Over the past few weeks, the military withdrawal and
civilian evacuation from Afghanistan has filled news reports. In the midst of this current crisis, memories
from my twenties came flooding to the surface as I remembered the images that
were being broadcast during the exit from Viet Nam nearly 50 years ago. The most troubling thing about this current
situation is the denial of the parallel with our fiasco in southeast Asia.
Throughout time, men have repeatedly issued a warning that
is again going unheeded. Winston
Churchill put it this way, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to
repeat it.” I must admit, as I observe what passes for American foreign policy,
I am thoroughly embarrassed. I may not
live long enough to see it, but if we don’t find the humility to acknowledge
our mistakes, our descendants will watch this same scenario over and over.
Perhaps the problem is that we are a relatively young
nation. Our behavior is that of an adolescent who is trying to act like an
adult. We revel in the little we do
know, are ignorant of our lack of wisdom, want everyone to overlook and forget
our glaring mistakes, strut around with an inflated ego, resent criticism and
lack the honest introspection that would enable us to grow and become who we
wish we were.
Some may see these comments as harsh. Years ago, in response to national criticism,
conservatives began displaying bumper stickers that read, “America, Love It or
Leave it.” Today, I would draw our
attention to the words of the
20th Century preacher William Sloan Coffin who said,
“There are three kinds of patriots, two bad, one good.
The bad ones are the uncritical lovers and the loveless critics. Good patriots
carry on a lover’s quarrel with their country…”
This is, indeed, intended to be a lover’s quarrel. I
long to see my beloved nation rise to the level of our deepest held
values. Our aspirations are noble, but
too often our actions fall far short of those cherished ideals.
As I prepared for this post, I scanned the internet to
see if there was a consensus on what our American values are. Because they are not explicitly spelled out
in any in our founding documents, various lists are available that hold some
similarities and a wide range of diversity.
The three most basic are freedom, equality and justice. To these we
might add democracy, individualism, diversity and unity. Certainly, we shouldn’t overlook a few
self-affirming adjectives like intelligent, friendly, industrious and creative.
One of the most stirring summaries of our foundational
aspirations found was in the July 4, 2020 post of Mark Schaefer (link below). “The
United States of America has always had this aspirational element to it.
Whether an expression of sincere conviction or of stirring rhetoric that served
the aims of independence, the Founders of the Republic gave to us a vision of
something that was truly revolutionary: a country where power is based on the
consent of the governed; where no person need subscribe to a common religion;
where people of all races, ages, sexes, creeds, nationalities, and colors were
treated with dignity, respect, and equality; where all people enjoyed the equal
protection of the laws and were afforded equal access to the political
mechanisms that governed the nation; where liberty and law provided justice and
equity.”
Domestically, we are continually struggling to live up
to our pledge of allegiance to be “One nation, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.” Ideally, each election
season affords us an opportunity to consider where we have been, where we would
like to go and who we believe will best represent our concerns legislatively. It is clear that those who are seeking to
preserve the supremacy of the white race are desperately striving to restrain
the growing call for social change. However,
based on the recent census results, the shifting demographic makeup of our
nation will eventually diminish white control and assure more equitable
political diversity.
I would love to believe that this could take place completely
peacefully. Regrettably, I have had to painfully admit that we live in a
society that is as harsh and dangerous as those found in many underdeveloped
nations. We secured our nation with firearms, and gun oil seems to run through
our veins. Truly civilized nations
understand that gun ownership needs to be governed by strict guidelines. It
does not appear that we are ready for that level of sanity and will continue to
suffer the consequences of unbridled gun violence.
The assault on the U.S. capital building on January 6,
2021 demonstrated that ethnocentric and xenophobic obsessions are still alive
and well in America. They ring loud and
clear in the mindless and jingoistic chats of “USA … USA.” If we ever hope to draw closer to our
cherished aspirations, it will require a steadfast effort on the part of
thinking Americans to progressively nurture meaningful change.
Internationally, we seem to be locked into repeating
attempts at cowboy diplomacy. We
apparently think we are the heroes who can ride into town, shoot all of the bad
guys and then ride off into the sunset leaving the town folks to clean up the
mess left behind. Too often, we support
the wrong local players, pump tons of money into their economy which is
siphoned off by the leaders and, by the time we pull out, the general citizens
are no better off than they were when the U.S. first became involved.
I would like to offer a few observations that might
make a difference in the future.
1. We
are not responsible for fixing everything on our planet.
The world is extremely complicated
and often brutal. No matter how much we
may be moved with compassion, we lack the resources and ability to resolve
every situation. Our track record makes
it abundantly clear that we need to focus on our own issues and leave others
alone.
Too often, it appears that our
national sense of superiority has emboldened us to enter into conflicts that
could not be resolved by other nations with the expectation that we could succeed
where they could not. No matter how much we may ennoble our motives or honor
the sacrifices of our service members, our failures stand as disgraceful monuments
the to our ill-conceived decisions to venture forth.
2. War
should not be a money-making venture.
WWII demonstrated our
nation’s ability to train service members, manufacture war materials and deploy
them all in an effective manner. At that time, these abilities were critical to
the defeat of dangerous threats to world stability. However, it appears that we have become too
eager to exercise this proficiency. We
need to learn that just because we can present an overwhelming and well
supplied armed force does not mean that we should.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized
the inherent danger of this new-found American accomplishment and offered this
warning in his final presidential speech on January 17, 1961, “In the councils of government, we must guard
against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of
misplaced power exists and will persist.”
Even a casual
consideration of our annual military budget reveals the wisdom and foresight of
this prediction. Successive presidents have propelled us into armed conflicts
that have grossly expanded the role and expense of unrestrained military
deployment around the world. This serves
as a seemingly bottomless source of wealth to Department of Defense contractors
and suppliers. Reports of contractual excesses, misappropriations, corruption,
and waste abound.
As long as American
industry has access to this abundant financial resource, there is no incentive
to avoid or terminate our military conflicts and commitments. Congressional
legislators are lavishly courted by lobbyists peddling bloodshed, destruction
and the overseas sale of weapons. Until
we are ready to honestly consider this soulless industrial greed, we will
continue to witness the unconscionable waste of human life and tax dollars all
in the disingenuous name of patriotism.
During WWII, General Eisenhower
served as the supreme allied commander of the European theatre. Certainly, he understood the importance of
military equipment and supplies in the midst of critical wartime circumstances. Nevertheless, he offered this peacetime
assessment of arms manufacturing, “Every gun that is made, every warship
launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those
who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
Congress needs to
reclaim its sole authority to control the deployment of American armed forces.
It would slow the process and increase the likelihood that our involvement
would only occur at times of absolute necessity. As voters, we should refuse to
elect representatives who are unwilling to accept this responsibility.
Who are we? We
are a work in progress, a wonderful experiment in democracy, an extremely
diverse community of cultures and ethnicities, a microcosm of the world. If we are ever able to reach a point where we
have true freedom, justice and equality in our nation, we will finally be
qualified to serve as one example of human potential.
The United States of Aspiration
By Mark Schaefer
https://marSSkschaefer.medium.com/the-united-states-of-aspiration-442965b61042
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