COLUMN: Think again about headlong rush to war
I was frightened and horrified by the warmongering tone of Monday’s Utah Statesman, and just had to write with a little personal historical perspective.
On Page 1 of Monday’s paper, the bold-faced headline reads: “USA on the brink of war.” On Page 2: “Welcome to War,” and below it, “Utahns are ready for war.” The lead editorial in Monday’s paper is headlined, “Support needed for Bush’s attack plans.”
Oh man, oh man, oh man. What has happened to the world when students – those who will fight a war – are panting to go to battle because an administration needs to “wag the dog?”
Where did we go wrong? We used to know better.
How did we, the children of the 1960s and 1970s, who marched and sang “Give peace a chance,” come to be overseeing a generation that seems to be just dying to – well – die? Where have we professors gone wrong? Have the movies and computer games that rip people’s heads from their bodies so hardened them to what will happen if the United States goes to war again with Saddam? Where will these eager and bloodthirsty students end up – perhaps dying or just spitting sand in a slit trench in the sand north of Kuwait?
What are you thinking, you kids in the third row of my class? This isn’t a Bruce Willis movie.
When I was in junior high school, I really hated Bobby Farnham. He was a feisty kid, a little bantam kind of a guy, strong and quick and always ready to punch you. He had a smart mouth on him, as my mother said. He was an amazing hockey player at age 13, someone who’d fight anyone (and he regularly beat me up in 7th grade, after school out behind the bleachers). When we played hockey, he was fast and fearless and took joy in knocking me down. He did the same in our classes.
We were called to report to the Selective Service office at about the same time in 1973, to register for the draft. I was 18. My lottery number was 278; Bobby’s was below 50 somewhere.
I’ve lost track, but somewhere in 1973 or ’74, Bobby went off to war in Vietnam. Turned out he wasn’t fast or smart enough over there, and he didn’t come back.
When I see The Utah Statesman promoting war on Iraq with its front-page headlines and an editorial that invokes war because “in God we trust,” I weep. The 20-somethings who are writing and reading these stories have forgotten all the Bobby Farnhams who never got to college, who never got out of their 20s.
What have we learned since Vietnam, or Kosovo, or Korea or Afghanistan or World War II that we have forgotten to teach our students and our children (and our political leaders)? People die when we go to war. Gulf War I, the first TV war with surround-sound, looked clean and safe, but we know now what a lie that was. Those “smart bombs” aren’t.
We have forgotten to teach our children and our students that the glorious march off to war that they are fed in the movies is a lie. This is hype, whipped up by politicians for their own purposes. Past soldiers’ sacrifice levied a deadly fine on their mothers and families, on their wives and their children, and on their communities and nation that never knew them and what they could have become. And let’s not forget those who were called and went and served and came home – they will never be able to outlive the evils they saw.
Now, Saddam has cleverly blocked President Bush’s saber-rattling by agreeing to let the inspectors back in. But I fear the move will only postpone what seems to be the inevitable.
Sometimes you have to fight. But I would urge The Statesman, the two-thirds of Utahns who say they are “ready for war,” and the USU community to take a few deep breaths and think again about how ready we should be to commit to an uncertain war against Saddam Hussein.
Uncertain not only because so many of our bright young troops will not survive, but what are we doing this for – just to do it again, and to “do it right” this time?
Do we really think the terrorism that spawned 9-11 will be eradicated if Saddam disappears? I don’t think so. The purposes for Gulf War II are more political and personal than practical. And the potential cost to people the age of our Statesman writers, to their families, to our communities, and to our national psyche could be enormous.
Saddam Hussein is unquestionably an evil megalomaniac who has flouted international sanctions and tormented his people. Perhaps he does pose a new threat to international peace and regional stability.
What seems more likely, however, is that U.S. chest-beating at the United Nations and elsewhere will serve as well as anything Saddam can do to disrupt world peace.
Honestly, I never liked Bobby Farnham. He knocked me down too much on the hockey rink and behind the bleachers. He was a jerk. But then he was sent to fight and die in Vietnam. Without Vietnam, who knows what he might have been?
The Statesman’s front-page story on Monday begins this way: “War is imminent.” I sure hope not. There’s no war unless we say there is. Can’t we think of some other option?
Ted Pease is the head of the journalism department. Comments can be sent to him at tpease@cc.usu.edu