By Edwin Cooney
Three times in the next six months you and I will attempt to do the impossible. Specifically, we will strive to adequately thank those who've sacrificed their health and their lives in the service of our country. It's not that we shouldn't be grateful to our veterans. The question is, in what meaningful way can we express our gratitude for the service of the common soldier without glorifying that same soldier's mission? Even more, is gratitude even relevant compensation for their service?
As I see it, the way we've been celebrating and demonstrating our appreciation and our love for our veterans is ultimately destructive to our national security and ought to be altered. Rather than offering dramatic testimonies to their bravery on battlefields past, we ought to be adequately compensating them for being forced, in most cases, to put their well-being along with the well-being of their families at risk during wartime. As essential as victory in war is and as General Douglas MacArthur reminded Congress nearly 70 years ago, the prevention of war is ultimately more precious than victory in war. The truth is that the need to participate in war constitutes the biggest failure in which government ever indulges.
Beginning today, Monday, May 27th, through Thursday, July 4th, and on through Monday, November 11th, millions of Americans will consider it their patriotic duty to gratefully acknowledge the heart-wrenching and terribly painful experiences that befell the wounded and deceased soldiers throughout past wars. Most if not all surviving combat soldiers have little or no interest in talking about what it was like to be in battle day in and day out, whether in the jungles of Vietnam or in the deserts of Iraq.
Too often national leaders, especially on patriotic holidays, proudly display weapons of war as symbols of their determination to always be victorious in war. (I vividly recall President Kennedy’s words during his October 22nd, 1962 address to the nation in which he announced his quarantine of Castro's Cuba, making the observation that "even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth…” Since the end of World War II, too many leaders in Moscow and in Washington have sought to demonstrate their patriotism by showcasing weapons of mass destruction on patriotic national holidays. In 2017, President Trump sought to put on such a showcase until it was shown that such a demonstration would be too costly. He blamed the local government of Washington, D.C. for that high cost. His final shot was that he would wait until local costs came down, but meanwhile he would spend the savings on some more modern jet engines.
It's obvious to me that the ultimate lesson of international warfare is that even the righteous who use war as an instrument to solve international conflict will ultimately suffer more than they previously imagined! As for the veterans we continuously seek to appreciate and honor, it's essential that we keep in mind the following:
(1.) As Ike used to say, "A soldier is only an agent of his government."
(2.) It is as pointless to blame a soldier for war as it is to blame a policeman for the existence of crime.
(3.) Too few of us see war as a failure of government — but that is exactly what it is!
As for veterans, because we ask of them the total blameless use of their bodies during a time of war, we owe them as much educational, medical, job training and social support as we can possibly afford. As for gratitude, those feelings are personal feelings that have little to do with our national obligations. You and I are the sole masters of our beliefs and our sentiments.
My ambiguity regarding the usefulness and need for military service stems from the bitter and divisive Vietnam experience of the 1960s and 1970s. That ambiguity, which I suspect I share with others, can only be overcome by drawing distinctions between the cause and effect of life-altering events.
I wouldn't refuse one dollar for the medical, educational or general welfare of anyone who has ever served in the military. Whether or not the soldier is well served by his or her government is quite another question!
For the better part of the last thousand years, humanity could afford to grow up on stories of military glory. If you were King Richard the Lionheart, you could dream of conquest in the Holy Land. If you were Horatio Nelson you could prepare yourself for victory over Napoleon at Trafalgar. If you were born Douglas MacArthur, a high intellect and your "boyish dreams" could carry you through West Point and on to signing the peace treaty with Japan on Sunday, September 2nd, 1945. Today, however, fulfilled dreams of military conquest may well result in the military surrender of all humanity. The bottom line is this:
We may honor our war veterans, but we must never allow compelling memories of past battlefield glories, or our assessment of military readiness, to be our government's license to go to war!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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