A Veterans' Day Reflection

Yeah, it's Veterans' Day, and veterans everywhere are changing their Facebook profile pictures to show themselves in uniform. I'm a veteran, too, but you won't see me changing my profile picture.

In 1983, I was living in the oil-patch of Texas, far from home and family. During that year, the price of oil took a drastic drop from what had been record highs, and the bottom fell out of the whole Texas economy. I joined the military not out of a sense of patriotism, but simply as a means of survival. I ended up becoming a cold warrior, helping to prevent war by helping to wield the threat of nuclear annihilation. In doing that, I spent a cumulative total of about four and a half years of my life living beneath the ocean's surface. I became proud of what I was doing, and I was even more proud when the Soviet empire fell. I felt like I was a part of history.

But then, after the fall of the Soviet empire, we continued to make submarine patrols, and I had to continue feeding our computers target coordinates in a country that we should have welcomed as a new friend. And now, in the years since the fall of the "evil empire", our government has done everything possible to alienate the country that should be our friend. Because of that, we now find ourselves on the verge of a new cold war.

But, enough about me. . .

Veterans' Day is all about celebrating the sacrifice of men and women who served in the military, helping to defend the liberty and freedom of our fellow citizens of the United States. But, thanks to having discovered thinkers like Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Andrew Napolitano, and Jim Powell, I now realize that very few of our veterans have actually helped to truly defend the United States. For the most part, especially from the end of the 19th century until now, our wars have mainly been for empire and imperialism, rather than for true defense. These wars have made the people of the United States less secure, rather than more secure. Even for me, a humble submarine sailor who was engaged in actual defense, there's the realization that had the United States never entered World War I, neither World War II nor the Cold War would ever have come about. Our Founding Fathers, particularly George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams, warned us about the dangers of getting involved with other countries' wars, but that warning now falls on deaf ears of this country's leaders.

So now, especially since 9/11, we hear all about how we have to "support the troops". Any criticism of our leaders' decisions to take us to war causes our critics to yell, "You're not supporting the troops". If we point out the fact that our government's foreign policy has caused most, if not all, of the problems that we face with other countries, we get accused of "blaming America first", "not being able to say anything nice about America", or of just being complete crackpots.

I do support the troops. In fact, I support our troops so much, that if it were in my power, I would end these senseless, perpetual wars, and would bring our troops home. (Really, haven't we killed and maimed enough of our young people, not to mention the devastation that we've wrought upon the countries that we attack?) I would institute a non-interventionist foreign policy, which would do more than anything to ensure the security of the American people. I would also end foreign aid, which only serves to prop up corrupt dictatorships, and which also prevents other countries from developing their own economies.

But, I don't have that power. The only thing I can do is to try to educate people about the truth of the matter, and hope for the best.

I used to believe that it was patriotic to join the military, even though that was the furthest thing from my mind when I joined. Now though, I've had to change my beliefs about that. I now believe that the most patriotic thing for an American citizen to do would be to avoid joining the military. I say, let's starve the beast that's used for wars of empire. Then, perhaps we could start having an intelligent conversation about our foreign policy.

In “The War Prayer”, Mark Twain tells the story about how an elderly stranger entered a church and offered up the following prayer: "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen1.”

1 http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html