War Forever, Everywhere - TomDispatch.com

War Forever, Everywhere - TomDispatch.com Andrea Mazzarino, War Doesn't End When It "Ends" Posted on September 22, 2024 We normally think of wartime and peacetime as two distinct and separate realities. When wars end, they end. Period. Unfortunately, when it comes to modern wars, that’s been anything but the case, as TomDispatch regular Andrea Mazzarino makes clear in a striking fashion today. She focuses on the devastating weaponry left behind in modern warfare when it’s theoretically over, explosives that kill for years, even decades of “peacetime” to come. Of course, that’s even more true when the wars themselves don’t really end. It was not by mistake or by accident that this country’s responses to 9/11 — our leaders and potential leaders just “celebrated” its 23rd anniversary together — came to be known (at least to some) as our “forever wars.” Sadly, forever was indeed the operative term. Even though the major (disastrous) versions of those wars on terror that the U.S. launched in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 officially ended, in some sense, particularly in Africa, they’ve just gone on and on and on. You may not have noticed this, but only the other day, in fact, some of the 2,500 American troops that are — yes! — still in Iraq (like the 900 still in — yes! — Syria) raided reputed Islamic State (you remember ISIS!) hideouts in that country. Seven U.S. soldiers were injured in the process. Oh, and note as well that ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria have actually doubled so far this year with 153 of them in the first half of 2024! And even when such wars do end (as in Afghanistan), rest assured, as Mazzarino, the co-founder of the remarkable Costs of War Project, suggests all too vividly today, they leave behind mayhem, pain, and death of the first order for endless years to come. In short and all too sadly, modern war is almost by definition “forever war,” no matter when such wars are officially declared over. But let Mazzarino explain. Tom