It’s Time to End War

Time Magazine asked the question in its October 24, 1969 issue: What if we just pull out? Of course the issue at the time was Vietnam. The United States was deeply embroiled in a war it couldn’t win, nor could it afford the cost. The number of soldiers lost in that war was staggering compared to today’s wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever else we might be engaged. But the question is the same. What if we just pull out and bring our soldiers home?

The United States and its allies are not fighting to win. Richard Nixon ran for president in 1968 with the campaign promise of ending the war in Vietnam. But once he was elected he decided he did not want to be the first American head of state of lose a war…and on and on and on it went. The military industrial gang needed a war, and they controlled Nixon.

Barack Obama stands today where Nixon stood four decades ago. America cannot afford the wars. America cannot win the wars. The military industrial gang still needs a war. And, we continue to fight. Now the military wants to go into Yemen and Iran and only God knows where else.

I wore olive drab work clothes in 1970, shortly after the Time article appeared. I can still sing about the "life of a mortar man" today as if it was still a part of my daily routine. There is no honor knowing the people whose names are found on the Vietnam Memorial, and there is no honor knowing those who have fallen in the Middle East. Over thirty years before the Time article was written my father, a Marine, was stationed in China. He, too, was a soldier in an "unofficial" war. It was called the Second Sino-Japanese War that began July 7, 1937 after six years of intermittent fighting. Japanese propaganda at the time referred to the invasion of China as seisen, or holy war. It was during those first six years that my father served in China. He was back in the states when war officially began in July 1937.

Now, we are involved in another holy war. You cannot defeat a religious belief. If that was possible, there would be no Christian religion. In contrast, Adolph Hitler wanted to expand the territory under his control. He wanted land. The Allies said no, and took the land away from him. Holy Warriors don’t want land. Jihad is not about land. It’s about religious belief.

Take a trip back in history to the year 1095 when Pope Urban promised remission of sins for all Christians who died in the war against Muslims. That was the beginning of a series of wars known as the Crusades. Well, that didn’t work out as planned. Islam is now the second largest religion in the world and, arguably, the fastest growing. You cannot defeat a religious belief.

What If We Just Pull Out?

What would happen if the United States and its allies simply pulled troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan? What if we dedicated 100% of military planning and resources to removing terrorist cells with no need for "boots on the ground"?

We know the opium fields of Afghanistan provide a huge source of funding for terrorists. Why, then, are those fields still standing? Can it be likened to all those years the government of the United States preached against tobacco use while providing subsidies to tobacco farmers?

Is there anyone working in the United States sending money out of the country to be used by terrorist groups? Why haven’t they been located and removed from the workforce?

I’m not talking about leaving the terrorists alone. Find ‘em and dispense with ‘em. Justify the expense of drones and planes and bombs and the CIA. Get the soldiers out of harm’s way. Bring ‘em home.

And, oh yeah, while you’re at it, get rid of the military mindset that the only way to protect America is by going to war against an enemy we cannot defeat.