Mays

David Cook, who is a journalist that used to work for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, wrote an opinion article on The Chattanoogan and it kind of set me off. I wrote a reply to his opinion and emailed it, so hopefully it will be posted soon. Until then, here's what Mr. Cook had to say, and what I subsequently had to say.

David Cook: War Is A Lie
by David Cook
posted January 11, 2007

At a time when more than 600,000 people have died from an unjust, illegal Iraqi war, when the US government spends $1 billion a day on its obese military, when an executive escalation of 20,000 additional American troops into Iraq is a monarchial insult to November democracy, and when the greatest amount of troops in American history are speaking out against their commander's wishes, Representative Zach Wamp chooses to reflect on these times with a quote from a Wisconsin football coach.

"The great Vince Lombardi once said, 'Fatigue makes cowards of us all,'''' stated the congressman on Wednesday. "While football pales in comparison to war, the analogy is very true today as we consider our options and the future of the United States in Iraq and the global war against the Jihadists.''

No, Congressman, the analogy is horribly untrue. Fathers are losing sons, wives are losing husbands, and children are losing parents; people are being tortured, international laws are being ignored; billions of dollars a day are being spent on American weapons, while scraps from the table are being thrown to starving families, at home (remember New Orleans?) and abroad (30,000 people a day die from conditions that can be prevented).

I wonder what Vince Lombardi's wisdom would mean to the woman wandering the streets of Japan on that August 1945 day when US pilots dropped an atomic bomb on her city. Actually, she couldn’t speak: her jaw had been obliterated and "her tongue (was) hanging out of her mouth….'' according to the historian Howard Zinn in his book "Passionate Declarations.'' This was one woman out of tens of millions killed in warfare this past century.

Consider another victim of Hiroshima, a fifth grade girl whose legs and arms were burned so badly all she could do was cry out for someone to cut them off. What would she say about fatigue or cowardice? What about the 100,000 others who died that day?

And think about Charles Hutto, a soldier in Vietnam who was ordered into a south Vietnamese village and told "to shoot everyone in the village…an order came down to destroy all of the food, kill all the animals and kill all the people…then the village was burned…I didn’t agree with the killings but we were ordered to do it.'' The village had a name: My Lai. What would Hutto say now about cowardice, or about following orders?

Or consider any of the thousands of American soldiers who leave home and family and work to do what their leaders ask. And then, so often, they return injured or damaged or wounded or dead. Ask yourself: was Vietnam worth any of that? Is the Iraqi war worth any of that?
"Whether you're selling food from McDonald's or cars from General Motors or a war from the government, repetition is crucial for making propaganda stick,'' wrote Norman Solomon, whose book "'War Made Easy'' chronicles decades of government war-time deception: Roosevelt, Reagan, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton, Bush the father and Bush the son. Their administrations all publicly lied about wars or conflicts.

The Democrats, who will moan and groan but do nothing about this, need to realize that standing up for peace and reason and disarmament is a noble path. Then, they should begin the impeachment process of the president, and follow that by introducing a bill that requires all members of Congress to register their own children for current and all future wars. That would be a worthwhile bill, and it is also an impossible bill, for what person wants to see their own child die in a war, much less a war based on deception?

And that is the point: war is a lie. This war is a lie and all wars are lies. It is a lie that breaks the fundamental relationship between all living creatures. It is a lie that lives long after any momentary treaty or surrender; it is evil, and like evil, takes the path of least resistance into the heart and minds of soldiers who fight and victims who mourn. It infects; it corrupts; it sins; it absolutely destroys.

"The task of carrying out violence, of killing, leads to perversion. The seductiveness of violence, the fascination with the grotesque _ the Bible calls it 'the lust of the eye' _ the god-like empowerment over other human lives and the drug of war combine, like the ecstasy of erotic love, to let our senses command our bodies. Killing unleashes within us dark undercurrents that see us desecrate and whip ourselves into greater orgies of destruction,'' wrote Chris Hedges, one of America's foremost and experienced war journalists, in his book ''War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.''

Violence leads to more violence. The violence that culminated the end of World War II only led to more violence inside the Cold War and the many dictatorships America supported and encouraged during this time: Chile, Haiti, Cambodia, El Salvador, Nicaragua and others. And now, the possibility of certain destruction, of using nuclear weapons in an attack is talked about like a Sunday afternoon football game.

What inhabits the souls of these war-makers? Where is the conscience? What will they say when they encounter the 100 million dead from this last century? Do not think that I only condemn American policy, and do not think that I am forgetting the grave violence from other 20th century dictatorial countries; their motives were evil, and their results damning. Yet we are all guilty when we believe that war is the answer. And we are especially guilty when we lie about it.

"Were any nation today to accept avowedly pacifist leadership, disband its army, offer to join with all others in really establishing a new order, the effect would be revolutionary,'' wrote the 20th century pacifist AJ Muste. Before you discredit or disbelieve him, look at the influence violence has had on the world around us. Is it not contagious? When someone strikes you, do you not wish to strike back? The government claims we are fighting in self-defense. Does the world look safer to you since we began our war?

President Bush claims to understand the anger of the American people, and takes full responsibility of the Iraqi war. To end his Wednesday night speech, he asked the Author of Liberty to guide America's hand in this task.

Chattanooga's congressman made an inappropriate analogy when using Vince Lombardi to explain away the Iraqi war. President Bush has made a grave analogy by taking in vain the peace-making God who died offering forgiveness to his enemies.

I hope He once again forgives us.

(David Cook is a former journalist for the Chattanooga Times-Free Press. He currently teaches American history at Girls Preparatory School and can be reached at dcook7@gmail.com)

Mr. Cook, I deeply feel sorry for the exceeding amount of contempt you have for our country and for freedom. Ah yes, a Utopian society where everyone frolics in the tall, grassy meadows would be a wonderful and just world, considering all the heartache and death this world has experienced in the past century. Unfortunately, that’s an impossibility.

For that realization to come to life, those striving for just and right things (the good guys, you could call them), must do anything and everything that they can to maintain their own level of utopia. When people come onto our soil with the predisposition of disrupting that standard of living and way of life, we have no choice but to do what is necessary to reduce the amount of heartache and death from future episodes.

Unfortunately, Mr. Cook, there’s only one way to do that against a radical ideology: War. Quite clearly, war is hell and is a thing which only the sick and twisted would only engage in for giggles. The truly disheartening thing is that there are some such as you who are so politically motivated, that you will ignore and turn your head away from the obvious reality that we live in today.

There have been mistakes in this war and in every single war that any man in the history of time has engaged in. There have been sick and demented people fighting those wars who have unjustly represented the people who they were fighting for. While it’s totally unacceptable, it’s a fact that can’t be ignored, and should never deter a nation from doing the right thing.

I wonder though sir, on what ground you call for the impeachment of our President? Did the United States Congress and subsequently the United States Senate not give our President authority to launch this war in Iraq? Did the dozens of United Nations (I’m sure you love those guys) resolutions not paint a clear picture against this former regime and demanded an intervention into his hostilities against his neighbors and his own people? Did every single respected intelligence community in this world not come to the same consensus about what it believed Saddam Hussein was doing behind closed doors in his country? Before you call for the all-out impeachment of a sitting President, shouldn’t justification be made, sir? As a former reporter for a fine journalistic establishment, you need to brush up on your morals and ethics codes.

I remember watching the movie Saving Private Ryan, an epic story about the life of a soldier during the European campaign of world war two. After the movie ended, I watched the Special Features on the DVD. Truly one thing that Stephen Spielburg said that I will never forget is “without war, there can be no peace.” As long as there are people in this world pushing their ideology onto others and using their ideology as a justification to kill, war is necessary for peace. Wars are two-sided Mr. Cook. One side fighting that war may be a liar, but the other side is more than likely fighting for the truth. However, someone who posts opinion articles that are politically motivated probably doesn’t realize that.

You pose a question in your writings asking if I feel safer since this war began. Yes. Yes Mr. Cook, I feel safer. I feel that my nation is stronger. I feel as if our will is stronger. I delight in the fact that since September 11, 2001, there hasn’t been a single terrorist attack on American soil. I feel exponentially safer knowing that brave men and women are on the streets of Iraq fighting for this country. The greatest military machine ever conceived is waging a war against a tyrannical ideology this very moment and Mr. Cook, that makes me sleep well at night. As a matter of fact, last night was the best night of sleep I’ve had in my entire life.

It’s always amusing to me when a certain group of people who are known for supporting issues such as abortion always bring God into the death penalty and war arguments. I wish that you would read the Old Testament thoroughly to know that God, while loving, forgiving and peaceful, also used war to accomplish His will. In my interpretation, He was teaching us that you can talk to these people until your face is blue, and when the talking is over, strike. Some people simply cannot be reasoned with, because they are too motivated in accomplishing whatever their ideology tells them.

In closing, I hate the fact that you have harbor such hate and resentment for the President and for republicans. I know that if the President were to announce a complete withdrawal today, you would write an opinion article demanding that troops stay in Iraq, just because that’s how the left is. I feel as if you need to look at history and learn from it, not just know it. We dropped Atomic Bombs on Japan to prevent suffering. Unfortunately, the affects of bombs are a casualty of war, and the country which waged war against us had to be brought to its knees. If you hope that God forgives us for self-defense against an enemy who only struck us again and again when we turned our cheek, then you misinterpreted what God was saying. I encourage you to be open minded sir, and be less politically motivated in your writings. Also, back up and justify whatever claims and demands you make. It will make you more credible.

I hope He once again forgives those who hate.