Veterans Day, 2015

It is Veterans Day. Each year on this day, as well as on the more "general" Memorial Day in May, I reflect on the sacrifices of those who fought our wars.  I see all the flag-waving, jingoism, and national fervor of the blinded and the unwashed. What good has that ever done us?  Any of us, except maybe the arms-dealers?  I wish we would all stop to think for a moment about the real fruit of mindless, drum-beating, arrogant patriotism.

I don't know of any common, everyday soldier or sailor who ever wanted to go to war, except the crazy ones. Yet, as a nation we beat the drum and wave the flag every time there is a disagreement of some sort with other nations.  I know that in some cases, we had no choice but to fight; I am thinking about WWII in particular.  There is also something very righteous about opposing tyrants and fighting for the rights and lives of others.

But the United States, in the face of our claim to be a peace-loving people, has gone to war perhaps more times than any empire in the history of the world. I think it could be proven that we are, or have been, the most warlike people ever to live on the Earth - in written-historical times anyway; thought-provoking books attempting to make that point have been published. We remain today more than ready to coerce other nations to do our will by force.

This year, I tallied up the human cost of our ferocity, as best I could.  I included both our casualties (just deaths) and those of the nations we have fought, as accurately as I could discern it. In the major wars we have fought -- the ones we typically think of when the subject is discussed, beginning with the American Civil War, the United States (and it's allies where that was a factor) have lost approximately 1,354,700 military personnel killed fighting "for their country and freedom."  If you add in those of other nations whom we opposed, the total numbers are well-over 43,480,000 killed. 

Forty-three and a half million human lives. These figures do not include the many millions of civilians killed in these same conflicts -- collateral damage, as it were - often innocent people who just got in the way.  I was not even able to begin to estimate the total numbers who have been wounded. Often those wounds never heal. 

These are just the major conflicts we have been involved in, 1861 to the present.  Think about how many wars we fought even before that. Think about all the other wars that the US was not a party to. Some of those U.S. wars were unnecessary, unwarranted, immoral.  

These numbers are a fraction of the real total -- and they are only the ones we have a connection to, where our people were committed. Among those lost, is it not possible that the person who had the talent and brains to formulate a cure for cancer, or some other human misery or problem was among them?  Human beings are such idiots, generally speaking, and I don't see that the problem is being improved upon.

My thought has often been that when old men start wars, it ought to be those same old men who should go fight them - and die.  Pretty soon, maybe the willingness to start wars would diminish, maybe even disappear; we could breed it out of our gene pool.

I have become a conscientious objector, a newly-minted pacifist. This is kind of odd for someone who was a rather active "hawk" and very military-minded in his younger days. But it is true that many of us are softened by our life-experiences, and by reflection on what the meaning of life truly is. 

I met and talked with Barry Goldwater a couple of times, once when I was a student at university and we had lunch with him -- and I was surprised by how conciliatory and mellowed he had become since his presidential run and senate service, years before. His attitude and words were very plainly "live and let live" on many topics the politicians and citizenry are willing to rip our nation apart about today.  So I am not alone -- I have such illustrious company as the most conservative American conservative of his time.

Be that as it may, I think Gandhi was very plainly right. I also think humankind is a thick and stupid race. I don't think we should play those games anymore. If you believe your God really exists, you have to know there will be a reckoning for our hardened hearts on that last "gettin' up morning." [Matthew 7:3].

This essay is dedicated to my son, who has done more than his share in the service of this country and may suffer from the experience the remainder of his life.