By Joe Mayer
Sandwiched within just a couple of weeks were Pres. Obama’s visiting and speaking at three events dealing with veterans and war – saluting the coffins of returning dead at Dover Air Force base, the memorial service at Fort Hood, and the traditional wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery. These events seemed to have ignited renewed interest in considering the physical, mental, and emotional costs being inflicted on a small contingent of our fellow citizens who are carrying the burden of our world policing adventures.
Toward the end of these events, two others occurred that are significant to our occupation of Afghanistan. Pres. Obama rejected all four of the Pentagon plans for increasing troop levels in Afghanistan and our ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, sent a letter to the president with strong reservations about sending reinforcements to that country.
Obama’s three interactions with suffering military families may counteract the constant drumbeat of the war hawks who consistently advocate that the poor, the minorities, and the middle class sacrifice themselves for the economic benefit of the elite. This is the normal history of war.
President Obama seems to have a conflict within himself. Upon his election the peoples of the world hoped that the United States might once again join the world as partner rather than as dictator. In country after country that Obama visited since his election large crowds gathered to hear his message of hope. He has promised to withdraw from Iraq. He is attempting diplomacy instead of belligerent threatening.
On the other hand he lives in Washington. He has hawks within his cabinet. He is Commander-in-chief of a Pentagon whose existence depends on conflict. He works with a Congress that long ago abdicated its Constitutional responsibility to make decisions on war, garnering constant criticism. He deals with a media that has a history of promulgating fear by aggressively cheerleading for war.
Those of us in the peace community need to strengthen his resolve. Veterans seem to be leading, pointing out the folly of a nation that asks less than one percent of its people to take on the world, to be the guarantor of U.S. security in a world that hates American aggression and occupation. Veterans are saying the cost is too much in the ruined lives of its members and the ruined dreams of American people. The cost is too much when the military is given a political task, a hopeless political task to bring democracy to nations with the barrel of a drone.
Can the peace community teach us, convince us to live in a world we cannot control? Will our youth rebel against its nation that sacrifices its own principles on the altar of power? Can we come to understand that other peoples of the world do not like to be occupied or controlled?
The last administration used terms like “50 years war” and “unending war.” Will this be our legacy? Did we vote in the last election for this? Can a democracy – can any nation – survive perpetual war? Washington points in this direction. Obama’s conflicted. Will we accept this opportunity to strengthen his resolve for the U.S. to join the world community?
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