Heroes, that is what they were. They were ordinary men doing extraordinary things, and far too many of them died for their country. I am a Vietnam era vet. I know too well what it is like to lose many of my friends in a needless war. As we celebrate them for their bravery and selfless dedication to this country, we should also honor them by asking ourselves how we can prevent other young men and women from paying the ultimate price for our folly.
Few wars are as clear cut as WWII. The holocaust and other atrocities committed by the axis powers made them a grave threat to all that is civilized and decent! Korea was a bit murkier, but I have to say that the leaders of North Korea have certainly done their best to justified our opposition to their tyranny and naked aggression. I also applaud President Harry Truman for trying to make the United Nations stronger than the failed League of Nations. He was smart enough to see the need for a higher moral authority than what others would perceive as our nationalism if we acted alone, and he set out to build a lasting coalition of nations to oppose aggression and promote the peace in Asia as well as Europe.
In many ways the Korean War was a harbinger of things to come. It marked the end of unconditional surrenders and simplistic cowboy movie endings. Many Americans, particularly jingoistic simpletons, were and still are upset by what they perceived to be our limited success in Korea. Fortunately, President Eisenhower was smart enough to realize that the price of removing North Korea as a threat would have been much higher than we should be willing to pay, and it would have greatly strained the coalition of nations that stood with us. In this respect the Korean war is a symbol of cold war restraint! The threat remains but our actions have contained it thus far.
The Vietnam war was the result of arrogance and a lack of moral courage. Right wing dullards were still screaming about what they erroneously called the sell out at Yalta, and they blamed the constraints supposedly placed upon us by the United Nations for what they considered to be the unsatisfactory truce ending the fighting in Korea. Needless to say there was a large segment of our population that thought America was the most powerful nation on earth, and that it should never allow itself to be constrained by other nations in any manner whatsoever. This is why we saw both John Kennedy and Richard Nixon trying to outdo each other when it came to being tough on communism. I believe it also played a large role in Lyndon Johnson's decision to greatly escalate our involvement in Vietnam. Dominoes be damned! Events subsequent to the Vietnam war show that the domino theory either has no validity or that it was misapplied in this instance!
The first Gulf war was understandable, it was a matter of us protecting an ally. George H. W. Bush, however, was wise enough to carefully build a coalition and pursue a limited objective in order to avoid the appearance of us playing the role of the bully. Needless to say that the jingoistic dullards considered the ending of that war to be as unsatisfactory as the ending of the Korean War. The only good thing they had to say about it was that it was not a loss, like Vietnam. Unfortunately, the ease with which we exerted our will on Iraq gave us back a swagger that greatly encouraged the war mongers. Do not misunderstand what I am saying. I do not blame George W. Bush for going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan. But not finishing the job there, and invading Iraq were huge mistakes that have destabilized the region by destroying the balance of power there.
The thing that I think dishonors our veterans the most is the dishonest rewriting of our history. Serving in an unnecessary war does not disparage the patriotism or the courage of patriots who served their country in good faith. What can make their deaths meaningless are the myths that will cause other brave men to needlessly sacrifice their lives and limbs. That is not something any patriot would wish on his countrymen. That is why we must celebrate our veterans with honesty and resolve. That is why we must acknowledge the mistakes that cost so many of them their lives, and resolve to avoid repeating those mistakes.
One of the first lessons we should take away from unnecessary wars is that they invariably begin with lies. They begin with bold headlines urging us to Remember the Main, or with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions, or with the Bush Administration's false accusations about Saddam Hussein's connection to Al Qaeda and alleged weapons mass destruction, particularly atomic weapons! None of the examples of false accusations I have just given were the result of faulty intelligence. The accusations about the sinking of the Main, the allegations stated in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolutions about attacks on our ships, and the allegations W. Bush used to justify invading Iraq were all deliberate falsehoods!
Skepticism is a good thing. We should be suspicious of unsupported allegations, particularly when the people making the allegations seem a bit too eager to redress their grievances with punitive actions. People who say we must make our adversaries fear us are idiots! People are far too inclined to strike out in fear. It is human nature to want to eliminate anything we consider a threat. No one doubts our power. What is often called into question is whether we use that power responsibly. As John Kennedy said: "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate." It is much easier to get into a war than it is to get out of one you have entered into.
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