War seems simple enough. We are wronged by someone, or one of our friends is unjustly attacked, so we retaliate. We have to teach that brash enemy a lesson. We can’t just let someone attack us and not reply. If we do not reply, we will soon find that everyone else is walking all over us. It’s a matter of self-survival. If it is clear that negotiation is not going to accomplish a resolution in our interest, and there are no other extrinsic pressures that can be used to teach that enemy the error of his ways, there is only one good answer. We have to protect ourselves and all those things we hold dear. If war is what it takes, ok. We are brave enough to do it. We will rally together to get it done, whatever it takes. It is hard to argue with these sentiments. They show bravery, resolution, faith, solidarity, and many of the qualities which make our society stable.
But then things get a little more complicated. We have to send someone off to fight for us. We can’t send old people who have to go pee every few hours and take their medicines regularly or they will stroke, We can’t send young kids who will cry if they get lost and ask for their mommies. We have to choose our best and most vigorous products to send off to war. We have to send our best gene pools off to the battlefield. And we can’t send them off unprepared. So we have to spend a lot of time educating them as to various skills, all of which have to do with teaching them to be killers. It may be that a lot of that training is like video games and seems to be somewhat separate from reality, but we are teaching them to be killers. And then we get into all this other stuff. We have to have weaponry which is advanced and gives them an advantage. We have to have manufacturing centers, research centers, tactics, maneuvers, communications, chains of command , command centers, strict adherence to orders, supply chains, repair centers, supply bases, airfields, roads, kitchens, mess halls. War becomes complex, a massive society all of its own, all designed to provide destruction and death.
Then comes the reality of war. Very few soldiers are prepared for seeing one of their comrades get his leg blown off, see a bloody stump spurting blood, see your buddy get his head blasted open and see his brains oozing out, or have your best friend gurgling his last words in blood before he dies. It isn’t the cartoons and video games any more. Its real and its horrible. We like to hide how horrible it is to the folks back home too. We show pictures of planes hitting a target on the ground which shows a flash of light. That’s neat. Why don’t we show the people lying on the ground after that hit who have limbs blown off, eyes blown out, searing mutilating burns over their faces, children crying in deep pain. If we all saw the reality of war, we would not have the heart to continue it. We hear about how may soldiers died that day in a land far away for a noble cause. That doesn’t address the grief stricken wife and fatherless children they have left back home. So many injuries occurred that day. We get no concept of those soldiers lives being ruined for the rest of their lives, as they return without eyesight, without limbs, with paralysis, with constant fear, decompensated for the rest of their lives. The economic and psychologic price we pay for war is immense.
To top it off, then comes the dilemma. Part of that became obvious in the Iraq war. The war was won easily, but no one had planned how to win the peace. It is so hard to know how to switch gears from killing to preserving. When someone comes charging towards you, you don’t know whether to open fire and kill them or stand there with open arms. Those that seem to be friends then set off their bomb to kill themselves and all those around them. How can you trust anyone who doesn’t dress like a soldier and who speaks a different language? How do you know when you are just being drawn into a booby trap? If we kill innocent people in order to get to the bad guys who are hiding in their midst, we will cause long lasting hatred directed towards us and everything we stand for. When do we switch from being killers to preservers? How can we switch from being vengeful aggressors and invaders to protectors and guardians? Tough questions.
We suggest that soldiers should be taught to be men of peace as well as men of war. If we are going to use our best genetic products to be killers, we should by all means teach them how to be peacemakers also. The military needs a new branch and a new emphasis. If it is necessary to teach our best young products how to be destroyers, they should also be taught how to be builders. The God of Chance is cold and unremorseful. He will not take kindly to our teaching our best genes to be killers and destroyers rather than builders and protectors.