What If They Gave a War and Nobody Came?

Back in the 60s there was a tee-shirt with exactly that slogan. And today it seems as if the dream has come true: we now have two wars to which almost no one has to come. Especially no one who doesn't want too. Those that do go . . . well, we know who they mostly are . . . long-service professionals and volunteers from the under class (driven to enlist, for the most part, by the barrenness of the futures they face and the vagaries of economic circumstance). Not anyone who would be really missed, except, of course, by their own family and friends.

Oh, we say we’re concerned and often worry out loud about what’s happening with “our” troops, but that’s mostly cheap indulgence of communal guilt at not having to sacrifice anything in a time of war. People who really cared might actually pay attention to what is now the longest lasting war in American history. People who, for example, might have to envision themselves or their kids being drafted to serve in a nasty little war without any purpose.

Best of all, nobody has had to pay for these wars either. At least, not presently. It’s mostly someone else’s kids who are fighting ‘em, and someone else’s kids who will be paying for ‘em. Just put it on the National credit card. Not only no new taxes, but lots of tax breaks over the last ten years – especially for the rich. As for ready money to pay for all those juicy military contracts? The graft. The bribes. The corporate maggots feeding on the 9/11 aftermath. The deaths we are buying – because war is about killing. That’s the best joke of all. The Chinese are footing the bill.

For now. But sooner or later every bill comes due. And will have to be paid. With money from higher taxes or forgone opportunity, a deteriorating national economy and economic position, inflated currency, reduced government services, Social Security and Medicare cuts . . . Pick your favorite, or chose ‘em all. But for most of us, at this time, it’s a war without sacrifice, a war without cost, a war where money can be made, and a war where the military remains popular – in spite of being unable to actually win.

Let’s consider our military. We are living in a time of economic hardship. A time when the “moron” party are increasingly insistent that budget cuts have to be made. No more stimulus, no more extended unemployment benefits, no more this, no more that. With one exception. The world's most expensive, fattest, over-generaled, and ineffective military continually gets its budget increased. And much else.

Generals who can't seem to win at anything are extravagantly lauded. And the one who seemingly could, General Petraeus, achieved his “victory” by buying off the Sunnis in Iraq. If you believe that will prove to be a lasting, proud monument of military achievement, I’ve got a war in Afghanistan I’d like to sell you.

Whomever they are, the few who are serving deserve better. The unfairness should cry out to the rest of us. It should scream. None of them, even those who escape injury, will return whole; neither will their families escape from the repeatedly demanded sacrifice. And if we cared we’d put a stop to it. We wouldn’t waste any more of their lives in an un-winable, unnecessary, war. We would finally find enough courage to say enough.

The 60s slogan is not without irony, coming from a poem by Bertolt Brecht (Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage and Her Children, etc.).

"What if they gave a war and nobody came?
Why, then, the war would come to you!
He who stays home when the fight begins
And lets another fight for his cause
Should take care: “

To be continued . . .
Al