The season of Advent has just begun, and with it comes an expectation of not only a reverent patience, but also the summoning of a joyful hope, that the life God intended for us is indeed within mankind’s grasp. Most days I count myself an optimist on balance, but have to I confess that there are some times that I just get positively fatigued. At the moment, the culprit is my obsessive, week-long reflection on President Obama’s soon-to-be-announced escalation of the war in Afghanistan, to the tune of 34,000 additional American troops.
I think I have a good idea of what the President will say tonight, and what he won’t say. He won’t say that the increased deployment is necessary to protect America from imminent attack, not when 9/11 was planned in Florida and West Germany. He’ll probably touch on our commitment to the Afghan people, regardless of the fact that most of them don’t actually want us to be there anymore, and many consider us a threat or an “aggravating influence.” Odds are Obama will play up the notion of clear benchmarks for the Karzai government, upon which the United States will absolutely insist; but he won’t draw attention to the fact that similar benchmarks in Iraq have pretty much meant absolutely nothing to the Malaki government, which by the by is looking more and more like Saddam’s Iraq every day, so one still wonders what the point of the whole thing was unless we just wanted another Saudi Arabia to begin with. He’ll most certainly highlight the unquestioned expertise of the generals on the ground, and maybe even the success of the Iraq troop surge from a few years ago, without going into the messy details about how that surge was concurrent with an alliance with some of the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, for whom there is no Afghan substitute. The President’s biggest selling point for the troop increase looks to be America’s interest in a stable Pakistan, free from Taliban influence – but he won’t talk about how that country has been screwing us over on intelligence and operations for a decade, and he certainly won’t get into Pakistan’s preference for a long-term, indefinite American presence in Afghanistan over the specter of an Indian one. And the one thing President Obama most certainly will not mention, because it’s just too depressing to even contemplate, is that given how close health care is to either passage or collapse, he just can’t afford another political fight right now, and so the easiest course of action is simply to follow the generals’ advice.
I’m being uncharitable to the Commander in Chief, I know. Tell you what – I’ll concede for the sake of argument that no matter how fact-challenged and clichéd the case for more war may be, it’s at least within the realm of possibility that additional troops going into the mountains to fight and die is in the national interest. Who the hell knows. But that still leaves one unassailable fact that, to my mind, should break every heart in this country into pieces: the human race, after thousands of years of so-called forward progress and myriad examples from which to draw experience, has still not found a better way to conduct ourselves than to kill and maim each other over our differences. Cut through all the “they started it” and “best of all bad options” bullshit, and that’s what you’ve got. As valuable as abstractions can be, this is not a frakking game of Risk. In this real world we’ve made for ourselves, more of our volunteers, to say nothing of those poor souls unfortunate enough to be born into an American theater of war, are going to die violently and far from home, because we just can’t come up with any other plan. Even the United States of America, with more concentrated ingenuity and resources ever assembled in human history, just has no choice but to go over there and kill some more people, and lose some of our own to boot. So I’m ashamed, because I’m left with no other conclusion that we are poor stewards indeed of this Creation that has been entrusted to us. One imagines even the most patient and loving God imaginable regarding us with contempt and disbelief.
I don’t really know what’s to be done, and I’m aware how that eats away at any moral authority I may have to complain about the situation. But here are some things I do know, some things that certainly make things far more difficult to manage in the long term. The United States spends as much on defense as the next 15 countries combined – over $500 billion a year. On both a nominal and per capita basis, our investment into military might dwarfs that of our allies and enemies (especially our enemies) alike. Keep in mind I’m not even talking about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars themselves (which, helpfully, are evaluated under separate heading) or homeland security, veterans’ affairs, the debt on previous defense-related deficits, etc – all told it approaches about $1 trillion a year, or 7% of GDP. With that kind of money being spent compared to those who call us an enemy, it’s hard to believe that we face any real threat at all, from anyone…but let’s just focus on the $500 billion, which is spent before any troops are deployed, any ports are protected, any intelligence gathered, any veterans cared for. Most of that budget obviously doesn’t go directly to troops and military personnel – the big bulk of the money is paid out in contracts to private companies, who by their very nature are primarily motivated by profits for their shareholders, equally if not more so than the national interest. To wit, the various defense lobbies spend between $30 million and $40 million out of their clients’ considerable revenues on Congressional campaign contributions, which quite nicely ensure continued appropriations no matter what, and of course, the revolving door between public service and the private sector has been well documented. Weapons built and unused can’t normally be replaced at equal or greater cost, so little wonder in the end that most weapons get used, or get sold. And of course, the tendency for the American public to conflate military spending and ‘hard power’ with the national character, and the tendency for representatives of both political parties to encourage that conflation, have in tandem the indisputable side effect of making some people very, very rich, while also making some other people very, very dead. (Average pay for a CEO of a large defense contractor in the U.S.: $11M annually.) No wonder we’ve been at war for almost ten years and nothing has changed, and no wonder we’re set to double down for more.
Fr. John Courtney Murray writes in We Hold These Truths of a theory of just war that yearns achingly for its own obsolescence. We have to stop thinking of these wars as things being forced on us by the intransigence of strange, outsider fanatics and recognize that we, not them, have the power. Not the American government, but the American people. What’s done in our name is done by our hand, otherwise this whole self-government thing is a sham. Obama is planning now to further bleed the treasury and risk a higher death toll, with no end in sight, and to date there is absolutely no reason any of us can be sure that it’s worth it. What’s to be done? Demand better. Question everything. Recognize the conflicts of interest inherent in the system. And pray that we find a better way soon, so that someday we can look back and see the moment we put ourselves back on track. Tonight, alas, is not that moment, however much it could have been.
God bless America, especially those who fight and those who lead. God bless the memories of all who have died standing up for the ideals we claim to hold highest – and may Heaven forgive us if we let them down.
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