War Costs More than Dollars & Lives

War more often than not connotes the death of reason. In justification of our desire to make war—to subdue, to assert, to seek retribution, to conquer, to remain on top, to dominate, to win—we'll offer any rationale no matter how historically flimsy, rehearsing it over and over until it has the weight of use to substantiate it. How many times have we heard and assented to a statement to the affect: "He went over there [off to war] to protect our rights so that we could [be safe and free to] sit here and have this conversation." I just heard yet again a grieving mother utter those words yesterday in an NPR radio interview. My heart went out to her. Her son is one of those US soldiers alleged to have murdered a civilian Iraqi and to have planted evidence to justify the slaying. My heart goes out to her not just because of her son's predicament, but also because of that oft rehearsed rationale for war she has obviously come to believe in that only wants to see her son vindicated as opposed to seeing his life valued by a society that won't send him off on missions of aggression masquerading as acts of defense.

Can I say this—and have you truly consider it—without being written off as unpatriotic (even if you disagree)? There is no wife, husband, daughter, son, sister, brother, aunt, uncle or cousin off in Iraq fighting for or protecting our freedom (i.e. the freedom of those of us back home in the continental US). I know we have mentally assented to it so many times that to suggest otherwise sounds like blasphemy, and I don't mean to dishonor the memory of those who died believing in their heart of hearts that they were, but there is simply no such cause; has not been since the Civil War; l and, as a society, if we love them, we need to stop seducing our soldiers and their families into thinking there is.

That is not to say that our soldiers are not fighting for Iraqi freedom, or that there isn't a damn good argument to be made for extending ourselves as a nation in defense of the freedom of others. What I am saying is that there is no one in Iraq who has the power to threaten our freedom. Therefore to make war there accomplishes nothing in defense of our freedom. In fact, I would go so far as to say there is no terrorist anywhere in the world with the power to threaten our freedoms! Not even the 911 hijackers had the power.

It's not the 911 hijackers who began profiling all Arab-looking men as potential terrorists or who now holds suspect all non-European immigrants because of the actions of 20 malevolent discontents who found a way to hurt us (not our freedoms). It's not the 911 hijackers who have set us on an open-ended world rampage of terror in the name of quelling terrorism. It's not the 911 hijackers who continue to fund at a deficit this internationally illegal action while under-funding a domestic agenda that addresses the basic human dignities of all Americans. It's not the 911 hijackers who have issued an executive stop-lost order to keep conscientious objectors to the war from divesting it of its human capital. It's not the 911 hijackers who have written into law the greatest erosions to the Bill of Rights ever witnessed in our country with legislation like the so-called "Patriot Act". It's not the 911 hijackers who have hypocritically kept fellow human beings locked away indefinitely, uncharged and unprocessed, and then dispised the inevitable suicides that result "acts of warfare". It's not the 911 hijackers that rationalize the unchecked, limitless expansion of Executive powers as necessary, legal and ethical. It's "we the people," or more specifically, the representatives we elect and finance. We remain the only credible threat to our own freedoms.

At least that's the case with regards to what's articulated in our Constitution. The only so-called "freedom" I can think of that can possibly be impacted by terrorists is the right Americans seem to fell we have to make money any- and everywhere, even at the expense of others. Yeah, they can impact that. But, as some friends of mine are apt to sing, that so-called "freedom," and others like it, is just greed dressed up.