Character flaws and circumstances in America's deadly warriors-in-chief

                                 America's presidents choose war

                                 Then watch it from afar

                                 Blood starts flowing 

                                 Body count starts growing

You may rightly ask after reading this article what earthly good will come of having written it? To be truthful, I don't rightly know; maybe nothing, maybe something. We live in a culture that accepts and even expects war. That must change or war will eventually annihilate humanity. To do nothing, to write nothing therefore is unacceptable to me. I like to think that seeking a better understanding of the chief warrior's deadly habit may be necessary before stopping the habit. 

My favorite American historian, the late Howard Zinn wrote the book, "A people's history of the United States."[1] An alternate title for this article could be "A pacifist's history of U.S. warriors-in-chief." I'm one of those "peaceniks" that dangerous patriots ("my country right or wrong") love to disparage. I hated compulsory RTC in college eons ago. I've never owned or shot a gun. And, to borrow a warrior's phrase, "I take no prisoners in arguments with "warnicks." All this is to say that try as I might to be objective this article may be biased. You decide. 

I'm going to examine very briefly five issues concerning our warrior presidents and war itself. First, how many military interventions have our presidents initiated and what has been the grave count from those interventions? Second, why have our presidents been so willing to send knowingly, countless people to their graves? Third, if war is murder and since US presidents do not go into battle themselves are they surrogate murders? Fourth, is any war "just?" Fifth, can America's endless wars be ended for good?

How many "grave" choices have U.S. presidents made?

Counting declared wars and other military interventions is difficult even in the Internet age where nothing seems to go untracked and unreported, but it is impossible to get any reliable estimate of total "grave" count from those interventions. Only cemetery keepers keep reliable tabs of their own plots. So my overall impression will have to do and it's really all I need to do since one death by force is one too many. 

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