A helicopter pilot wrote me recently as he was preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. The odds of successful "nation-building" in that country were not good, he assured me, when you consider past "abject failures" in Haiti and elsewhere. How in the world did such nation-building efforts, denounced as worse than useless by Rush Limbaugh and presidential candidate George W. Bush in 2000, come to be considered right, just, and true -- or even practical?
As this pilot summed up the Sisyphean situation in which he and other American military personnel have been placed: "Somehow this heretofore impossible task [of nation-building in Afghanistan] will now be accomplished by complete novices while people are trying to kill them."
Just ponder that sentence: All by itself it could serve as an antidote to the Afghan Kool-Aid being drunk in the halls of the Pentagon. Which leads to my next vow:
Vow #4: Don't send novices on nation-building exercises in places where the natives are hostile and the rebels are trying to kill them.
Again, if you listen closely to our troops, you might be surprised at their views on how and why we fight. Consider the following confession from an Army lieutenant colonel:
"I have been in uniform for almost 30 years -- obviously I love my country. But it is astonishing to see a nation that once was so committed to liberty and truly assisting the world, turn into a narcissistic empire fighting out of insecurity, as opposed to increasing security. (Whatever happened to walk softly and carry a big stick?)"
Here's a simple truth Americans seem to have lost touch with: greater security doesn't come from fighting more wars; it comes from fighting fewer of them or none at all.
Vow #5: Some things are worth fighting and dying for, others aren't. It's time for us to do a far better job of figuring out the difference.
With respect to how we fight, the email message that hit me the hardest lately came from a recently retired general and former infantry division commander. In his considered words:
"As an old warrior, I keep wondering how it is our leaders keep praising our supposedly superior arms while licking wounds inflicted by [Afghan] village warriors armed with little more than IEDs and small arms. As for the drones, if I were a Jihadi/Taliban, I would think them a coward's way of doing business -- an obvious sign of cultural weakness. [Because of the end of the draft,] our leaders breathe war and our people care not. We reap what we sow."
Are we as a nation breathing war more and yet caring less precisely because the killing in our name is now being done by "volunteers" and ever more of it by remote control? And here's a question: As we praise ourselves for our innovative, comparatively low cost (to us) high-tech weapons like our "Predator" and "Reaper" drones, is our reliance on massive firepower only serving to strengthen the resolve of the enemies we're fighting? Which leads to my next vow:
Vow #6: Don't get involved in land wars in the Middle East and Central Asia -- unless you're willing to reap what you sow.
Whether we realize it or not, the truth is that we're already reaping what we've sown. Leaving aside the "collateral damage" we've inflicted on others, our own harvest is measured in the wounded bodies and minds of our troops who still aren't getting the medical and psychological care that they've earned and deserve. And in these budget-cutting times, is it not likely that we'll soon hear about cuts in benefits even possibly for wounded veterans?
Which leads me to a final vow:
Bonus Vow: Recalling Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address, let's vow to care for those who have borne the battle, and for their families, and strive to achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Finally, a special "thank you" to all the troops and veterans who have written me from the boonies, whether deserts or mountains -- or even the green and peaceful hills of retirement. I hope my vows do you some justice.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
