In 1924 Ernst Friedrich, renowned German pacifist, published one of the most effective, disturbing and controversial anti-war books of all time: War Against War!. In it, unflinchingly brutal photographs showing the ravages of World War 1 upon the soldiers who fought in it were seen for the first time by a shocked public. The photographs were juxtaposed with ironic subtitles and typically glorified imagery that spoke of the allure and honor of battle. Banned and condemned, War Against War! spoke the glaring truth about "the war to end all wars" as forcefully as it speaks about the Bush administration's current war in Iraq, its power to threaten the interests of those who wage baseless warfare for profit undiminished by time. These images, like the suppressed images of our soldiers suffering similarly in Iraq and Afghanistan, must be seen. Lest we forget...
do all those who lie here know why they died
did you really believe them when they told you the cause
did you really believe that this war would end wars
well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory the shame
the killing and dying
it was all done in vain
for willie mcbride it all happened again
and again and again and again and again
kinda says it all dont it, with thanks to the dropkick murphys (and eric bogle)
When it came to be my turn in Vietnam, I remember the internal struggle. My friends went, were killed and wounded and poisoned, and I did not. My father, having seen war, talked me off the ledge.
Now in my majority of years, I see the synergy of this enterprise in the willingness of young men and ambition of business to go to war when war is not needed.
With perfect certainty, the Iraq war/occupation was unnecessary, Afghanistan probably too. But the real devil in all this, this war and all the others is that the judgments of us all about for what and when it is worth fighting is desecrated, confused, and distorted.
And the essential calculation is whether weathering an insult such as 9/11 will lead to more insult. And is an insult really a threat to that which defines you or will responding to that insult make you into what you wish your adversary were not?
Surely a vision of a world without war is possible in the depth and breadth of our experience of the futility and tragedy that war has wrought. In the past we, Americans, were renowned for our decency, fairness and reluctance to use force, perhaps as a legacy of our own monumental Civil War. This is a reputation that we should seek to rekindle.
"Take me wherever there are parliaments...and diets and chambers of statesmen. I want to hear when they talk about honor and justice and making the world safe...Let them debate...why should we take all this crap off Germany or whoever the next Germany is. Let them talk more munitions and airplanes and battleships and tanks and gases, why of course we’ve got to have them, we can’t get along without them, how in the world could we protect the peace if we didn’t have them? Let them form blocs and alliances and mutual assistance pacts...But before they vote on them, before they give the order for all the little guys to start killing each other, let the main guy rap his gavel of my case and point down at me and say, here gentlemen is the only issue before this house, and that is, are you for this thing here or are you against it?"
Well? Are you for holes blown in men's faces or are you against it? Are you for young men in the prime of their lives being scared out of their wits for the rest of their lives, or are you against it? Are you for men coming back from far-flung places with head injuries that change their personalities forever, or are you against it? That is the only issue here in my house, and your house.
Fight him here so we don't have to fight them over there.