Veterans Against the Wars
by: Dave Belden on October 17th, 2009 | 13 Comments »
Our friend Bill Distler, a Vietnam veteran on disability in Washington state working with Iraq vets and others against the current wars, wrote this op-ed hoping to get it in the Seattle Times before the anniversary of the bombing of Afghanistan on Oct. 7th, 2001. They didn’t print it so we are presenting it here.
Afghanistan: Success Means Ending the War
by Bill Distler
Protesters on last weekend's National Equality March in Washington, DC. Which war? Both, I'm sure.
We are now in the ninth year of our war against Afghanistan. The conversation about Afghanistan centers on the concept of “success”. Success is described as defeating the Taliban and al Qaeda and “stabilizing ” Afghanistan. This is a vision of success defined in military terms. This will be good for General David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, and General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. They will win new medals and their careers will be crowned with “victory”. But who else will it be good for?
In moral terms, which are the only terms that really count, we are suffering a monumental failure. We are asked to think of war only in terms of winning and losing. This makes the lives of Afghans less important than our pride. This is the same moral failure that we suffered in Vietnam. We could have won militarily in Vietnam and still have lost morally.
George Bush failed us by not seeking justice against the perpetrators of 9/11. Instead, he brought the injustice of war to the entire population of Afghanistan. President Obama has so far failed to do the right thing by seeking a cease-fire and negotiations to end the war. Those of us who want peace have failed to build a large enough movement to make demands on him.
Starting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was a moral failure. Continuing the wars is a moral failure. Winning the wars will be a moral failure. Ending the wars will be a moral success.
Our present policy in Afghanistan supports Karzai’s gang of corrupt officials, drug runners, and woman-haters against the similar Taliban gang. If General McChrystal succeeds in stabilizing Afghanistan, he will only be stabilizing injustice. How can the Afghan people win anything from that?
We have spent close to $200 billion in Afghanistan but we haven’t even seen fit to care for the children that have been wounded. If we had spent half of that money on food, clothes, shelter, schoolbooks, and medicine, and even if half of that was stolen, the other half would still have supported life instead of death and we would have friends instead of enemies.
When General Petraeus was a Major in the U.S. Southern Command in Panama he told the Wall Street Journal that, “LIC is a growth industry.” (“Latin Lesson: US Effort to Win ‘Hearts and Minds’ Gains in El Salvador”, Wall St. Journal, Sept. 8, 1986, p.1) LIC stands for Low Intensity Conflict. General Petraeus seems to have put himself on a career path that helped make his prophecy come true. But this is not just about his “success,” it is about other people’s lives.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his prophetic 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam” that: “The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve.” We have had 42 years since then to learn and grow but we are approaching the question of Afghanistan with the same immature attitude, namely: How will this affect us? When I went to Vietnam my only question was: How will this affect me? By the time I left, I realized that my actions had life or death consequences for other people.
A mature vision should recognize that the consequences of our actions in Afghanistan fall mainly on the Afghan people. Perhaps we can also recognize that Afghans may understand their country better than we do. Isn’t it possible that if all their voices were heard, they might come up with a better path to peace than our fixation on “winning”?
It is time to replace the military solution with a moral solution.
Bill Distler
910 E. Myrtle St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
360-224-3579
lilyjane910@aol.com
Bill writes: “I’m a member of Veterans for Peace, Cpl. Jonathan J. Santos Memorial Chapter 111, in Bellingham. I was a squad leader in Vietnam in the 101st Airborne Division from Dec., ’67 to Sept., ’68. That’s where I developed my feelings about war. I worked in an organic cooperative flour mill for 22 years. I’m now living on 100% disability from the VA for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Unemployability.”
I have a brother-in-law and he is retired from the Air Force as a commissioned officer. He said while still active in the military service that information is power. That is one reason why the 95% conservative media will not share information. They want us controlled and stupid. In the Sunday newspaper there was an article stating that our education system is a disaster. It is to keep us controlled and stupid. Ninety-five percent of Americans are cannon fodder and stupid under the control of the five percent who find ways to keep people immobile and in their place in our class system that is similar to India’s caste system.
Gerald, I am very unhappy with this “stupid” meme. I was trying to express this yesterday in my post about art, and the girl who thought her mother was stupid because she didn’t appreciate intellectual despair. Do you think the chorus of “you are stupid” over the last fifty years from the left towards people who vote Republican or join the military or buy Cheez Whizz has led vast numbers of them to follow Left leaders and ideas? No. The idea that it would is stupid. Oh, sorry…
Mr. Belden, I have no problem with people voting Republican. I am concerned about people who vote on one and two issues and do not seemed concerned about our many problems. The GOP politician rode the gravy train on two issues – abortion and gay marriage. They were against abortion and gay marriages. I am against abortion and homosexuality has been with us since the time of Jesus Christ.
I respect men and women who service our country. But, I do not want our politicians lying to us whether these politicians are Democrats or Republicans. Our men and women are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan from the Bush and Cheney’s lies. I have not even mentioned the Iraqi and Afghan people who are also dying from lies. Bush wanted to be the war president and so he became president and our people fell for his babble. Bush and Cheney are guilty of crimes against humanity.
The word stupid may not be the best word to use in describing certain actions but it may be a word that Americans know.
I want to thank Dave Belden for sharing this information with us. Maybe we should hear from our drone soldiers on the ground with their views of war.
Why is the United States of Evil so stupid???
John Paul II and Gandhi
Standing at the place where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated, John Paul II made the following statement:
“From this place which is forever bound to the memory of this extraordinary man, I wish to express to the people of India and of the world my profound conviction that the peace and justice of which contemporary society has such great need will only be achieved along the path which was the core of his teaching.”
Not Realpolitik, not “fighting the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them here”, not Shock and Awe, not forcing “freedom” and “democracy” on the skeptical Arab, but Gandhian nonviolence is the path which the Vicar of Christ has pointed out as the beacon for contemporary statesmanship. Much will become clear to us when we disarm our hearts, when we seek a power greater than bunker busters and rejoice in transformed spirits rather than soulless economies that rip the floor out from under those on the margins to ensure endless profits for those whose money could feed whole countries.
In other words, have we the courage to trust Christ and Him alone? Not to seek the protection of wealth and bombs and oceans of oil?
At the journey’s end may each be able to return to the Source in peace and say:
“I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” Acts 26:19
This article was taken from the Nonviolent Jesus website.
WAR WILL EXIST UNTIL THAT DISTANT DAY WHEN THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR ENJOYS THE SAME REPUTATION AND PRESTIGE THAT THE WARRIOR DOES TODAY. John F. Kennedy
One of the things I’m pleased about is that President Obama seems to be listening to a wide variety of opinions on what to do about our involvement in Afghanistan. I can tell you that when I was on the ground there soon after the Taliban-led government abandoned Kabul, when I asked Afghans what they wanted, their answer was consistent. “Please do not abandon us again. Please do not break your promises again.”
But we did.
We abandoned them and we broke all our promises.
What do we owe the Afghan people is a very important moral question for me, and there are no easy answers.
The United States helped to create the mess that is there now, in our quest to fight the terrors of Communism during the 1980′s, in our quest to profit from natural gas pipelines in the late 1990′s, and in our new quest to fight “terrorism” after September 11th. In our foolish march to war in Iraq, to fight the terrors of “mushroom clouds” as “smoking guns” we lost a critical opportunity to help build a new kind of Afghanistan, which required a significant level of peacekeeping (security) so that the Afghans could come out from under the rubble long enough to help make that new nation viable.
Simply leaving Afghanistan doesn’t feel like the right answer to me. I wish we had a nonviolent peace force that was large enough to stand up to those who would throw acid in young girl’s faces for daring to go to school, or stand between those who are trying to build hospitals and those who would kill them for doing so.
The Afghan people deserve peace, security, a rebuilt infrastructure……. I doubt there are many who would openly disagree with that. What role the United States plays in helping them is a question we should be debating, and thankfully, in places like Tikkun Daily, Congress, and the White House, people are.
Mr. Wiesner, what do we say to the loved ones of our dead soldiers and we find ourselves digging a deeper hole that will prevent us from getting out of this hole?
I wish to highlight and stress the last three paragraphs of the above article.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said in his prophetic 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam” that: “The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve.” We have had 42 years since then to learn and grow but we are approaching the question of Afghanistan with the same immature attitude, namely: How will this affect us? When I went to Vietnam my only question was: How will this affect me? By the time I left, I realized that my actions had life or death consequences for other people.
A mature vision should recognize that the consequences of our actions in Afghanistan fall mainly on the Afghan people. Perhaps we can also recognize that Afghans may understand their country better than we do. Isn’t it possible that if all their voices were heard, they might come up with a better path to peace than our fixation on “winning”?
It is time to replace the military solution with a moral solution.
I vehemently oppose wars!!!
I recall talking to an owner of a factory in the early 1970s. He said to me that war is outmoded but we are too immature to realize this fact. He said that maybe in 200 years we will be more mature.
Gerald,
Please feel free to call me Craig (Mr. Wiesner makes me feel old).
I appreciate the firmness of your opposition to all wars.
While we were gingerly avoiding the areas with red-painted rocks in Afghanistan, denoting spots that had not yet been cleared of mines, and while we listened to stories of the terror dropped from the sky (by the United States) and the terror lived on the ground due to the depraved violence doled out by the Taliban and warlords, it was much harder for any of us to see things clearly as black or white.
Among our group were devout pacifists, opposed to all wars. Yet, at the end of one particularly difficult day, as we sat in the relative safety of our little compound in Kabul (relatively safe compared to the compound two doors down that had been shelled the night before), our most strident pacifist said that if we had to do something like what we did in Afghanistan to get rid of the Taliban, he wished we had done it using ground forces instead of relying so much on bombardment from the air. Too many innocent people had been killed or maimed, mainly so that few if any of our American troops would potentially be killed.
I am in complete agreement with the idea of truly listening to and respecting what Afghans want. That’s one of the main reasons our delegation went there, to listen, to learn, and to carry their stories home. They asked us not to abandon them again. Black, white, gray…… we have to keep listening and hoping we can find a good way forward.
Thanks for your passion! Keep sharing it.
Craig, there is talk of more troops to Afghanistan. Here is the problem. Who really rules the country and the government? Is the government corrupt? I have a problem of our soldiers being killed in a country that does not possess a valid head of state and for a corrupt government. A loss of life in that kind of country is truly a waste of human potential.
Thanks, Gerald, for continuing the conversation. I was thrilled to hear this morning that President Karzai has agreed to hold a runoff election. I think President Obama’s reticence to articulate a strategy in Afghanistan because of the flawed election helped push Karzai to call for the runoff.
Now onto the substance of your last comment. Yes, there is talk of more troops to Afghanistan and like you, I don’t know if that is the right solution. I have a problem with our soldiers being killed in any country, or killing anyone in any country, just as I have a problem with anyone being killed through violence, no matter who they are or where they live.
So, a purely pacifist viewpoint wouldn’t decide on the merits of military involvement based on the kind of country or whether its leadership was elected in a fair and free process. As you started our conversation, you said you didn’t support any wars anywhere. Good. That’s clear.
From a purely nationalist viewpoint, use of military forces should depend on whether the mission is in the best interest of the country and whether it is achievable and whether the cost of achieving that mission is proportional to the benefits (or proportional to the perceived danger that could be avoided).
Every single life lost in the pursuit of national interest through the use of violence, in my view today, is a waste. It is a failure. It means we made stupid mistakes that could have been avoided if we had learned from history.
We failed in Afghanistan after the Russians left by abandoning the friends we had made and breaking the promises we had made. My hope is that we can learn from that mistake and do things differently now. I don’t think we should just leave.
My plan, articulated a long time ago in another blog, was to recruit hundreds of thousands of Afghans to be a new military / police force. Remove them from Afghanistan and train them in NATO countries for three to six months (depending on their duties). Mix all the different tribes/factions together in these trainings and do what military/police training does so well, create cohesive units of people who will work together and protect each other. Then, you could have a surge of mostly Afghans (with some international troops as monitors), pouring back into Afghanistan from all the NATO training sites. A huge, cohesive, Afghan military and police force, surging into Afghanistan, could then help provide security for a surge in civilian relief / rebuilding / development efforts led by NGOs from around the world.
So, how about that?
Craig, it is up to the Afghans to defend their country. We cannot be the police of the world. We do not have the manpower for such a misadventure.
and this is my site: