Misconceptions lead to war
More than a month into the latest Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, casualties continue to rise on both sides and hopes for peace continue to fall.
As of this writing, both Israeli and Hezbollah leaders are poised to escalate the conflict even further. Israeli officials have approved a massive new ground invasion into southern Lebanon, obviously hoping to further degrade Hezbollah?s combat capabilities before any United Nations cease fire might occur.?Meanwhile, Hezbollah remains defiant and determined to thwart any new offensive from Israel.
Viewed from afar, it is hard to make sense out of all the carnage and chaos this latest conflict has brought to Israel and to Lebanon.?So far, the fighting has killed nearly 900 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, and caused widespread destruction across southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
However the conflict ends, it seems clear to me that it began with mutual misconceptions by Hezbollah and Israel.?First, Hezbollah leaders, by their own admission, underestimated the ferocity of the Israeli response to their provocative acts.?Second, Israeli leaders apparently underestimated Hezbollah?s combat capabilities for simultaneously raining rockets on northern Israel and tenaciously resisting Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon.
Mutual misconceptions are not peculiar to the current Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, of course.?Instead, they are as old as warfare itself. ??
For example, the 20th Century was replete with examples of mutual misconceptions leading to war.?World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and a host of lesser conflicts, all began with mutual misconceptions. My own experience and extensive research both suggest that the most important factor in leading to the outbreak of war is misconception.
Mutual misconceptions may manifest themselves in at least four ways:?how leaders view themselves; how they view their adversary?s character; how they view their adversary?s intentions, and how they view their adversary?s capabilities and power.
The first few years of the 21st Century do not inspire confidence that the world has learned much from the mutual misconceptions that have caused so much death and destruction in the past. From Afghanistan and Iraq to Israel and Lebanon and beyond, these distortions persist.?
They are fueled by mutual fears that border on paranoia.?They are fanned further by so-called ?religious? fanatics who preach- not love and peace, but hate and war.
Complicating the role that mutual misconceptions play in leading to war is the nature of war itself.?To the outside observer, war may be seen as organized insanity.
However, to the participants, war has its own internal logic of victory and defeat.? Contrary to the assertions of some, war is not the failure of politics, but as Karl von Clausewitz aptly observed, ?war is the continuation of politics by other means.?
Unfortunately, history teaches us the bitter truth of that aphorism.
The nexus between mutual misconceptions and the outbreak of war remains one the major obstacles to world peace. So is the nature of war itself.? Given the enduring presence of these obstacles, efforts to achieve lasting peace all too often seem sadly Sisyphean-full of endless, but futile labor.
Thomas B. Vaughn is a professor at Motlow College and co-host of the radio show ?Viewpoints,? which is broadcast on 91.3 FM, WCPI. ?