The Best Way to Honor Our War Dead on Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, the best way to honor our war dead is doing whatever it takes to prevent more deaths in the future.

Go ahead and salute the flag, attend the parade marching down Main Street, and proudly sing the National Anthem.  Just be aware that none of these overt displays of cushy patriotism will matter much beyond making us all feel a little fuzzier about ourselves without the fortitude of pledging to save our sons and daughters from hiking off into the next pointless war risking dismemberment, and even death.

Want to be brave?  Do something different this year.  First off, start asking tough questions.

Whatever it takes, whatever needs to be done, and by any means necessary — all Americans who profess to care so deeply for the courageous men and women serving this nation must assure those in uniform that they won’t be used as sacrificial pawns on a twisted checkerboard of global power politics.  That’s precisely what they have been, and indeed what all modern wars have been — muscle-flexing acts of mass insanity led by chickenhawks who have never personally felt the sting of combat, yet who have no moral compunction whatsoever against giving orders for others to die.  From the debacle of Vietnam some 50 years ago to Afghanistan and Iraq more recently — three infuriatingly futile wars each lasting more than a decade, more than three times as long as America’s involvement in World War II — we’ve been continuously misled, lied to, and ultimately victimized by politicians, a lazy and complicit media, and nefarious corporations which conspire to fan the flames of the regional and global conflict because it’s good for business.

America hasn’t fought a “just” war since 1945.  Every other military conflict or police action since then has resulted in two abhorrent truths — (1) the unnecessary losses of tens of thousands of lives, and (2) the grotesque enrichment of war profiteers who have absolutely no interest in world peace and who deserve to be tried for crimes against humanity.  Explain to the dead and their survivors the point or purpose of fighting in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and/or Iraq?  After all, none of those countries ever intended to invade the U.S.  Why were trillions in national treasury squandered that could have been spent here at home on building a better country?  Are those nations we invaded really any better off now or is the world any safer for America’s gargantuan display of military might over and over and over again?  Of course, the biggest question is the toughest to ask ourselves — when will we ever learn?   

Indeed, we can’t do anything to bring back the dead.  But what we can do is this — stop policing the entire world with needless military bases everywhere and battleships in every foreign port and ceaselessly bearing the vast majority of budget-busting costs while hopelessly trying to keep the peace, a foreign policy which has never worked, will not work and is a proven disaster.  Wherever the American military has gone in the last five decades the situation has either not improved or has gotten worse.  No one can make a reasonable argument for success — anywhere.  Had American forces not gotten involved in the first place, lives would have been saved, and the general state of affairs in most regions would still pretty much be the same.  American show of might hasn’t made any difference at all, other than bankrupting us and ensuring a steady market for body bags.

Fact is, this nation is full of cowards.  And frankly, I’m sick of phony patriotism.  Unfortunately, these cowards and phonies sometimes reach positions of power.  From President George W. Bush to Vice President Dick Cheney, who both ducked and hid when called for military duty (Bush shielded himself from active duty by enlisting in the National Guard with some helpful pull from his daddy [1], while Cheney took five draft deferments during Vietnam [2]), these two deserters at the highest level of government neither see nor saw any hypocrisy in sending other people’s children off to war to be killed or maimed for life while they dove under the mattress when asked to serve.

Reasonable questions should be asked.  Wouldn’t much of the world fall apart if the American military were to pull out and come home?  Well, there’s absolutely no evidence of that.  Name a single country where hostilities got worse when American forces left?  You can’t.  If we’d mind our own business, there’s a good chance we wouldn’t be targets and elicit so much hatred just about everywhere in the world, not to mention we that could use those forces, that talent, and the money-back here at home to rebuild our own crumbling infrastructure.  There’s a cruel irony to us investing hundreds of billions of dollars in “rebuilding” Iraq, while many American inner cities have disintegrated into what looks like war zones.  That’s what the riots should really be about in America.  Neglect.

The Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson recently asked a nagging question which now calls the entire Iraqi operation into question.  He asked:  “If Iraqis won’t fight for their nation’s survival, why on earth should we?”  [3]  I’d like to ask that question of any nation we occupy, invade, or place where there’s a military base right now.

Robinson is absolutely right.  Iraq is a mess and no amount of airstrikes or boots on the ground is going to change things over there.  Those of us who insisted back in 2002 the Iraq War would come to this were proven right.  Another land invasion merely delays the tribal infighting for another ten years, then it’s back to step one all over again.  Only, we can’t afford another mistake like this again.  We’ll be broke and the American dollar will end up as a basket currency if we’re forced to bear the costs of another war in the Middle East.  Yet incredibly, some neo-conservatives are now calling for an attack on Iran.  It’s madness!

The bottom line is — we’ve tried all the various strategies of engagement already, and everything has failed since Vietnam.  Nation-building through occupation — a total failure.  Bombing the hell out of our enemies — didn’t work.  Financing and training friendly armies to fight — that backfired.  Most of those arms we gave some of our allies have now fallen into the hands of ISIS.  How’s that for a measuring stick of success?  Seriously, why aren’t there war crimes tribunals going on right now?  Forget the horrors of what ISIS is doing, shouldn’t the heads of our own political and corporate leaders be rolling?  [4]

Finally, there is the human cost of these pointless and unwinnable wars, which is incalculable and astronomical.  So staggering is the quiet misery experienced by hundreds of thousands, not to mention the degree of medical care and counseling necessary for our veterans and their families, that it’s incumbent upon us all to ask ourselves, why is this lunacy continuing and why do we let it happen over and over again?

Parades and celebrations are nice, and surely today there are some who gain comfort from engaging in the trappings of patriotism.  Moreover, remembering the dead who have given their lives in battle is certainly worthy of honoring.  That said, parades and patriotic songs are simply not enough.  That’s the easy way out.  Try something bolder and braver.

Want to honor the troops proudly serving our nation?  Then, bring them home.  From everywhere.  Right now.

[1]   After some political strings were pulled to avoid the draft, George W. Bush “voluntarily” joined the Texas Air National Guard and pledged to serve for six full years.  His actual term of service lasted only about two years and he was later suspended from flying as a pilot in his fourth year for not showing up for a mandatory physical. 

[2]  Former Vice President Dick Cheney is a lying piece of shit.  He not only took five draft deferments between years 1960 and 1967 (four while a student and one while he claimed to be a new father), later when he ran on the Bush-Cheney re-election ticket in 2004, he had the audacity to continuously attack his opponent Sen. John Kerry, who served honorably in combat in Vietnam.  Cheney is a vile coward and a war profiteer.  His company, Halliburton, earned a whopping $39.5 billion in profits from the Iraq war alone.  History will not judge him well.

[3]  Eugene Robinson’s excellent article which appeared in The Washington Post on May 24, 2015, is well worth reading. 

[4]  A fair question is also assessing President Obama’s role in this pattern of ceaseless warmongering.  One must concede these two wars have taken far too long to wind down, not to mention America’s foreign presence around the world is now as prevalent as ever.  Then, there’s the misuse of government authority and the proliferation of lecherous intelligence firms that have flourished under the current administration.  The Bush Administration was criminal for lying to the American people repeatedly, using torture, and pitching many of the most lucrative contracts off to their buddies.  The Obama Administration’s actions are disappointing but do not seem to merit the accusations of crimes committed by the previous administration.  I’ll welcome other points of view on this. 

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