Wars have ways of polarizing the best of us. During the
nation
’s first war of independence, we had folks who remained loyal to
the British Crown. Many were deeply religious people, who were
moved by he biblical exhortation, “Seek peace and pursue it; fear
God, honor the King.”
Wars have ways of polarizing the best of us.
During the nation’s first war of independence, we had folks who remained loyal to the British Crown. Many were deeply religious people, who were moved by he biblical exhortation, “Seek peace and pursue it; fear God, honor the King.”
Our Civil War was classic polarizer with the loss of 500,000 lives.
Even after Pearl Harbor, there were Americans who wanted only to remember that date of infamy with non-retaliation. The deadly accuracy of Hitler’’s U-boats did nothing to dissuade their ardent pacifism.
I was in the service during the beginning of Vietnam. But I became a Johnny-come-lately to anti-war participation. Initially, I had felt that we owed allegiance to our weaker treaty-mate, South Vietnam, but when the war dragged on and on, I resigned my commission in disgust over a no-win strategy that sent the nation’s youths into the fray with one arm tied behind their backs. A schizophrenic American presidency had been dovish on Mondays, hawkish on Tuesdays, dovish on Wednesdays, ad infinitum.
Later, Admiral Stockdale and General Powell observed that Vietnam should have been solved in three weeks. Instead, we were involved in the misery and capitulation of a people who had looked to us for protection and liberation.
My anti-war marchings resulted only in therapy for my confused conscience. Vietnam was finally concluded when it was decided that it was bad for business.
These days, not everybody who marches against the possibility of war does so because they are Bush-haters, still seething over the election squabbles of 2000. Not every anti-war protester cheers at the burnings of American flags and the trashing of downtown storefronts.
Not every protester marches in league with radical organizers who advocate the overthrow of the nation, beginning with the present administration. And probably nobody copies the Vietnam era, and uses the anti-war marches as a social event, a party to score dates and drugs for escape into sensual oblivion.
The great majority of those who march, genuinely hopes for world peace with dignity. Actually, they give credibility to our president’s rhetoric that war must be inevitable, and underscore that threat to Saddam.
Over the years as a Young Life volunteer it was my privilege to compose letters on behalf of “Conscientious Objectors” who were largely from Quaker and Mennonite backgrounds. They were reared with sickening revulsions for violence of any kind. In my self-conflicted way, I suggested to C.O.s that they avoid the charge of “free-loader,” by working as stretcher-bearers or orderlies in mental hospitals as in W.W.II. I also counseled that they avoid jail time by paying their taxes, noting that none of us gets to dictate 100 percent of how are tax money is spent.
I confess that during late Vietnam I even fitted orthodontic braces on the front teeth of a few young men who did not need orthodontics. (For a time there was a window of deferment for those in active treatment).
Since those days of confusion, however, our world has been changed forever by the heinous events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Without specific provocation, terrorists and their sympathizers cite our general support for Israel, the presence of American GIs in Arab lands, and our freedom-loving lifestyle that runs counter to the rigors of Islamic Fundamentalism.
The flaunting of our freedoms on a shrinking globe tempts radical Islamic youth, and has earned us the slur of “The Great Satan” who must be destroyed in the name of Alllah.
So we gear up at home and abroad. The octopus of global terrorism with tentacles from Afghanistan to North Korea; from oil-rich Iraq to the poverty of Palestine, have reawakened a sleeping American giant.
So far our convoluted response is working better than I would have predicted due to a no-nonsense administration that is willing during crisis to ignore all the shades of gray in global politics.
Terrorist training sites are dismantled, terrorist funding is drying up and over 100 terrorist plots have been intercepted. More than that, 9-11 has not been repeated.
An unexpected bonus of our police action has been the liberation of large numbers of Afghans whose women are newly able to attend schools and to work in the health professions.
Now we are poised on the borders of a pivotal nation in the Middle East, which has a track record of bio-terrorist mayhem. They constitute a supply line, a potential K-Mart for global disruption.
We are frightened of the awesome costs of regime change. The major weapon of mass destruction is Saddam himself.
Thus far, we’ve been able to contain the Iraqi dictator; however, those who advocate long-term U.N. inspections are slow to acknowledge that the only reason Iraq has bowed to the inspection process is because of the massive presence of American military might. This same military presence is the catalyst that Iraqi dissidents need to overthrow the tyrant of Baghdad.
The expense of Iraqi liberation has been greatly overblown by talented propagandites of the anti-war coalition. We are not facing the rebuilding of impoverished societies like Bosnia and Serbia (leveled by the Clinton war, without protests in the streets).
Iraq is a rich source of international dependence of oil, and because of that, for jobs all over the world. Sitting astride a reservoir of black gold, Iraq hardly fits the profile of a welfare state.
In cost considerations, we also need to subtract the peacetime expenses of military maintenance. One U.S. aircraft carrier, on the ready, but not at war nets out a $1.3 million per day, and we have a whole Navy, let alone an Army, Air Force and Marine Corps to fund for many years to come.
In addition, a new Homeland Security, which includes the U.S. Coast Guard, has become a necessity due to revelations from captured terrorists.
President John F. Kennedy put our policy paradox this way, “The nation that desires lasting peace must always be prepared to fight a war.”
This is how a costly Cold War, vis a vis he Soviet Union was resolved, without firing a shot.
Bill Paterson is a former member of the Gilroy School Board and a longtime South Valley resident.
