March 24, 2004

The military’s chain of command communicates war-fighting tactics at the command level down to the soldiers on the battlefield in order to successfully execute the force’s overall strategy. Tactical direction is communicated from generals and admirals down to the “grunt” level, as Colonel David Hackworth might say.

Generals and admirals frequently confer with politicians and presidents to develop strategy that is in line with government policy. It matters not whether such government policy is flawed, either by “bad intelligence” or the treasonous intent of elected and/or un-elected leaders who are either bribed or convinced that the involvement of our military to serve the political interests of another nation is or is not justified. The risks our military must face during a time of war dictates that they should be called upon only as a last resort, and then only for political advantages that serve our own people.

The Founders decided upon only one war-fighting policy justification: self-defense. Any other rationale for the exertion of military force will always remain debatable, and as J.R.R. Tolkien has taught us, and as was observed earlier by Lord Acton, “power corrupts.” And there is no viler power than military force! The Founders argued it should only be used as a last resort and only for self-defense. And that is why the Constitution has made it so difficult for our nation to use our military for the political expediency of “nation building.”

Congress, by abdicating its responsibility to “The Right Man,” has allowed one individual in a nation of 300 million, to make the decision employing military might, now used as a standard bargaining tool in international politics. Declaring war is now a policy statement - why are diplomats any longer required? For that matter, why do we need a United Nations? Congress may think it abdicated its responsibilities and delivered them to The Right Man, but the Constitution says otherwise.

Each member of Congress and senator that handed President George Bush war-fighting and nation-building power is precisely just as guilty as the president himself in unnecessarily and unjustly initiating this first strike pre-emptive attack upon a comparatively defenseless nation that never attacked US. Support of the neoconservative Bush New World Order imperialism offering that Saddam was a bad guy and a dictator have nothing whatsoever to do with US. We the people did not create the Heavens, and the Earth, and all that is within them. We are not authorized or entitled to sit in judgment of the world and punish “evildoers.”

So returning to the constitutional concept that only Congress can declare war, the equation for nation building, which has a dollar value somewhere inside its algorithm, it is only they who are accountable. As to the delegation of responsibility in every other aspect of war, the chain of command serves our interests well in translating military strategy and tactical operations down to the grunt level. In this regard, responsibility can indeed be delegated downward to justify action.

War is worse than hell! Recall the horror and shock of moviegoers when Steven Spielberg gave them a slight taste of it in “Saving Private Ryan.” Although the gore that is war was horrifying to moviegoers at that time, it isn’t nearly as offensive to Abraham Foxman and his Zionist Anti-Defamation League as the violence in “The Passion of Christ,” especially when such violence and gore fails to serve the exclusive interests of Israel.

Although delegating responsibility is easily doable, what is not so easily transferred is the responsibility for the outcome of killing, maiming and vaporizing “the enemy.” It helps when the enemy is simply a “target” or an “objective.” It is a powerful deception to treat the enemy as non-human; in fact, it is a very necessary matter of survival. And that is why “kill or be killed” should be used so sparingly. As a matter of survival, anything, anything that can deliver victory and avoid one’s own destruction and/or suffering must be employed. To survive, perhaps women and children and families must be killed. How does one delegate the blood on one’s own hands?

A recently released report has indicated that this “war” has been punctuated by more military suicides by comparison than any other. Our military heroes read, see, and think, and they know exactly why this war was started. And even when they come home physically intact to their own families, perhaps for some, their minds and hearts remain “over there,” where a family once lived, slept, worshipped, laughed and loved.

© 2004 THEODORE E. LANG All rights reserved

Ted Lang is a political analyst and a freelance writer.

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