I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
- Albert Einstein
What a cruel thing war is…to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors.
- Gen. Robert E. Lee
Growing up doing the Cold War as I did, I well remember the underlying malevolence that was the dull hum in the background of day to day life. No one talked about it much, but we all knew (because it had been drummed into us since an early age), that there existed an Evil Empire (the USSR) desirous of nothing more than the complete destruction of America and with it freedom and democracy. We inherently understood, because it was what we were told every day, that the Russians never slept in their efforts to usurp our rightful place as the freest, most democratic, and most powerful nation in the world. It was how the military-industrial complex Dwight Eisenhower warned us about came to occupy their primary (and lucrative) role as vital to the defense of freedom.
Entire generations grew up never knowing anything but the unquestioned primacy of the military-industrial complex. In our fear and paranoia, we collectively (and mutely) acquiesced to the creation and perpetuation of a system that’s thrown trillions of tax dollars at defense contractors. It’s a system which continues unquestioned and unabated to this day. Defense contractors now occupy such an entrenched place in our economy that de-emphasizing them and directing tax dollars elsewhere could in the short term have a seriously deleterious impact on the economy. In a sense, we’ve become hostage to our fear and paranoia to the point where 55% of the federal budget goes to military expenditures. That number might be on the high or low side depending on who you choose to cite, but the point is the same. The military-industrial complex has us by the short hairs.
America is exceptional when it comes to developing new and ever more innovative tools to fight our wars, but we’ve never acknowledged or addressed the need to invest in tools for creating and waging peace. Of course, there’s little money to be made in peace- there aren’t high-tech systems designed to wage peace from a distance. No one can sit in a control room on an Air Force base outside Las Vegas and rain peace upon remote Afghan valleys.
Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.
- Ernest Hemingway
We’ve become so focused on weapons and technologies needed to fight our wars that we’ve completely neglected the need to prepare for waging peace. Politicians like Ted Cruz can with no trace of irony promise to bomb the Middle East to see if sand glows. Upon hearing such bellicosity, his audience erupts in peals of cheers and adulation for someone willing to destroy The Other. This eagerness to preemptively kill those in faraway lands represents a malevolent and misguided desire to protect the Homeland from those who hate us for our freedom and wish only to destroy us utterly. Or so Cruz would like us to believe. In reality, his hatred and willingness to kill is little more than proof he’d do anything it takes to seize power.
Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve seen this country grow so inured to the language of war that we’ve come to worship those in our military as heroes. Rote expressions of gratitude (“Thank you for your service!”) have become de riguer, a social expectation whose meaninglessness is exceeded only by the accompanying lack of commitment to actually DOING something to help them. We exalt those who wage our wars and “protect our freedom”…even though no one seems able to elucidate how a war in a Third World country halfway around the world threatens said freedom. Those in positions of power repeat it with such frequency and fervor that we’ve come to accept it without question as the truth.
We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lost in what little conversation there is on the subject is the importance of peace. Far more than merely the absence of war, peace is understanding, tolerance, acceptance- the desire to coexist, to recognize that those who look, believe, live, and/or love differently aren’t threats. In fact, that diversity need not be viewed as a drain on our strength; it can and should be viewed as a force multiplier, enabling us to see things from multiple points of view.
When America worships those whose job description involves the conduct of war, as well as those who create ever more efficient and lethal means of destroying our enemies, we lose the ability to recognize the value of peace. No longer do we seem able to hold those committed to creating and fostering peace in the same esteem we hold those whose business is war. Those who would creat peace are viewed as soft and weak, unwilling to do the heavy lifting of protecting our freedom and liberty. Our default response to a threat, whether real or perceived, is to employ our military to eliminate that danger. Because of this, our ability to love one another, to exercise charity, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion has atrophied, creating the constant state of conflict, hatred, mistrust, and barely-contained rage that characterizes American life today.
I’m not going to preach about the crying need for love and tolerance…because I shouldn’t have to. We should be intelligent enough to recognize that peace costs very little compared to the untold trillions we’ve wasted on far-flung wars which have served only to create a deadly self-fulfilling spiral. As we destroy more of our “enemies,” more emerge in their stead, more eager and increasingly committed to striking and hurting us.
Only when the power of love overcomes the love of power will we know peace.
- Jimi Hendrix
We’ve created a self-fulfilling prophecy, a global system in which we kill and destroy, only to see ever more and greater numbers emerging to fight back and avenge those they’ve lost. What if we tried something different? What if we elected people who aren’t addicted to bloodlust, who don’t define Job One as destroying our “enemies,” of which there seem to be no lack? What if we elected people who recognize that so much of the trillions we’ve spent on instruments of destruction could have been used to far greater effect? What if we decided that we’ve had enough of war, bloodshed, and tragedy?
I can almost hear the dissenting voices now, calling me naive, soft on terror, and willing to expose Americans to untold risks. I’m not about to throw myself on the mercy of the court of public opinion and ask for leniency; all I’m advocating for is a change in mindset. Hatred and our constant state of war are incredibly expensive, and not just in terms of blood and treasure. It saps us of our willingness to reach out and causes us to retreat in fear behind barriers and wall- both real and metaphorical- that preclude any real hope for peaceful coexistence. Is this what we really want?
Wars can be prevented just as surely as they can be provoked, and we who fail to prevent them, must share the guilt for the dead.
- Omar N. Bradley
At some point, we need to take a hard look at what we’ve become. We’re going to have to decide if we want to continue living in a world in which we sacrifice ever-increasing amounts of blood and treasure for the perception of safety and security. Or is it possible to do things differently? What if we stopped carpet-bombing the Middle East? What if we made it clear that we want to try to do things differently, that we want to help create opportunities for those in places riven by war and political upheaval? What if we committed to working to create conditions in which peace can thrive?
I’m but one small voice in the wilderness, but peace, like any other journey, begins with a single step. I’ll willingly risk being perceived as naive if it sets even one person to thinking about doing things differently. One person is a loner, two is progress, but like Arlo Guthrie said in Alice’s Restaurant, three is a movement…and once you have a movement, who knows where things will lead?
Mahatma Gandhi managed to unify the Indian subcontinent and drive the British Empire out of India without firing a shot. If a tiny man armed only with a cloth robe and tremendous strength of conviction can defeat an empire, there’s certainly no reason why the world’s most powerful nation can’t change direction and become a force for peace.
We’ve gone to the moon, and we won the Cold War. To think we can’t beat our swords into plowshares is to sell American strength and ingenuity short.
If we decline to lead the way, how can we hope that anything will change?
