This article was first published here by the Friday Times on Oct. 26, 2023.
It was nearly 60 years ago when Malcolm X famously suggested President Kennedy’s assassination was the inevitable result of chickens coming home to roost. One could easily say the same thing about the gun violence consuming America today.
Many of the mass shootings that have been perpetrated the past few years involved AR-15 style assault rifles, which are descended from a rifle originally designed for America’s war in Vietnam. Most estimates indicate America’s invasion killed approximately two million Vietnamese civilians. Much like its more recent invasion of Iraq, no one knows for certain how many innocents were murdered because no one bothered to count the bodies. But most estimates suggest it unleashed hell. It seems tragically fitting then that a weapon first used to murder countless innocent Vietnamese has now evolved into the symbol of America’s gun culture, and the preferred tool of those who wish to wreak havoc in its schools, places of worship, concert venues, movie theaters, offices, grocery stores, etc. Talk about chickens coming home to roost.
This is not meant to suggest the victims of these mass shootings bear any personal responsibility for their fates, but to point out that we are all impacted by the actions of our nation. Whether we had any direct participation in them or not is irrelevant. And the sad fact is America’s actions have been unconscionably violent and destructive.
The invasion of Vietnam was an unjust war of imperial aggression launched under the flimsiest of circumstances. The argument that it was necessary to stop the spread of communism is both inaccurate and illogical on many levels. North Vietnam may have been a communist state, but its struggle was primarily an anti-colonial one meant to liberate Southeast Asia from exploitative French rule.
The very premise of the invasion ignored the universal truth that people have the right to choose whatever form of government they want, even an inherently weak one that will inevitably collapse in on itself or give way to dictatorship. The only time war is ever justified is as a means of self-defense or coming to the aid of others in extreme circumstances. Since Vietnam never attacked America, there was no legitimate reason to invade it.
Whether through direct actions such as the invasions of Vietnam and Iraq, or indirect ones such as its prolific arms sales all over the world, America has turned itself into the world’s most violent military power and a merchant of death. Its actions have killed millions all over the world.
Not long after withdrawing from Vietnam, America’s intelligence agencies armed right wing death squads in Central America who murdered hundreds of thousands of women and children. Most were indigenous people guilty of doing nothing more than demanding greater rights over their own land. Since these people held left wing political views, America used its right-wing proxies to unleash hell yet again. Its actions in Central America were neither isolated nor unique.
Under the guise of fighting communism, America supplied arms to right wing regimes and paramilitary groups all over the world. Without this support, the slaughters and oppression committed in places as far flung as Chile, Indonesia, and South Africa would not have been possible.
These crimes were justified by the need to win the Cold War, but that conflict ended over thirty years ago and America’s policies have yet to meaningfully change. If anything, its share of the global arms market and ubiquitous military presence throughout the world has only grown.
During the Cold War, the threat of starting World War 3 prevented America from taking direct military control of the Middle East and its energy supplies. However, once the Soviet Union fell, it used Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait as a pretext to invade the Muslim world and build a permanent military presence there that endures to this day. The sanctions imposed on Iraq to oust Saddam after the first Gulf War killed an estimated 576,000 Iraqi children. According to a recent study by Brown University, the War on Terror that followed killed 4.5 million more people.
Between WW2, the Cold War, the Korean War, Vietnam, its clandestine actions in Central America, both Iraq wars and the War on Terror, America has been in a nearly perpetual state of conflict for the past 80 years. As the history of the AR-15 shows, there is a direct correlation between these conflicts and the mass shootings it is experiencing now. Even the rifle’s current popularity is based on marketing campaigns that borrowed imagery from the War on Terror. Instead of blaming violent video games, movies, TV shows, or mental health issues which are merely symptoms of the rot engulfing its culture, it is time to recognize that America’s gun violence is the result of being in a nearly continuous state of war for the better part of a century. Just as Pakistan and Afghanistan developed a Kalashnikov culture in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of the latter, America’s AR-15 subculture is a by-product of its many wars.
These historical and cultural factors have also been shaped by institutional economic interests. Those wondering why so many of America’s leaders refuse to do anything about gun violence need only follow the money. Its domestic arms industry generates $80 billion in economic activity and nearly 400,000 jobs. By themselves, the 20 million AR-15 style rifles already in circulation represent billions in economic activity. Ten percent of America’s manufacturing base is devoted to war. It is the world’s biggest military spender and arms dealer by a wide margin. It has allocated $816 billion for defense spending in 2023 which employs nearly 4 million people. Its arms sales in 2020 added $285 billion in exports. The F-35 fighter program, by itself, will cost America $1.7 trillion. By some estimates, it has spent $16 trillion on its military over just the past 20 years. When its various segments are combined, America’s arms industry is worth well over a trillion dollars a year. Just as its commercial interests have incentivized it to pursue violent military policies around the world, they have also led to the creation of a flourishing domestic arms industry. One many of its politicians are loath to interfere with no matter how many mass shootings their constituents must endure.
Those who justify America’s policies by pointing to the jobs and money generated from making weapons are chasing fool’s gold. Much of America’s $32 trillion debt was accumulated paying for its military. Building weapons may generate economic activity but when the end-product is a tank or rifle, there is no value added. There is no economic multiplier effect. All the resources used to build weapons are ultimately sunk costs wasted on violence that only leads to death and despair.
As part of a series of articles about the AR-15, The Washington Post published an editorial arguing the rifle should be banned. But over the years, it has published several op-eds arguing America should substantially increase its already massive military spending. Like most American media outlets, it has no issue with America’s aggressive military posture, its unequivocal support for Apartheid Israel, or arms sales to violent regimes around the world. And that vividly highlights the disconnect. Many Americans are desperate to put an end to domestic gun violence but still see no problem with the destructive role their military and weapons sales play throughout the world. But as the AR-15 shows, the two are linked. Addressing one without first addressing the other is therefore impossible.
Unfortunately, just as Malcolm X’s comments did so long ago, the ideas expressed here are more likely to cause outrage and indignation for being too “woke” or “anti-American” instead of the sort of introspection that can lead to meaningful change. In America, those who passionately argue for gun control laws are expelled from their legislative bodies while those same bodies respond to mass shootings by passing laws to protect gun manufacturers from liability. Most of its Supreme Court’s justices claim to follow a philosophy of judicial interpretation grounded in textual analysis and originalism but completely ignore the first clause of the second amendment when analyzing it. Logic and objectivity are no longer valued in America.
Those who agree with the historically and legally dubious argument that the 2nd amendment enshrines an individual right to bear arms inexplicably use their beliefs as a basis for opposing attempts to regulate, vet, and ensure proper training for those who seek to exercise this right. At a minimum, someone attempting to purchase a machine gun should be required to undergo a psychological and competency evaluation as part of the robust permitting process that should govern who can own such items. Given the 2nd amendment’s prefatory language regarding “a well-regulated militia,” requiring these individuals to join the national guard of their respective states would not be unreasonable either. But gun rights advocates passionately oppose attempts to regulate the sale and use of these weapons.
Similarly, convincing Americans they do not need to spend nearly a trillion dollars a year on their military given their nation’s natural geographic defenses has proven impossible. America’s obsession with war and violence is destroying and impoverishing it at the same time, but no one is willing to address these issues in a meaningful way.
Since Americans are no longer capable of having rational discussions about complicated issues, they will not resolve them anytime soon. In the absence of logic, its leaders will continue to prioritize jobs and money over safety or common sense. Ibn Khaldun would probably have said America is in the “senile” stage of its evolution. According to Khaldun, senility was the last, inevitable part of the process of a nation’s fall. Once it sets in, it is irreversible. Having entered its senile stage, America will never voluntarily dismantle its weapons factories, no matter how many of its citizens are slaughtered to feed their machines.
As America tears itself apart, the Muslim world must beware. The commercial interests that drive its military spending will incentivize it to continue attacking Muslim nations or arming those like Israel or India engaged in military confrontations with them. Its history of violence in the Muslim world and the refusal of its leaders to protect even their own citizens both show the same thing: America’s leaders have no regard whatsoever for the sanctity of life, Muslim or otherwise. Which means they will never stray from the militaristic path they have chosen. It is impossible to predict the contours or timing of America’s fall. The Ottomans survived for centuries during their senility. But one thing is certain, the degree to which it has armed itself and the rest of the world will come back to haunt us all. Which means a lot more chickens will be coming home to roost.