Writer says wars to nowhere are futile

 

January 29, 2015



To The Eagle:

Now another year has passed as have the many holidays on which we enjoy displaying our colorful national flag. It might be time to remember, however, that our flag has also a dark side, as have many other flags. We use our flag too often to drape the coffins of our young people whom we have sent to fight and die in parts of the earth where our military forces cannot prevail. So why do we keep sending them there? Over years?

In one of Daily Astorian’s editorials last year we were reminded of President Eisenhower’s warning about a developing military-industrial complex. It might be that we have ignored that warning for too long and that this interdependency has already become a necessary part of our broken economic system.

We should take note that even with millions of people engaged directly and indirectly in what we call our defense industry we still have high levels of unemployment. We should also note that there are no viable candidates for political office who campaign on a promise to end our military involvement in the Middle East thereby increasing the number of our unemployed.

I grow more concerned that we Americans seem to be no longer shocked by reports of our young people being killed or maimed in these wars, at least so long as the wars are kept small and so long as it is a war against “terrorists.” My concern has caused me to search for some device more graphic than newspaper columns to re-awaken us to the futility of continuing these wars to nowhere.

I thought of an imaginary portrayal of our killed young people lying side by side in a row in flag draped coffins occupying burial space of about three feet along one of our busy streets. Using the odometer of my car and traveling east from the Astoria Post Office on the corner of 8th and Commercial Streets the first half-mile mark would place us opposite the Maritime Museum. That distance on one side of the street would accommodate only 880 dead soldiers of the 4,493 recently reported by Anti War.com. An equal number would occupy another such distance as far as the plywood mill development project. That landmark is a full mile from the post office and yet the total space could accommodate only about one half of the dead soldiers from our unsuccessful Mid-East wars. The reader could drive out the full distances required for the full casualty count. Mile posts would serve our suburban neighbors. Then what of those even greater casualty lists of the “terrorists” and their families?

We need to develop an economic system which doesn’t require continuous small wars to keep unemployment levels down. Wouldn’t you rather have your taxes spent on maintenance of roads and bridges, parks, dikes, education, arts, etc., rather than sacrificing our young and those of our “enemies” to no purpose?

Don Matthies

Rosburg

 

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