On Supporting War

[varkam]

Something odd just occurred to me, as things that are odd do from time to time. I have seen the phrase "war supporter" zillions of times over the past several year but for some reason, seeing it today gave me pause.

"War supporter," I thought "seems like a very odd way of putting it."

I thought back to 9.11.01, and in the weeks that followed, our invasion of Afghanistan. You could say that I was a war supporter then. I was raw from 9.11 (as many of us were), Bush et al said "The bad guy is over here!", the Taliban wouldn't give bin Laden up, so I figured that a military response was necessary - and this made me a war supporter.

But the thing that struck me as odd is how nauseating, how revolting it is to think of oneself as a war supporter. To me, the term almost sounds like I am some sort of a cheerleader or -- at the very least -- gain a sort of satisfaction from the fact that we're dropping bombs and shooting rifles and "interrogating" detainees.

It never struck me like that before and, when it did, it made me want to throw up in my mouth a little.

Now I'm not exactly a pacifist. I think that violence is sometimes necessary in this world. I do not, however, think that violence should ever be "supported". It should never be cheered or hoped for. It should be a stain on our conscience, a blight on our civilization that we found ourselves in such a position where bloodshed was inevitable.

Perhaps I'm reading entirely too much into what it means to be a war supporter, but I will say that I will never identify as such again - even if I view conflict as inevitable and necessary.

[Winterblues]

1. War is not the Answer

Never has been and never will be..

[unhappycamper]

2. My views on war have changed substantially.

When I joined the Army at 17 3/4, I didn't really think of war.

When I went to Turkey in 1964, I didn't really think of war. The first time I went to Vietnam (1967) I thought to myself "Holy shit! What have I got myself into?" The second time I went to Vietnam (1970) I thought "Oh, fuck."

I watched much of the coverage of GW I in amazement. All those shiny new toys. Wowsa. (GW I update: Fully 1/3 of GW I veterans are permanently disabled.)

After 9.11, I did support the war against Afghanistan, knowing that the Russkies got their butts kicked in Afghanistan the same way the US had our butts kicked in Vietnam. But the Taliban supported Bin Laden so they had to go.

I knew the invasion of Iraq was going to be a gigantic mistake and would cost us shitloads of money and people. (I saw a number of Vietnam vets come home injured. We had relatively good medicine, so many more folks were coming home injured.) These guys have pretty good trauma medicine, but they really suck on care after you get out of a hospital.

This February, I had the good fortune to pick up (and deliver) Howard Zinn to a fundraiser. On the ride home he asked "What do you think of Afghanistan?" I told him originally I thought it was a good idea, but the ongoing occupation really makes me question whether we should be there or not. (I've taken to calling the occupation of Afghanistan an occupation rather than a war.)

So don't worry about being a war supporter. Many of us were at one time.

[T Monk]

3. war is justifiable against armed corporate agression