George Kennan, an American diplomat and historian who was best known as the “father of containment” during the Cold War, was the subject of an essay by Nicholas Thompson in the January/February 2012 issue of “Foreign Affairs.”
Thompson notes that Kennan in 1951 wondered whether American democracy was "uncomfortably similar to one of those prehistoric monsters with a body as long as this room and a brain the size of a pin."
In 2002, as conflict in Iraq approached, Kennan, who died in 2005, said: ‘War has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it. Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end.”
Kennan was a patriot, and a political and diplomatic realist. His views about the United States ought to be interpreted with serious respect even if done so critically. The image of America as a small-brained, large-bodied prehistoric creature butting its way through the tangled web of subtly nuanced foreign interests should at least cause Americans to open their eyes to the reality that what we do causes great destruction and quite often never leads to a satisfactory conclusion.
The truth that “war has a momentum of its own” is born out not only in the way nations behave, but also in the psychology of individual human activity.
Witness something as trivial and innocuous as buying a car. Sometime necessity is when the old car is no longer reliable to get you to work. Often the seed of desire is planted in the mind by a well-placed advertisement that struck a nerve in one’s ego. Regardless of the cause, suddenly the movement toward negotiating with a salesperson in an automobile showroom has taken on a life of its own. Usually we fool ourselves into thinking we are in control and behaving rationally, but in reality we are carried away by something much larger than our reason. We become possessed as the thought of a shiny car reflects in our minds.
So, too, the move toward war works on our collective will in the same way. There is a real or perceived threat. Maybe an actual act of aggression has taken place and we become filled with a desire for revenge. We become conscious of gross acts of suffering and injustice elsewhere in the world and we become morally outraged. Regardless of the cause, the seed is planted in our collective psyches that going to war might be a solution. Suddenly, the move toward war takes on a life of its own.
Ever since World War II, we've seen this phenomenon at work. From Korea to Viet Nam, from Operation Desert Storm to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other skirmishes along the way, the United States has found itself engaged in wars that were the self-fulfillment of the prophecy’s of war that went before.
Even now, as we disengage from Iraq and Afghanistan, the drums for another war are sounding. Iran, our perpetual nemesis ever since the fall of the Shah, is seen as a threat due to its potential development of a nuclear weapon. As President Obama tries to resolve the problem through diplomacy and sanctions, all but one of the Republican candidates for president try to project Obama as weak by claiming that they will go to war to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear capability. And, Israel, fearful of a nuclear Iran, seems poised to attack.
In the meantime, the developing civil war in Syria and the potential for a humanitarian crisis there also portends war. The political, economic and strategic interests involved, especial those of Russia and China, could make any war even more devastating. And, the strategic alliances in the region could fuel involvement by other countries in a Middle East, similar to the entanglements that slid so many nations into World War I.
The war-drums are sounding and we seem to be moving uncontrollably toward another military confrontation. As George Kennan reminds us, “thoughtful intentions” are one thing, but they seldom conform to “actual outcomes.”
Kennan's position during the Cold War with the Soviet Union was one of containment. He proposed there was, and there is, a middle ground between a diplomatic solution and going to war. It is to do whatever you can in large and small ways to keep the other side from expanding its power and influence while trusting that in the long run, if the so-called enemy is as intrinsically evil as we believe them to be, they will ultimately fall under the weight of their own evil.
As the proverb suggests, “A word to the wise is sufficient.” The words and ideas of George Kennan may be just the antidote we need in order to escape our constant move toward one war after another.
