Jack
Rothman
Memorial Day is upon us. Neighbors are hanging flags in
front of their homes. Parades are planned for Main Street. Veterans are
searching the back of closets for worn uniforms. And arrangements are being
made to bring bouquets of flowers to cemeteries across the nation. We are preoccupied
with thinking about heroes and the sacrifices they made to keep our country
safe.
Our leaders talk at length
about our need for defense in a perilous world. Almost everything can be cut from
the emaciated national budget except our defense expenses. The president needs mounting
unrestricted authority to send our armed forces and drones anywhere to thwart our
many malevolent enemies. This talk of threat and danger to our very being is
broadcast recurrently by the political class and the media and widely accepted as
truth by citizens as a patriotic duty.
Psychologists give the
name “projection” to ascribing to others your own wishes and intentions. The
United States has rarely been attacked (Pearl Harbor is an exception), and in modern
history was never invaded. Standing as a military colossus, the most powerful
armed entity in world history, there is scant fear that any nation or force could
defeat us or significantly harm our interests. Invasions don’t come our way,
but incursions do emanate from us and penetrate other nations on an astonishing
scale—a reality most Americans ignore or discount, abetted by their leaders.
Those leaders have
taken our young people into innumerable wars and military actions globally since
the end of World War II. These armed infiltrations are conducted under the
guise of protecting our liberties or the liberties of others, while in large
measure they are efforts to expand our power and financial control and exploit fertile resources—actions tagged imperialism by
serious scholars and objective observers. We have to peer directly into the
face of that war record to begin to comprehend its scope. A partial accounting
identifies the following assaults:
Korean Conflict, 1950 – 1953; Operation PBFORTUNE, Guatemala, 1952;
Operation Ajax, 1953; Operation PBSUCCESS, Guatemala, 1954; Bay of Pigs
Invasion, Cuba, 1961; Vietnam War, 1962 – 1973; Laotian Civil War, 1962 – 1973;
Cambodian Civil War, 1969 – 1970; Operation Powerpack, Dominican Republic, 1965
– 1966; Operation Urgent Fury, Invasion of Grenada, 1983; Operation Blue Bat,
Lebanon, 1958; Operation Eagle Claw, Iran hostage crisis, 1980; First Gulf of
Sidra Incident, Libya, 1981; Operation El Dorado Canyon, Libya, 1986; Iran-Iraq
War, 1987 – 1989; Operation Just Cause, Panama 1989 – 1990; Second Gulf of
Sidra Incident, Libya, 1989; Persian Gulf War, Iraq, 1991; Operation Desert
Storm, 1991; Operation Desert Shield, 1991; Somali Civil War, 1992 – 1994; Operation
Provide Relief, 1992; Operation Restore Hope, 1992 – 1994; Yugoslav wars, 1994 –
1999; Bosnian Conflict, 1994 – 1995; Kosovo Conflict, 1997 – 1999; War on
Terrorism, 2001 – present; Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan 2001 –
present; Operation Enduring Freedom - Philippines 2002 – present; Operation
Enduring Freedom - Horn of Africa 2002 – present; Operation Iraqi Freedom, 2003
– present; Waziristan War, 2004 – present; War in Somalia, 2006 – present;
Operation Enduring Freedom - Trans Sahara 2007 – present
As we
approach Memorial Day, we need to think not only of remembering our fallen sons
and daughters, but also to resolve to protect future generations from such
occasions. Dead soldiers are pawns and victims--more than they are
heroes. We need
to give thought to restraining the excess exercise of the war option by our
country. Beyond that, we ought to memorialize the utter futility and
ugliness of war itself.
As a veteran of World
War II, I can still remember the wounds and suffering of that long-ago time.
That experience brought home to me that every war symbolizes the failure of humans
to conduct their affairs in a sensible and civilized way. I look for the day
when we stop celebrating wars in the language of glory and grandeur and
recognize that every war marks the very lowest level to which humanity sinks.
We should honor the
fallen, but more so we must be peacemakers who thwart the creation of further
generations of wasted young men and women.
Jack Rothman was a founding organizer for the Los
Angles DSA chapter. He was a professor of community organizing at the
University of Michigan and UCLA Schools of Social Work. His book, Strategies of Community Intervention,
has been the leading text in the field.
Photo credit.
Wikipedia. Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0 Unported license.
No comments:
Post a Comment