Op-Ed: Unclear words can cause war

Did an American cause the Korean War? For 70 years, many have blamed the Korean War on U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson. In a 1950, policy address, Acheson listed areas of American interest in the Far East. In an oversight, he omitted South Korea.

On the strength of this omission, North Korean Dictator Kim Il Sung secured permission from Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin to invade south of the 38th Parallel. The rest is bloody history.

The words we choose matter. With diplomats and elected officials, the consequences of misunderstanding are expanded exponentially.

President Biden’s scope is nearly peerless. As leader of the Free World, he shapes the fate of nearly 8 billion people.

Recently, he casually opined about Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin’s threats to conquer the Ukraine. In effect, Biden shrugged and said that it was probably inevitable.

In doing so, he revealed a willingness to accept such action in the long run, inviting aggression. Biden may already have provoked the next war.

There is no higher priority for the American government than to prevent another General War. The supreme responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens. Since the Spanish-American War, this responsibility has increasingly involved keeping the peace beyond our borders.

In World Wars I and II, U.S. economic and military strength made possible Allied victory. Americans guarded and financed the Free World during the Cold War. We contributed to the dissolution of Europe's overseas empires, and built a new international order around the United Nations Organization.

Like it or not, the U.S. has been the world's policeman for generations. What peace that exists is based upon an explicit or implicit American commitment to deter would-be aggressors by any means, including military force.

This post-1945 Pax Americana has not been without war, but there has as yet been no General War between major powers. Small and medium-sized wars have brought trauma. However, in such wars the total casualties suffered over a decade or more have been less than those in many single World War I or World War II battles.

The global population has blossomed because of this American peace. Byproducts of this peace include the Green Revolution in agriculture and our dissemination of modern medicine to the poorest of humanity.

While starvation and poverty still plague far too many, global living standards have grown so much since the fall of the Soviets that Type II Diabetes (a “rich person's disease”) is expected to be one of the fastest-growing maladies in the Third World. We have helped to fundamentally improve the human condition.

None of this would survive a General War.

Imperfect we Americans definitely are. Yet, with all of our many faults we have rebuilt Europe and Asia, freed and fed the Third World, and deterred war. Warts and all, we are the inspiration of common people around the world. We are the patron of meritocracy, the antidote to corrupt and self-serving elites everywhere.

Our present weakness predates Biden. Our Air Force's planes were largely designed decades ago. Our Navy has been built to provide defense jobs rather than to maximize combat effectiveness. Our Army and Marines are experimenting in social engineering rather than preparing for battle.

We lack a single viable manned NASA spacecraft, have failed to secure our power grid against EMP attacks, and depend on our likeliest future enemy, China, for much of our financial stability and industrial production.

Americans have forgotten our unique role in today’s world. Instead, we have been made to feel shame because we often fail to live up to our ideals.

Biden's recent words, disgraceful retreat from Afghanistan, frailty, shady dealings and poor grasp of foreign policy all reveal weakness.

American weakness invites attack, as with the Russians recently occupying Kazakhstan. It tempts Iran to strike Israel and the Sunnis. It makes the Red Chinese more likely to try to conquer Taiwan and attack Japan.

We must step up and police the world. The alternative may be nothing less than a return to Serfdom for the common person, a new Dark Age, or even Armageddon.

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In Maine and then Idaho, Ralph K. Ginorio has taught the history of Western Civilization to high school students for nearly a quarter century. He is an “out-of-the-closet” Conservative educator with experience in special education, public schools and charter schools, grades 6-12. He has lived in Coeur d’Alene since 2014. Email: rginorio@cdapress.com