Memorial Day Musings

Memorial Day and service-related thoughts.

        Every year at the end of May, we appropriately commemorate the ultimate sacrifice represented by those who died in armed conflict in the service of America. For the most part these were Americans who were doing their best to honor a commitment made, some voluntarily, many more involuntarily, to what they believed was service in the cause of freedom. A very large number of these individuals died in what historians sometimes refer to “Just,” (or morally justified) wars. The validity of that appellation can be and has been debated for centuries.

        One example of this definition difficulty is that “Just” is frequently highly subjective. As an example, we might consider the US Seventh Cavalry, highly decorated and engaged in both Korea and Vietnam. Reflecting historically on all the ways the Seventh has been tasked, however also yields the facts that their most famous (notorious?) battle was against the Lakota at the Little Bighorn on June 25, 1876, at which its commander, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and 211 men died. The regiment also committed the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, which effectively ended the Indian wars. For heroism in these two engagements, 41 members of the regiment received the Medal of Honor. I believe (I hope) that today it would be difficult for most of us to justify awarding the nation’s highest military honor to troops engaged in genocidal actions, which Wounded Knee certainly was, which today would probably have them declared war criminals.  

        It can be generally agreed upon by the vast majority of us that US involvements in World Wars I and II were Just Wars by almost any definition. Korea, is only a bit less certain, since there was no real threat to the United States, but the freedom of a people who were under attack by a totalitarian regime was at stake, and they (South Koreans) fought bravely in their own defense. Following that, as we move into the modern it becomes murkier. While Korea was not a “declared” war, per the Constitution, it was a US commitment to the ideals of the newly formed United Nations, in that other nations besides the US were represented there. None of this, of course,  in any way diminishes the sacrifices of those who volunteered or were drafted and were killed in action during that or subsequent undeclared military actions.

        What I would like us to recall, on this day, is that none of the persons involved in committing US military personnel to the fighting in Viet Nam and all subsequent non declared wars actually had to fight or die there. Events in Viet Nam represented no threat to US national security but was based on John Foster Dulles’ fatally flawed “domino theory” fiction which he sold to Eisenhower and a majority of Post WW II US politicians. In retrospect, one of the harshest critics of Viet Nam was the war's principal architect himself, LBJ’s SecDef, Robert McNamara, who wrote in a 1995 memoir that his own behavior in shaping the war was “wrong, terribly wrong.” 

        A later 2003 Academy Award winning documentary, “The Fog of War”, based on many hours of interviews with an older, redemption seeking, McNamara gives us several observations which seem to be both too little, too late, and ignored in the main. Several points in the film are worth mentioning: With respect to the Tonkin Gulf incident, used as LBJ’s pretext for massive escalation: "We see what we want to believe." (ed: or as  in the Tonkin Gulf incident, invent it).  Also" If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we better reexamine our reasoning.” McNamara also talks about how he believes the responsibility for the Vietnam War is on the president and says that if Kennedy had lived, the situation would have been better. The second Gulf War and beyond show the truth inherent in this view, re Presidential roles.  

        So, what did we learn from that? Not a lot, or at least not enough. We did fight another (for the most part) “Just” skirmish in Operation Desert Storm. GHW Bush believed freeing Kuwait from Iraqi domination was justified and was advised by then SecDef Dick Cheney NOT to advance to Baghdad or depose Saddam Hussein. He listened. Some years later, his son, getting the opposite advice (forcing Iraqi regime change) from now Vice President Cheney, would condemn thousands more Americans and millions more Arabs to death by destabilizing Iraq and opening the door to ISIS and widespread Sunni/Shiite conflict, as yet unresolved. Of course, “Bush 43’s” desert adventure stemmed from the (perhaps intentional) misreading and massive mischaracterization of the 9/11 attacks perpetrated and funded, not by Iraq or Iran, but by the Saudi born and financed Osama Bin Laden, based in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, today, we continue making excuses for Saudi lawlessness and funneling money to Pakistan, whose (de facto) Islamist government continues a cozy relationship with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

        The lives of those who have died in the several Middle East undeclared wars are no less precious than those who climbed Mount Suribachi, waded ashore at Omaha Beach or Guadalcanal, froze at Chosin Reservoir or were sunk by depth charges in the Sea of Japan. I would hope, however, that on Memorial Day, while we respectfully reflect on the sacrifices of those who gave all, we also reflect on why and how our leaders chose, and still choose, to place our military in harm’s way.

       As familiar and overused as this old adage has become, it has never been more apropos: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  George Santayana