The Kid and I had this discussion today:
Kid (after having seen something on TV): Mom, does war bring out the worst in men or does the worst in men bring on war?
Me: It's a feedback loop kid. That means both are true.
Kid: Huh
Me: War is caused by the worst in men, then in war people act badly, then more war, then more bad behavior and so on.
Kid: So we have to end war to stop the worst in people.
Me: That's just the beginning.
It's Memorial day, and we should be honoring soldiers who have died doing what they were told to do- going to war. But I am having a hard time with that today in light of the Haditha story. Don't get me wrong- I fully understand that the individual soldiers are there because they have to be, that they signed up to do something that I would never do. But I can't look one-sidedly at the deaths in Iraq or Afghanistan. It isn't just our soldiers who are dying, but innocent civilians whose towns and homes and lives have been torn apart. We don't keep track of the numbers of civilians who've been killed. It would undermine the public support of the war faster than anything else has, especially because the Iraqi people have never been a focus of the war- it has always been the "insurgents" who were our targets.
Stories like the one at Haditha are not aberrations. In every war there is a Mai Lai or Haditha. They are part of the act of warfare, which is not noble. There are some things worth fighting for, but that doesn't make war righteous. It makes war a necessary evil. When, as in Iraq, the war is instigated on false premises it is an act devoid of any reason done by the worst of men.
I cannot fault the soldiers for acting on their orders. Chances are they are just poor kids from neighborhoods like mine who were hoping to find a way out of perpetual poverty and a something larger than themselves to believe in. I can fault the worst of men, those in charge who have never been to war themselves, for sending these kids in to do their dirty work.
For those kids who were just looking for a way out, for the families in far away countries where life has been shattered into a thousand pieces and run over with muddy boots and hummers, I wish them peace and to see the best of men.
2 comments:
"We don't keep track of the numbers of civilians who've been killed."
I'll never forget a press conference when Donald Rumsfeld was asked to give an estimate to the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war up to that point. He laughed and said that he had no idea.
Also, if were going to continue with these police actions we need to reinstitute the draft. That way the whole country would have to think twice about the costs of going to war. If they tried having one, you can be sure, we wouldn't be in Iraq right now--imminent threat or no imminent threat.
The problem with a draft is that I know it would be the boys and girls in my mostly brown neighborhood that would not only be the first to go, but given the most dangerous jobs. But then again, having a draft might break the apathy of the poor.
I do wish we could do political death matches between leaders instead of wars where thousands die while presidents say things like "bring it on"
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