Preface: I served proudly in the United States Marine Corps Reserve 50 years ago; that doesn’t seem possible. I still get chills when I hear the Marine Corps hymn, and I always will. I stood ready to serve my country, and die if necessary. I came within a hair’s breadth of going to Viet Nam on two occasions. In retrospect, I’m grateful I didn’t go, but at the time, I stood more than ready. The point here is that I respect all the men and women who serve and have served in our military. Having said that, and watching the touching tributes to our service men and women in this video, we need to avoid glorifying war.
War is hell. General William Tecumseh Sherman, a Union General during the Civil War, is credited with that statement. In a speech to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy in 1879, Sherman said:
“I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!”
There is some debate around the precise words, and variants of the quote exist, but they all end with ‘war is hell’ or ‘it is all hell’. Those who have served in battle understand Sherman’s words. Unfortunately, many in our government, and many in civilian life who have never watched their best friend die next to them cannot fathom what that hell is like.
The men and women in this video, and all those serving in our armed forces, present and past, joined the military for any number of reasons. Some may have come from military families where serving our country is a proud tradition. Others, like me, came out of high school without a clue which path to take in life and joined the military because it seems to offer a construct that provided some guidance and direction in life, giving us time to plan for the future; it’s almost like a protective cocoon. Others see no future for themselves in civilian life. Many of our minorities see little or no hope for a successful career in the corporate world and opt for the military because the opportunities appear greater there regardless race, religion, or gender, and someday, hopefully, sexual orientation.
It really doesn’t matter why they joined; they stand ready to lay down their lives for their country, and they should be revered for that. The problem lies in glorifying war, and the danger of that leading to war as a first option to solving problems. When the populace of a country appears to glorify war, the politicians feel enabled to start wars. Sometimes, as I believe was the case with the Bush/Cheney administration, the politicians use an event like 9/11 to beat the drums of war, churning the emotions of the people in support of a war like the invasion of Iraq that we now know was completely unjustified.
The death toll for the Iraq invasion – yes, I refuse to call it a war – is approaching 5,000 U.S. and coalition troops, and untold tens-of-thousands of civilian deaths and casualties. Can anyone say that Iraq is better off than when this started? I know people will argue that we deposed a dictator, but the centuries-old hostilities between the religious factions and tribes of that area still exist below the surface of a pseudo-democratic government, and when we leave, we’ll likely see more war.
We have fought wars throughout the world, and through all of history, but is the world any better for it? If you could gather the bodies of all who’ve died in all the wars and put them in one giant pile, they’d likely reach to the moon, but what did any of that accomplish?
Certainly, we are sometimes forced into war, as in World War II where the Nazi’s were hellbent on wiping out an entire culture and dominating the world. When that happens, it becomes necessary to fight, but it should only be the last resort, not the first. We, the non-warriors must be ever vigilant that our leaders are not beating the drums of war unnecessarily.
Sadly, there are those who profit from war, both economically and politically, and those are the ones to be watched, and stopped from starting pointless wars. War should not be used as a tool for political change or economic gain. People die in wars; homes and businesses are destroyed; and families are decimated.
By all means, honor and respect our men and women willing to stand an fight a just war, but remember that the cost of war to a nation is personally, morally, nationally, and economically devastating, and we need to be sure before we take up arms that there is no alternative.
There’s an old German proverb that says it best: “A great war leaves the country with three armies – an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.”











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