One Vet’s Views on War

Are veterans usually anti-war?

Much like with many similar questions on the topic of the perspectives of veterans, I can only offer my own…

I recently finished G.M. Gilbert’s Nuremberg Diaries, and there is one quote from Hjalmar Schacht which resonates in relevance:

If the military profession is honorable, it is the most self-effacing profession in the world because its duty is to prevent its use.

Never in my life have I ever felt the primal desire to directly wage war – to be placed into a situation where my own actions were the result of failed political policy – yet I trained ceaselessly for that eventuality. When the time came, I did not shirk the responsibilities and trust associated with the uniform – I went, time and time again.

See, here’s the problem that many folks might not appreciate: I didn’t want to go to Afghanistan and later Iraq, but on some level, I did want to go. I’ve never been the “bomb-them-back-to-the-Bronze-age” type person, but I have always appreciated the ethical mess which comes with war; if it is necessary, it needs to be quick, violent, and decisive. At the same time, I was always aware of the theoretical value of the training we conducted… would things work the way we thought they would? Call me impossibly curious and perpetually conflicted.

And now – with my experiences behind me, friends forever lost, and as a spectator for the ongoing fallout of a seemingly never-ending “Global War on Terror”?

[Shrug]

I am anti-war, but not like you would think.

I hate the idea of yet another generation involved in a conflict… even more so when it is the same conflict I participated in. The thought of my son – and quite possibly, my daughter as well – following in my footsteps in places like Bagram, Tikrit, Mosul, and others make my skin crawl. Unfortunately, though, if the conflict isn’t in Afghanistan or Iraq, it will be somewhere else… and that is about as absolute as I can conjure. My academic and personal studies on history have left me somewhat cynical in terms of the possibility of there ever being world peace; I have written post after post on the topic, and I cannot realistically see a rosy and optimistic future where Mankind is finally freed from self-inflicted violence.

However, as bleak as I may seem, I still retain some rational logic on the matter. I’m not “anti-war,” but “anti-stupid-assed-and-drawn-out-war.” If conflict is to be entered, it should be the last resort… and then it should be deliberate (also declared), definite, decisive, and with more than one exit strategy/end game in mind. Heuristics of policy, rather than binary shifting opinion.

…That’s just me, though.