I Am A Citizen

I Am A Citizen

War is the ultimate expression of the failure of humankind.

I thought now might be a good time for me to write a bit about war since the rattling of sabers is become louder by the day. I often express my dislike of war and my disdain for its effects. From those comments many of those who I encounter seem to think that I disrespect our men and women in uniform and take me to be less than patriotic. I want to make clear that I respect our men and women in uniform without reservation and appreciate the difficult and hazardous job that they do. They answer the call of their country out of different motivations but they make themselves available to be used as weapons when their country deems force to be necessary. Without the sacrifices made by hundreds of thousands of them we would not be living in the comfort and freedom that we do. What I have a problem with is the decision making that sends all those people into harms way. If I criticize military action I am not criticizing the soldier, sailor, airmen or marine who is doing the fighting. I am criticizing the people who make the decisions. Sometimes, rarely, I agree that military

action is necessary and proper. Most of the time I think we raise the sword too quickly. One of the things that I have noticed is that military leaders are not all that anxious to go into battle but once they are given the go order by the civilians that are in control of our military they set out with purpose to do the job. I think that many forget that the founders placed that in the founding document because they were well aware of what happens when a military is answerable only to itself. To their eternal credit our military leaders acknowledge this and honor it. With the civilian leadership we have these days that is proving to be a welcome practice.

We maintain the largest military in the world. Maybe not in bodies but certainly in war making ability. We spend more on the defense budget than the next 9 or 10 countries combined and that

includes Russia and China. An argument can be made that it is necessary to do that to make the world safe for democracy but that is a bit specious. Mostly what our worldwide projection of power does is make sure that markets remain open for our corporations. As a matter of fact it is estimated that as much as 80% of our defense department expenditures are devoted to this purpose and that only 20% is actually spent on national defense. On the other hand, keeping markets open also has the effect of maintaining global economic alliances that translate into security alliances. This was the point of the Trans Pacific Partnership but narrow minded people focused solely on the economic details and ignored how it would create a unified front against Chinese expansion in the South China Sea and the Pacific Rim. This isn't to say that the economic details could not be negotiated but that it had value beyond trade. Now, in the absence of such an alliance China is forging ahead with its colonization of the South China Sea and making alliances with other countries in the region. Eventually this will prove to be detrimental to the interests of the United States and maybe sooner rather than later. It appears that foresight is not a trait this administration possesses.

So, now the President is tweeting about North Korea not behaving and threatening to make them behave if China can't. This is what passes for diplomacy these days but that is not surprising since the State Department has been hollowed out and management positions still remain unfilled 100 days into the new administration which betrays an alarming lack of understanding of global affairs. Now, nobody wants North Korea to become a nation that has the ability to attack anyone with nuclear weapons. Especially Japan and South Korea but, if a shooting war starts, these are the two countries that will bear the brunt until the United States can respond. If we begin shooting in North Korea without exhausting every conceivable diplomatic effort then I will once again criticize those who send our men and women to war. Do I have the right to do that? Darn tootin' I do but that does not make me unpatriotic or unappreciative of our military. If we commit our military to any effort other than to degrade ISIS in Syria I will be critical of the decision making because no one has ever

answered the question of what we do afterwards. This is what happened in Iraq. It happened because the civilian decision makers chose to go to war based on faulty assumptions of what would happen. The military was not all that anxious to do it but once the orders were given they did it to the best of their ability which was pretty darned good. Everyone knew that a political solution would have to be reached to bring peace and that peace could not be gained militarily but on we went. It was a terrible decision that is still causing repercussions and will for decades yet. Shoot yeah I'm critical of that but not of those thousands who gave their lives or came home damaged. They did what was asked of them.

So, My Take is that I have every right to be supportive or critical. I hold the highest rank possible in the Republic. I am a citizen.

rmoore@somerset-kentucky.net