strategies in order to gain the favor of their people into an expeditious war. Beginning from the firs world are, through the second, the Vietnam wars and the War in Iraq, leaders have instigated critical lenses and justifiable course of action to engage in such wars.
Considering World War II, Hitler adopted a nationalistic ideology in order to influence the consent of its people. Hitler’s assertion was spearheaded by a stronger message that Germany should return back its lost glory during the First World War. Adolf Hitler formed Nazi Party, whose main stake was to radicalize people against the political imposition on them by the perceived opposing allies. One of Hitler’s nationalistic messages was to have an influential and powerful Germany built on stronger military and economic base. This platform paved way for Hitler’s grand influence and radicalization of the minds of many Germans who found favor in Hitler’s ideology. In fact, his nationalistic campaigns and message generated fury and animosity between the Germans Citizens and the Jews who were the rulers after the bloody First World War. This point clearly reiterates that Hitler’s favor and consent of his people was spearheaded by the nationalistic messages that he strongly expressed to Germans. Consequently, his message realized some fruits as there were millions of citizens joining the military in order to return the lost glory. In a nutshell, Hitler who was a strong man behind World War II used nationalistic rhetoric to influence his people to war. In fact, politically-motivated ideologies were used by Hitler to assemble adequate troop into the second word wars.
Leaders like Hirohito of Japan gained consent and approval for his people into the Second World War on economic reasons. Military route was adopted as the most desirable route to the Japanese leadership since it was viewed as ample platform that Japan could expand its territory and resource-base in the vast Asian region. Therefore, the Japanese leaders relied on the economic depression experienced in the region to convince their people that military conquest against countries like China and other East Asian countries would rejuvenate their resource basket. This was a major trigger to Japanese entry into the Second World War, and it was a ply hatched by its leaders before they could gain the authority, and the necessary support of their people against their perceived enemies.
These two examples, thus exhibit two main ways that leaders influenced their people into war; political expedience and economic reasons.
New and Important features have characterized historically the Recent Wars
Different wars have seen greater and more sophisticated features. This implies that a war is defined by the nature of weapons involved, as well as the manner in which the operation is conducted. Thus, a style of war might be classified as modern and advanced depending on the nature of weapons involved during the encounter. While the techniques have changed over time, certain perceived traditional styles have still been used in combating deadly and expeditious modern wars.
While referring to the war in Iraq, the USA and its allied troops adopted the most modern sophisticated warfare. The features were defined by high technological invocation and application. In fact, one features that the war relied one was the use of rocket propelled bombs and missiles. The aerial wars involving powerful jets and missile propellers were a mainstream feature of the Iraqi war. Therefore, the modern war has shifted focus from being a war on the battlefield, but has transcended to become a show of military technology and artillery. For example, the USA was able to overpower Iraq since they had better weapons and other technological advancement over Iraq. The use of computer-aided military helicopters and jets are critical features of the current wars.
Other features that are associated with recent wars include the use robots and very intelligent computerized surveillance system. In Iraq, the Americans used robots in the path-finding mission of the Iraq intelligence. The use of such system shows an advanced technique in the course of war. On the other hand, the Iraq, under Saddam Hussein used military airstrikes in order to counter the their opponent’s, but were overpowered due to the nature of weapons that the American soldiers had deployed.
Another critical features associated with modern war relates to the use of drones. Drones are human-controlled fast jest having the capability of striking a region in seconds without being notified by the opponent. The use of drones has significantly defined the face of modern wars. In fact, USA has been associated with drones as major element of their advanced airstrikes.
The use of landmines has equally mainstreamed modern wars. The Iraq war witnessed the use of landmines in perceived enemies’ routes. This technique intensified in application the moment the air strikes were halted, and the ground troops needed to comb through the hostile zones. In fact, the Iraq army engaged the USA military operatives in a series of counter attacks by using landmines and RPG’s. These new features have defined recent wars.
Bibliography
Romaya, Bassam. The Iraq War A Philosophical Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. <http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=931788>.
Stiglitz, Joseph E., and Linda Bilmes. The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict. 2008. <https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=42A85994-341C-4A4E-9247-DD8B12D28E87>.
Taylor, A. J. P. The Origins of the Second World War. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin Books, 2001. <https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=8610EE76-987C-48AC-8F42-472B08641CAC>.
Walzer, Michael. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. 2015. <http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=2083288>.
