Universal War Machine

Universal War Machine By Michael McCurley Welcome to planet earth. Our Universal War Machine is the largest continually operating machine that man has ever built. Its biomechanical nature is continuously renewed with replaceable human components. Integral feedback systems guarantee constant operation without any fear of suspension of service. Millions of expert professionals are dedicated to its successful functions throughout the world, in many places using the most advanced technology man can develop. Support is reinforced by thousands of years of qualified experience, making this machine the most effective the world as ever known. It has never failed in its operations or completely broken down, providing thousands of wars between all societies and nations. Its potential applications today are greater than ever. Economic indicators of all markets show that it’s still the biggest business in the world today. Here are a few guidelines for operating the machine. 1) The Universal War Machine is the sum of all armies and all weapons on planet earth throughout history. 2) Each country develops an army and weapons to protect its own resources or obtain control over more resources in other countries. 3) The fact that most nations have armies and military potential serves as a protective deterrent as long as there is a balanced correlation of forces. 4) The effect of mutual deterrence among all nations guarantees the renewal and longevity of the machine, which for all practical purposes is immortal. 5) Increasing the opposition between any of the parts contributes to the strength or size of the whole. 6) Imbalances occur with groups of people who use force or military expansion to gain greater power or control over resources such as land, water, minerals, people, coal, timber, petroleum, raw materials, factories, power stations, contraband, financial capital, and drugs. 7) War occurs when one side attacks another to exploit a temporary advantage, or through a perspective of self-defense when it’s threatened. 8) A constant threat of war or potential for war maintains optimum operating systems for the machine, which will always function, as long as there are reasons for war.

9) A perfect balance of counter-forces produces a zero sum game for all participants that work within the structure of the machine. There’s no way any particular side will actually win, though wars are fought with that objective in mind. 10) The existence of the machine will be kept secret as long as those who run the component counterparts of the machine never recognize the overall functions of the whole. Additional Notes Affecting Warranties in Foreign Countries War is universal because it gives people something to fight for. Wars between men have been waged throughout time and are still being fought today. Technology only changes the means that are used in wars, not the reasons. Men will never be able to detain the machine until they understand how and why it acts in the ways it does. The main reason for war is a struggle for power. Its primary tool is fear and the main fruits of war are destruction, domination and oppression. Its purpose is to employ force instead of reason to attain immediate objectives by any means. Technology is perfectly adapted to create new techniques to wage war, which evolve over time. War stimulates the evolving development of weapons instead of the evolving development of societies. Wars conscript young men who might question the conservative rules governing their societies and rebel. They are employed instead to attack the enemy and defend the nation. If they are lost in battles, they can be replaced by other young men who are taught to fight with a few weeks of minimal training. The rest of the population is unaffected except for the consequences of a wartime economy. Skilled and experienced labor is reserved and defended to serve a nation, unless the enemy begins to destroy the civilian population base that provides strategic support for a war. A successful war must be fought against an enemy with a clear set of objectives, well prepared armies, and superior weapons. The enemy who is disadvantaged in one or more of these areas will lose. The best wars are short ones. Protracted wars waste resources and can defeat the purpose for which they are fought. By the same token, smaller forces can successfully fight larger ones in protracted wars if they deplete the resources and resolve of a larger enemy. Directly or indirectly, all citizens who pay taxes feed the Universal War Machine. It makes no difference where people live, what ideology they follow, or what religious affiliation they may have. The global war machine is everywhere. As part of it grows in one place, an opposing twin will grow somewhere else. If it’s suppressed in one region, it will suddenly appear in another. Like the mythological Hydra, the Universal War Machine supercedes nations, races and civilizations, having existed for thousands of years. While its weapons, armies, fortifications and commanding generals must periodically be replaced, the war machine is constantly renewed to retain its effectiveness and strength. It thrives upon contention and opposition. Entire industries and economies depend upon its continued viability.

Successful operation of the Universal War Machine is based upon the myth that men can achieve important objectives through war. While this may temporarily appear to be true, unless war is waged in self defense, less is usually accomplished by fighting a war than can be achieved without fighting one at all. The primary motive force that feeds the war machine is fear. Nations build armies out of the fear that other nations will build stronger armies to overpower them. They build weapons systems to match the capabilities of their adversaries, and escalate production if they detect that their opponents are doing the same. And all of this comes not out of intelligence but fear. Isaac Asimov once said, “violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” People go to war because their leaders are power hungry or incapable of resolving their domestic problems by other means. War can be effective to mobilize a nation in an emergency, but its ultimate objective is destructive. The threat of destruction is often nearly as effective as any attempt to carry it out. But the means used to make good that threat also feed the war machine by investing huge quantities of capital resources, making the competition an economic as well as a military one. The Cold War provides an excellent example of this. The United States and the Soviet Union, both having nuclear weapons, fought battles with conventional weapons in proxy states, avoiding more direct confrontations until one of the two sides withdrew after exhausting short-term strategic resources and debilitating its own political system. Factors Which May Affect or Void the Warranty One small country, Costa Rica, made a surprising choice in 1948 that affected its capacity for waging war. Following the Battle of Ochomogo, two opposing sides sat down after the forces of Jose Figueres won an important military victory. The problem was the opposition wasn’t about to go away simply because it had lost. The victors wanted the losers to disarm. The losers pointed out that unless the victors themselves were willing to disarm, there was no motivation for anyone to lay down their weapons. In a surprise move, Figueres proposed that he abolish his army and implement social guarantees that the communists who opposed him were fighting for. He would do this and give eventual legal political participation to the communist party if their forces would lay down their weapons as well, and renounce violence as a means to achieve their objectives. The rest is the stuff of history. Figueres, as the new President, disbanded the army, the two sides disarmed simultaneously, the communist party was legally recognized, and social guarantees such as a progressive labor code and public health care were implemented. Meanwhile, the United States and the Soviet Union waged a debilitating Cold War for the next 40 years. Costa Ricans could live in relative peace, while the rest of Central America was ravaged by wars for the next four decades. Costa Rica helped lead the way to a peace agreement among Central American nations in the 1980’s, once again showing that its own solution would work on a larger scale. This may be a small side note in world history, but it does represent a chink in the armor of the Universal War Machine, and it underscores a few things: 1) It is possible to end war if both sides are willing to make concessions; 2) Disarmament is the only means by which the war machine will be disabled. 3) Novel solutions may be required to

accommodate the demands of opposing sides, but this is preferable to armed conflict, especially if it leads to positive long-term developments. The passing of one generation to another has minimized the importance of this accomplishment. Fortunately or unfortunately for the rest of the world, the effects of unilateral disarmament have been isolated to a single region. Armies still exist in almost all other countries, and wars, for the most part are still waged in the rest of the world. Service Warranty During Period of Operation Where are we today? Since the end of the Cold War, the major issues which once divided nations are less likely to draw entire countries into conflict, but protracted wars between unequal forces have pitted armies of larger nations against the unconventional forces of smaller ones. There’s no way conventional armies will win decisive victories with long-term benefits. The War Machine is universal, transnational, non-denominational, polytheistic, and transcultural. It employs and destroys human beings from all sides and walks of life, throughout all ages, without discriminating or excluding any society, according to the tides of war. It devours friends, foes and innocents alike, and will do this until the end of time or until the machine itself is dismantled. Men depend upon their enemies to make the machine work. They fight them with a hatred that approaches love, and often make friends with them later, after a war is ends. The war machine needs blood lust, unbridled emotions, and young soldiers to keep going and growing strong. Millions of children have been consumed by the machine, and yet people still worship and give it reverence for protecting them from themselves. And that’s the greatest joke of all. We fight our wars against a single unbeatable foe each and every time. We have met the enemy on land, at sea, and in the air and it’s us. The soldiers we fight are people like us in different uniforms with other perspectives, but we’re brothers and sisters fighting one another, instead of fighting together for our common good. Every battle won is a battle lost. Every enemy annihilated is a victim slain. Muslim, Christian, Hindu, pagan, Shiite, Sunni, Buddhist, Jew—all go into a common grave. A shared genetic code leads us to do it all over again in the name of whatever we are fighting for, giving homage to the machine, caring for it, serving and feeding it, until one generation dies and is replaced by another that will do the same. The farce only ends if we recognize it for what it is. We’re the ones who created the Universal War Machine, but we’ve lost that fact from memory since our ancestors died and never left proper operating instructions—until now. All we have to guide us are recent wars and histories of wars, which only give an idea of what to do in case of war. We know enough to maintain the machine, but fail to realize that the more we feed it, the bigger it grows. The only way to stop that growth is to stop feeding the machine, or reduce what we put into it. But if we’re addicted to the habit of maintenance, it will continue destroying and growing, consuming our children and resources until… we stop.

Other Factors Which May Void the Warranty Although I’ve described the dynamics of the war machine in metaphorical terms, the biomechanics of the machine are global and quite real. The machine is powered by any conflict, regardless of who’s right or wrong, regardless of who wins or loses. On a global scale, the result of war is always a net loss that gives strength to the machine. And since most people have a limited or poor understanding of how it works, they tend to do the opposite of what’s necessary to control its growth. I’ve used an emotional appeal to counter the implicit emotional appeal that justifies war. We’re consumed, if not destroyed by the machine, for no distinct benefit to ourselves. In the vast majority of cases, we sacrifice our lives, not for our race, nation, heritage, or belief—but to the machine (like the monster Dr. Frankenstein created, which destroyed him). The dynamics of the war machine also shows us how it may be controlled. Though there are few historical examples when people have circumvented the power of the machine, there are actual cases when this has happened. The paradox of the solution is both simple and difficult—STOP FEEDING THE MACHINE. It’s a simple solution that will stop or reverse growth, but difficult because we’re unlikely to do that. Stopping the machine requires that we overcome our fears, sit down with our former enemies, and learn to tolerate or respect the needs and differences of people in other societies. Surprisingly, we have begun to do that. Russia and the United States have both begun nuclear disarmament. To overcome the Universal War Machine, we have to develop an understanding of ourselves and others that transcends biases and boundaries. Disarmament of all weapon systems and armies should continue. We may be closer to understanding this now than we were in the past. Worldwide Internet and mass media suggest we’re all really inhabitants of a single planet who must live together without preparing for a constant state of war. An understanding of System Dynamics can give us the abilities to meld the powers of mind and machine in positive ways instead of negative ones. System Dynamics allows people to create computer simulations of mental models and deal with multiple variables of complex systems. A simulation model can help a person examine and understand how each aspect or variable interacts with others, providing better ways to understand the impact of our actions. This is important for understanding huge systems like the Universal War Machine. You can find free software to learn how to use System Dynamics through the Internet. Perhaps we can find better ways to prepare our young than by training them for war. We can teach them longer, make them healthy, and use intelligence instead of force to solve the problems we face in a world we must all share together. At its inception, System Dynamics was used for complex fire control systems to direct weapons. Now it has the potential for ending the conflicts that could cause wars before they begin. Its time to disassemble the machine we’ve used to make war, and use machines to enhance our abilities to think. All we need is to recognize a process we’ve already begun. Let’s forget about wars and reinvest our creative energies and resources to make a better world for all of us.

This article may be shared for personal or educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced for any other reason without express permission from the author. ©August 2009 About the Author. Michael McCurley is an alumnus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Guided Study Program in System Dynamics for Education that was offered through the Internet. He lives in Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica.