War doesn’t determine who’s right- only who’s left.
- Bertrand Russell
Today being Veterans Day, it seems a good time to reflect on our collective preference for violence as a means of solving problems. I’ll leave it to others to provide the ritualistic, and thus virtually meaningless, recitations of gratitude directed towards our men and women in uniform. I’m all for being thankful, but it seems to me that if we truly considered ourselves indebted, we’d DO something instead of reciting meaningless platitudes. Anyone can mouth the words; if you’ve been watching a sporting event on television over the past few days, you’ve been inundated with clips of athletes and celebrities reciting the required ritual words of gratitude. Words are nice, but they don’t do anything to address the needs of those who’ve served. Then again, reciting words ARE a lot easier than taking action.
Don’t get me wrong; gratitude is good, and our men and women in uniform should feel loved and appreciated. I’d submit that if we were truly grateful, we’d make their transition back to civilian life as easy and seamless as possible. We’d provide jobs, training programs, educational opportunities, and/or whatever it takes to integrate a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine back into being a productive member of society. We’d have programs designed address the emotionals difficulties of readjusting to life as a civilian. We’d spare no expense to support each and every man or woman in uniform when they make the transition from military to civilian life. What we have instead is penny-pinching feel-good thankfulness that falls far short.
When we place those who serve on a pedestal we do them a disservice. They do their job and they do it with pride, but we need not elevate them to the status of heroes…if for no other reason than it cheapens the value of those who exploits are truly heroic. Instead of directing an avalanche of meaningless flowery words in their direction, we should be looking at what we can do to assist them when they come home. They’ve served us; the least we can do is serve them by addressing their needs.
Instead, we’re stuck with our collective habit of reciting rote expressions of gratitude with little in the way of action to back up the words. Gratitude without support is meaningless, and I’m not referring to private efforts- like IAVA, Wounded Warrior Project, and similar groups. The work done by these groups is both impressive and eminently worthy of support. No, I’m referring to the lack of a concerted effort by our government to focus on the well-being and reintegration of our men and women in uniform back into their normal lives, whatever that might mean. That we devote far more money to the implements and methods of dealing death and destruction should be taken as evidence of a shameful misalignment of our priorities.
We may love and support our troops, but we do a damned poor job of putting our money where our mouth is.
In addition to our lack of material support for those who serve, I’m concerned about the fact that we’ve become so at ease with being thoroughly militarized. Since 9.11, when the collective (and understandable) desire for revenge was palpable, we’ve allowed without question the defense budget to consume ever larger chunks of the federal budget. We devote billions- indeed, trillions- to our ability to wage war, but almost nothing to waging peace. Once upon a time, I used to look at former Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s desire to create a Department of Peace as something of a lark. Now I’ve come to see it as a proposal that deserves serious consideration for one very simple reason: it’s time to place less emphasis on killing people and more on finding ways to coexist with them. Radical, no?
We devote unimaginable sums of tax dollars to waging war around the globe, but virtually none to creating peace. If we could find a way to create peace, we’d ultimately bury fewer of our sons and daughters before their time. There’d be less need to ask young Americans to be willing to die for their country. Peace is also far less expensive than war. Peace requires no advanced, highly technological weapons systems. It requires the willingness to fund efforts to create jobs, education, and opportunity in places where waging war is something one often does out of a lack of hope for improving their lives. If we shifted the money spent on weapons to programs to create economic opportunities in countries where none currently exist, we might be surprised by the results.
I’m not naive enough to think that what I’m advocating for will make America universally loved around the world. There will always be those who, whether for reasons of religion and/or ideology, will hate America and everything we stand for. That said, I can’t help look at a country like Costa Rica, which has no standing military, and wonder why we couldn’t resolve to move in that direction. Our defense budget is currently a bloated example of misplaced priorities that has long since ceased to be a reflection of what we should be about. It’s long past time we reexamined what kind of a country we want to be.
We celebrate those who wage war while ignoring those who work for peace. We worship at the altar of death and destruction but reject the idea of providing non-military assistance to countries desperately in need. My hope is that someday we’ll come to recognize the folly of devoting so much blood and treasure to waging war while continuing to ignore the even greater need for creating peace. Peace is not just an absence of war; it’s working to create a world in which all humans have the opportunity to pursue their dreams while living in an environment defined by safety and security.
Perhaps someday we’ll figure out that it’s in our best interests to devote less resources to waging war and more to creating peace. We’ll never increase our security through violence in far-flung lands. If we work towards creating peace, we might just find that a large part of our security needs will take care of themselves.
