Memorial Day

Let's be clear on this. If we send young men to war they deserve to
expect that they will be supported when they return. How open-ended that
support should be and what constitutes abuse of that system is another
matter. Similar discussions could surround the obligations we owe former
slaves, North American Detainees in Concentration/Internment Camps, and
Aboriginal Land Claims. History teaches us that America's present wars
will cost $45,000,000,000,000 in Veteran Support over the next 60 years.
That's a frightening number of zeros and should give our leaders cause
to pause before they engage in future wars.

It should be immediately apparent that I am a pacifist by nature. The
commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." underlies a belief in the sanctity
of all human life. It is at great peril we train young men to suppress
that taboo. Is there such a thing as a good or righteous war? I would
differentiate between conflicts that circumstance made necessary and the
rightness of the cause on either side. Remember, more wars have been
fought in the name of Religion than any other cause and in general both
sides in the conflict were firm in the belief that God was on their side.

It is a natural human trait for those who have made great sacrifices on
behalf of their nations to want to believe that their cause was not in
vain, that their personal costs accomplished something of worth. Witness
the sense of personal betrayal felt by participants in the conflict in
Viet Nam when they returned to protests of the war on the home front.
That a grateful nation should owe its veterans a debt of gratitude is
not in question. However the goals that motivated a declaration of war
may be questioned in the arena of historical observation.

The most costly war in human terms to be waged on this continent was the
War Between the States--the Civil War. Whether or not it served to end
slavery the aftermath of Reconstruction is still felt to this day.
Making the owning of another human being illegal did nothing to
eliminate racial prejudice and intolerance. States of mind are not
subject to legal rulings. The laws that govern the work place in many
southern states including the 'Great State of Texas' make non-unionized
laborers in effect indentured servants and little better than slaves to
my way of thinking. Any society whose standard of living is supported by
such laws has no right to call itself great.

The tangle of defense treaties in force leading up to The Great War to
end all wars made that outbreak unavoidable. The mean-spirited terms of
the German Surrender made the outbreak of World War Two almost
inevitable. The partitioning of Germany after that conflict led directly
to the so-called Cold War. The paranoia with the spread of Communism
that characterized that period leads one to ask, just what did democracy
have to offer as an alternative--McCarthyism? The conflict in Korea
described as a Police Action hangs on as unresolved warfare between
North and South to this day. In Cypress Greek and Turkish Cypriots would
rather score points against one another than do good for their own
citizens. The veto rights held by permanent members of the UN Security
Council serve to make that body ineffectual. The US payments in support
of UN programmes show more arrears than every other nation on earth
combined.

Anyone who believes that American support of Kuwait in the first Iraq
War was motivated by support of a regime that differed greatly from
their oppressor is misguided. Cynically I say that that first war wasn't
pressed to its conclusion because weapons experts wanted an opportunity
to try out new toys. The second Iraq War was merely a continuation of
the first. The fact that America had no plan in place to deal with the
populace once they succeeded led to a loss of cultural artifacts that
will never be replaced and left the Iraqi People in a state of anarchy.

If 500,000 crack Russian Troops could do nothing to suppress Afghanistan
what did America, Canada, and Britain think that they could do. When
these troops finally leave the feudal lords will return to infighting
much as they have for 5000 years. The American Armament industry supply
the weapons for both sides and their only accomplishment is to give
combatants more efficient weapons with which to kill one another. Those
suppliers are the only winners in this conflict.

"War, what is it good for? Absolutely Nothing." And yet, as I have
traveled around America in the last four years, I have never ceased to
be amazed at the number of military installations in every state and
have to come realize that over a third of all Americans have some form
of involvement with the military. Yes, it may instill a sense of
discipline in those who badly need it; but is this the best means of
learning self-discipline. Is America not paying the price for having
such a high proportion of its populace trained to kill. Is the right to
bear arms worth the price?