How do wars begin?

By Nam Sang-so

Wars begin when one nation deploys military power, and crosses the border of another.

It sounds so obvious and predictable but when it actually happens, people are always stunned. Thankfully, most people don’t have to endure this experience. I went through three wars; barely survived bombing raids by B-29s during World War II hiding in underground shelter, served the Korean War and escaped rocket shells and exposure to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War when I served as a contract engineer for the Seabees in the U.S. Navy.

Infantry battles are at the core of any war. Even if a sea or air conflict is won, it doesn’t always mean a war is successful. To declare victory, foot soldiers should occupy the enemy’s capital city and completely defeat its military forces. The Pacific War was a mostly fought at sea but the army, lead by Gen. MacArthur, occupied Japan.

North Korea’s artillery is always targeted at Seoul. So far, this has not caused another all-out war, even when the North’s weapons on the West Coast shot shells at Yeonpyeong Island or torpedoed a frigate from the South.

During these skirmishes, the North didn’t have an overall military operational plan and the South didn’t respond with great military force in retaliation. All militaries around the world have a General Staff Office where War Plans are drawn up and a real war begins only if plans agreed there are fully invoked.

Then is it illegal to preemptively attack a hostile nation without a declaration of war? It seems that some countries don’t accept this as illegal or unlawful. Imperial Japan launched a preemptive attack on Pearl Harbor after a slow and poor issuing of an ultimatum at their Washington Embassy. North Korea invaded the South without a declaration of war. President Roosevelt’s famous ``We are at war with Japan” meant nothing to Japanese ears. It was a strong appeal to the American people and at the same time informing the existence of a war to other countries.

“Who started first?” is important but some Islamic countries appear not to care about staging unethical surprise attacks, rather they appear to be inclined to do so. It may come from their Islamic doctrine, believing that it’s not an Olympic games event.

“War uses other methods but is an extension of politics,” I forgot who said this, but that can be translated to “War is an extension of diplomacy.” If so, diplomacy can take a form of war, and again if so, then the table for peace negotiation should always be set while bullets are being exchanged.

So, if South Korea really wants to reunify the peninsula, now is a good time to launch a preemptive attack because the North has started the process toward conflict. The democratic South never says it intends to start a war because this will be clear evidence to the world of an act of invasion.

The situation is the inverse, but the difference is that the North keeps threatening to wipe out Seoul, and Kim III visits the front lines with TV cameras. It seems the North is hinting that it has no intention of invading the South, unless of course the North’s staff officers with inflated military caps on their heads are all idiots. And we all know that they are. Are they not?

The writer is a retired architect/project analyst. His email address is sangsonam@gmail.com.