The Dogs of War

Is Hamas the modern Dogs of War? Is Al Qaeda the modern Dogs of War? Is George W. Bush, et al, the modern Dogs of War? Perhaps they are mutts of the same pack.

Thomas Jefferson uses the term 'Dog of war' as a metaphorical embodiment of war itself in a letter to James Madison: "We have already given [...] one effectual check to the Dog of war, by transferring the power of letting him loose from the executive to the Legislative body [...]." (September 6, 1789). I guess he would have enjoyed the power that Bush took back to the Executive Branch...but that is another topic for another time...

The original Dogs of War, or Dainii nohduud in Mongolian, was a name given by Chingis Khan (Genghis Khan) to his four top generals in the early 1200s.

Since the dawn of (hu)man we have seen the battle of survival in its purist form. As the world begets itself less space for us to interact through over population, over consumption, over depletion we find ourselves in a very delicate balance for survival.

Now, what we seem to be experiencing on the planet as a whole is not battles for survival, but battles of belief, for power, oil or other commodities.

In the battle for beliefs, the power of the men of these "radical" sects of Islamic faith is exemplified through their desire to destroy those who do not follow their dogmatic approach to Islam. (Much like the warring decisions Bush displayed in his Evangelical born again beliefs.) The power of these men is exemplified to the western world through their enslavement of their women to the point of their position to be less than that of a dog. (In Bush's case here, he just decided to take away many of the inalienable rights to freedom as described in the Constitution.)

When religion and politics combine we enter a realm of which the world will not and cannot control. That is why the founding father of the United States wished for the separation of the Church and the State. Other governments in the world are ruled by local factions of their religious beliefs. Can we come to a common ground with this if other countries do not hold the same governing rules as our constitution? Can we find a common ground if we allow our own country's President to be making decisions based solely through their religious doctrines and not following the separation statute of our Constitution?

Education, politics and religion play just as much a part in the process of survival of the specie, as to the human specie, at this point. There are enough people in the world now. In fact, too many for the planet itself. The power struggle does not necessarily come from the act of the human to survive, but for the (un)educated religious doctrines to survive.

Does education bring forth a homogenized style to any religion? Does dogma and religion stifle honest debate to an ever changing global society? Does the mix of politics and religion create a never ending global challenge to survival and peace?

What we are seeing and what the Middle East regions religion has experienced for thousands of years has morphed into something that the western world has difficulty or perhaps cannot understand. There are many who state that once the oil is depleted or the world has moved on to a different means of commodity for power (in its usery sense) we will not have the warring factions in the Middle East. These battles have been going on long before we have had a global need for oil.

It is very saddening to hear the words of the women of Palestine or Afghanistan and their slave type plight in life due to the religious doctrines that the men of their society espouse. It is disheartening to see the constant political battles ensue over religious ideals that have plagued this region for scores of centuries.

From what we hear reported, allegedly coming from the Hamas or Al Qaeda, is that they will never stop. The martyrs of their doctrine has left them the message to fight the western world as it is the poison to their beliefs. If this is their plight, it will not stop and I feel for the women of this society that are enslaved within a system that leads them to no way out. It is impossible to understand the levity of their pain.


Below are the lyrics from the song "Dogs of War" by Pink Floyd. I like this song, although it does not rate high with most Pink Floyd fans. It is found on the live album entitle "The Delicate Sound of Thunder". I find the words to the 1987 song written about war on the highest level, the political level to be of value again today. The dogs of war describe how politicians orchestrate wars that the public does not know about. Also, the major influence behind war is money. This song discusses the covert wars of the 80's where millions of American dollars went to Afghanistan to fight off the Soviet threat of communism. Now, we see where that has gotten us to...

Dogs of war and men of hate
With no cause, we don't discriminate
Discovery is to be disowned
Our currency is flesh and bone
Hell opened up and put on sale
Gather 'round and haggle
For hard cash, we will lie and deceive
Even our masters don't know the web we weave
One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

Invisible transfers, long distance calls,
Hollow laughter in marble halls
Steps have been taken, a silent uproar
Has unleashed the dogs of war
You can't stop what has begun
Signed, sealed, they deliver oblivion
We all have a dark side, to say the least
And dealing in death is the nature of the beast
One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world

The dogs of war won't negotiate
The dogs of war don't capitulate,
They will take and you will give,
And you must die so that they may live
You can knock at any door,
But wherever you go, you know they've been there before
Well winners can lose and things can get strained
But whatever you change, you know the dogs remain.
One world, it's a battleground
One world, and we will smash it down
One world ... One world






This, the 231th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!


(c)Copyright 2009 Doug Boggs