Thoughts on Veterans Day

It seems to me that Veterans Day ought to be a time when we commit to doing away with war. Instead, we're waiting for our President to decide to send more troops to Afghanistan, risking their lives and the lives of the "collateral damage" or in other words the civilians caught in the crossfire. I had hoped for better from President Obama, and so did the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, it seems.

I would like to be a fly on the wall in the Oval office, or wherever the National Security Team keeps convening to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. I hope there are some participants pointing to the dismal history of major powers trying to bring Afghanistan under their rule (and presumably kicking and screaming into the 20th century (now 21st). So far it's "visiting" Empires 0, Afghanistan 100. (That's an arbitrary number, much like many of the arbitrary numbers we are given for civilian casualties). Someone on the NST might even be reminding the Prez that we helped to arm and support the Mujahadeen (now Taliban) whilst we were trying to prevent the Russian takeover of Afghanistan. (And why did we care so much about keeping the Russians out? Natural gas, of course.) Now, ranking members of the erstwhile Mujahadeen sit at Hamid Karzai's right hand, and we don't know who the hell we're fighting against. Or why we are even there 8 years after bombing the countryside to punish the Taliban for giving aid and comfort to Al Qaeda. The Taliban fled and Al Qaeda fled into the Pashtun tribal area on the Pakistan border. If we try hard enough (and it looks like it won't take much) we can really draw nuclear-armed Pakistan into this dispute. Now that seems like a really good idea.

So. In my naivete, I believed that Obama's winning of the Nobel put a big weight on his shoulders to actively pursue peace, and not just pay lip service to it. Coming when it did in October, I thought it would be something that just might influence him to de-escalate our presence in Afghanistan, not escalate it.

Next came his overnight vigil at Dover Air Force Base to greet the bodies of 18 soldiers and DEA agents who had died in Afghanistan, as the news media said, seeing first-hand, the cost of the war. I believed at the time that since he never does anything that isn't strategic politically, that he was paving the way to say that our reasons for fighting weren't worth the cost of any more American lives.

Today, in Veterans Day ceremonies at Arlington, he and his wife walked through the section of the cemetery where casualties from the Iraq and Afghani conflicts lie. It has to be sobering. Meeting the mourners in the cemetery would have to be hugely unsettling. Does Obama have a heart tied to his logical brain? Could he imagine the consequences of whichever decision he makes? Could he put politics aside and do what he thinks is right? As of July, our nation has spent 872.6 billion dollars on the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts combined. That would buy a lot of health care, wouldn't it?

So. The leaks say that he'll send 40,000 more troops. I hold onto my thin thread of innocent hope which I have just outlined above. At the same time, though, I'm preparing my signage, my candle and my warm clothes for the vigil which will occur in Portsmouth, at Market Square the day after troop escalation is announced. See you there.