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Chapter 7. Concluding Discussion
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210 Concluding Discussion When we examine the development of unrestricted submarine warfare in the context of cultural cores, three relevant social issues come to mind. First, the most prominent issue is the emergence and development of the idea of a culture of war whose main aim is to inflict a great amount of suffering and misery on civilian populations on a mass scale (Downes 2008). Second, sooner or later, deciding to practice unrestricted submarine warfare was bound to bring about committing specific atrocities. Conducting such warfare made the occurrence of such atrocities an issue of not “if ” but “when.” Consequently, the practice of launching torpedoes at unsuspecting passenger and/or hospital ships or machine-gunning survivors in lifeboats or in the water became a reality. Furthermore, because conducting such cruel and ruthless warfare involved secrecy, conniving, and cloaking, the actual conduct of this warfare involved cases of deception and falsification of reports of submarines’ activities. Many of those committed to and practicing unrestricted submarine warfare probably suspected or knew that this type of war making was morally and legally problematic. The third issue is the development of commemoration activities that crystallize the public’s memory of submariners—some that squelch and others that emphasize the atrocious acts in which submarines were involved during the two world wars. concePtuAlizinG unreStricteD SubmArine WArfAre The development of the submarine, a technologically spectacular killing machine, was slow. Designers had to overcome some serious technological hurdles.This long technological odyssey produced a matured submarine just prior to World War I. However, the development of unrestricted submarine Concluding Discussion 211 warfare was not a simple matter of technology translated into strategy or of some military deterministic requirements resulting from the pressure of war. Nor was it a matter of pacifists against militarists. Churchill, for example , who stated that civilized people do not fight an unrestricted submarine warfare, was not famous for being a pacifist.A much deeper cultural process took place here. One effective way to use a submarine is to employ it in an unrestricted form. However, this supposition rests on some prior assumptions: that the ends of war justify almost all the means; that there are times when it is appropriate to set the starvation of millions of civilians as a goal; and that harshness, mercilessness, and cruelty can be worthy values. The fact of the matter is that submarines did not have to be utilized in an unrestricted fashion in commerce raiding. The “demands of war” are not deterministic but are socially, militarily, and politically negotiated and constructed. As Dyer (2004) and others point out,the industrialization of war and the application of the concept of a“total war” that lay at the basis of unrestricted submarine warfare were—relatively speaking—a new development.To move from pre– World War I to the brutal submarine warfare in World War II required significant changes in cultural cores. These changes were not the result of some struggle between militaristic maniacs and sane pacifists, in which the militarists won. Most, if not all, of those involved in discussions and debates of how to operate submarines knew fairly well that winning a total war meant that releasing submarines to hunt freely was an option. But quite a few of these very same people expressed their dismay, uneasiness, and concern at the prospect of conducting such barbaric warfare. Thus, the British carried out such warfare but made quite an effort to hide what they realized was not only an ugly reality but something that concealed shame. This is probably also the reason why American politicians who were supposed to defend the idea of the“freedom of the seas” did not raise hell when the American navy ordered an unrestricted submarine warfare.Altering cultural cores in such a fashion was a process of persuasion, not a struggle between opposing camps. Because it was a process, it took a while to complete. While submarines inflicted a good deal of damage during World War I, two important developments took place during World War II. One was that submarines reached better technological maturity. Submarines could dive to over 200 feet, had reliable diesel-electric propulsion systems, eventually had reliable torpedoes and deck guns, had reliable life-support systems, and [54.224.124.217] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:21 GMT) 212 atroCIty, deVIaNCe, aNd SuBmarINe warfare were equipped with reliable navigational and communication systems. They also had other clear advantages over big surface ships: building them was relatively cheap, and the...