I Am Already Against the Next War

Just saw a new bumper sticker and it hit a nerve:  "I Am Already Against the Next War".

CNN News had been reporting on a Pew Research Study regarding the attitudes of US Military Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars in comparison to the attitudes of civilians about those wars and military service (CNN.com, 10.05.11).

The research suggests that “half of post-9/11 veterans said the Afghanistan war has been worth fighting. Only 44% felt that way about Iraq, and one-third said both wars were worth the costs.” 

“Most Americans remain supportive of their all-volunteer military. (Only one-half of 1% of the population has been on active-duty service in the past decade.) Nine out of 10 expressed pride in the troops, and three-quarters say they thanked someone in the military. But 45% -- higher than among military respondents -- said neither of the wars fought after the September 11, 2001, attacks have been worth the cost……Half said the wars have made little difference in their lives.”

I am not a pacifist.  I feel strongly that the use of deadly force for self-defense or the defense of others is justifiable and at times necessary.  It is an evil, of course, but to stand by and do nothing while we are aware of the real threat of violence by another makes us complicit in that violence.  I have the highest regard for those who serve honorably in our military services, police and first-responder services.  They daily put their lives on the line for others, which for me is a Christian calling (John 15:13).

Yet I am very anti-war.  As a student of history I question its value for anything other than self-defense.  As a Baby Boomer I remain highly suspicious of our nation’s use of war and support of proxy war since the end of World War II.

I suppose those attitudes put me squarely in the conclusions of the Pew research.  I honor and appreciate our military very much while questioning the way our government spends their valor and sacrifice. 

The fear of not being prepared to deter an enemy born at Pearl Harbor has continued and expanded long after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Cold War paranoia justified preemptive war in Vietnam, proxy wars in Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, CIA covert disruption of Chile and direct military incursions into Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Grenada.  The justification for the preemptive invasion of Iraq in 2003 was contrived on misinformation and accepted by the public based on our outrage over 9/11 and our fears of future attacks. 

We can debate whether our world or our nation is better off as a result of our constant war footing since World War II but it would be hard not to argue that the United States is convinced that war is the answer to our security.  

As the Pew survey suggests our population is quite satisfied that fewer and fewer of our country men and women actually serve the military and pay the direct price for our militarism.  Few citizens question the morality or efficacy of the increasingly successful use of robotic weaponry to eliminate our adversaries in targeted assassination.  Few question the trade off in military strategy that has "only" lost 1,800 US combat deaths in the ten years of war in Afghanistan compared to the 58,000 in the eight plus years of official war in Vietnam.  The direct collateral damage to tens of thousands non-combatants has remained among the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan while thousands of US families welcome home their wounded loved ones or bury their dead.

Is this peace? 

Why do we feel so afraid, suspicious and angry about our nation, the future...even our neighbors of different race and religion...if all this war was supposed to buy our security?

The Tenth Anniversary of the Afghanistan War motivated me to sit down and calculate.  In my 59.75 years our country has been at war for 22.75 of them….or 38% of my life!* 

I thank God for the men and women willing to defend me and our nation from the actual threat of attack.  And...I am already against the next war.

*I calculated the dates as follows:

Born in January 1952

Korean War                            

          June 25, 1950             -           July 27, 1953

Vietnam War                          

          July 30, 1964 Gulf of Token   -           April 30, 1975 Fall of Saigon

Gulf War I                              

          August 2, 1990            -           February 28, 1991

Invasion of Iraq:  Iraqi Freedom

          March 19, 2003           -           to date

Afghanistan:  Operation Enduring Freedom

          October 7, 2001          -           to date

[This reckoning does not include the covert wars in Latin and Central America, Africa and Asia supported directly and indirectly by the United States during my lifetime as well.]