“We are once again in another war.” I said this over coffee the other morning as the news reported the start of bombing in Libya. My friend, who understands my pacifist leanings but doesn’t fully share them, started to give me justifications as to why this is not just another war. “This is sanctioned by United Nations Security Council, the Arab League endorsed it, the world needs to stop an insane demonic leader from killing his own people…”
Phrase it any way you want. It’s still another war. And what if it turns out to be a long war? The U.S. is still in Iraq, the U.S. is in the middle of fighting in Afghanistan, and now missiles are being dropped on Libya, allegedly to establish a no-fly zone.
Just stop for a minute and think about what is being done in our name. Somehow, sometime we need to have a national discussion about what we hope to win by fighting one war after another. But when will we have that discussion? If not now, when?
Long after the fighting has stopped, the troops come home, the dead buried, the medals awarded, the monuments built, the names posted of young men and women who died, and the mothers, fathers, sisters, wives, children and friends have gone on with their lives? Or maybe after the corporations have made inroads to sell American goods in what is now considered a friendly country?
Or after we have established this once-evil enemy as a trading partner and a trade treaty has been set up to let us buy trinkets or TVs at strip malls across America? After all this, maybe the American public can finally get down to figuring out why we were there fighting yet another war.
This national discussion needs to begin with the understanding that war is not the answer. Not yesterday. Not now. Not tomorrow. Never. The home-front warriors who make the decision to go to war are never the ones who fight the fight.
As a matter of fact, during the Vietnam War, when the politicians’ own sons were in danger of being drafted, the need to end that pointless war became very evident to those in power. And so they finally ended a failing war which killed some 58,000 U.S. soldiers, maimed another 130,000, not to mention a million or more dead Vietnamese.
So I suggest we begin to have this discussion now. Turn to the person next to you on the bus, the subway, the train, the restaurant, the café, the espresso bar — and talk to him or her. You need to talk to someone, anyone, who doesn’t see the obvious, who doesn’t already agree with us.
Let me help get the conversation started. I have experience in this. “Excuse me. May I ask you why we, the U.S., are in Afghanistan? What do we hope to gain by being there? The Russians couldn’t win a war there even though they tried for 20 years, so do you think we can? Are you willing to give your life for this purpose? If you disagree with why this is being done in your name, in my name, in our names — have you told your politicians?”
If the person can’t hear you, talk louder so everyone around can hear you. Our future and the future of the world depend upon it.