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This is something that really gets to some of us. I have heard this a few different ways. I recall having this discussion in college a long time ago. There were some conflict in the era but they became into an identity of their own. Those were Korea and Vietnam. If you want to call Cuba one also you can. We were in a political struggle with communism. I didn't then and still don't see the difference with many other periods of time when were were postured against other counties like Spain. The Maine is still regarded as a bit of question how that was blown up.
To me I see the GWOT pretty much the same thing as the Cold War. Instead of fighting communism we are fighting against a ideology. There were two wars that came of it and a bunch of small conflicts too but you don't see many Iraq vets claim to be a GWOT vet but they claim to be an Iraq Vet instead.
Is it just an name for an Era more so than an actual conflict? We are pretty much always in some sort of conflict but we really haven't named them like this. For me it is more of a strategy. It lead to the fall of the USSR. It really wasn't much of a fall. They came back with guys like Putin to only continue what was thought to have ended.
To me I see the GWOT pretty much the same thing as the Cold War. Instead of fighting communism we are fighting against a ideology. There were two wars that came of it and a bunch of small conflicts too but you don't see many Iraq vets claim to be a GWOT vet but they claim to be an Iraq Vet instead.
Is it just an name for an Era more so than an actual conflict? We are pretty much always in some sort of conflict but we really haven't named them like this. For me it is more of a strategy. It lead to the fall of the USSR. It really wasn't much of a fall. They came back with guys like Putin to only continue what was thought to have ended.
Cold War
Warfare
GWOT
Edited 9 y ago
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 8
I have often thought of the same thing. There has been various times in history where posturing has been similar to this. As for the USS Maine, I have heard in the past that a politician will never let a tragedy go to waste. In this case we didn't. We have done this in the past to with the UK to some extent after the Revolution. It is an interesting way to look at it.
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Yes. The war was never fought between the US and the USSR, but it was fought between our allies often with one of the major powers physically engaged in the conflict.
But you are also right it was characterized by a political strategy of isolation and mutually assured destruction. An arms race that eventually bankrupted one side led the "win" of the other.
But you are also right it was characterized by a political strategy of isolation and mutually assured destruction. An arms race that eventually bankrupted one side led the "win" of the other.
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CPT Russell Pitre
That is what I am getting at. We could have said we were still in a Cold War Cuba even after the fall of the USSR. But just because they are an opponent doesn't mean it was a war. The label came about due to those wanting to bring attention and make it sound scary.
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It was, above all, a clash of ideologies punctuated by a few regional conflicts that then took on lives of their own. It's hard to compare the current GWOT, or Long War as it was once called, to the Cold War, but that's the best most of us can do. Most of the preceding generation doesn't remember life without the Cold War or the GWOT; it's really our grandparents and people of that generation that remember what life was like before 1939. Sadly, most of them are no longer with us.
Most people directly involved in the prosecution of the GWOT would argue, rightly, that it isn't a war against terror; rather, it's a war against terrorists, specifically those influenced by a very radical brand of Islam and its attendant fanaticism. Can you compare that to the Third Reich or the Vietcong or the North Korean mindset? Maybe, but I think that oversimplifies the matter. Communism was and is a largely economic set of beliefs and only, literally, a secondary source of politics. It's more accurate to call Soviet Russia, Cuba and North Korea former or current totalitarian regimes or command states, because that's exactly what they were or still are.
In that way, you can compare the apples of the Cold War to the oranges of the current war, whatever that is any more. Given a choice, I'd rather be fighting the Cold War than the one we find ourselves currently in, which has a lot less stability and a lot more potential volatility than at any time I can remember during my lifetime.
Most people directly involved in the prosecution of the GWOT would argue, rightly, that it isn't a war against terror; rather, it's a war against terrorists, specifically those influenced by a very radical brand of Islam and its attendant fanaticism. Can you compare that to the Third Reich or the Vietcong or the North Korean mindset? Maybe, but I think that oversimplifies the matter. Communism was and is a largely economic set of beliefs and only, literally, a secondary source of politics. It's more accurate to call Soviet Russia, Cuba and North Korea former or current totalitarian regimes or command states, because that's exactly what they were or still are.
In that way, you can compare the apples of the Cold War to the oranges of the current war, whatever that is any more. Given a choice, I'd rather be fighting the Cold War than the one we find ourselves currently in, which has a lot less stability and a lot more potential volatility than at any time I can remember during my lifetime.
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