November 11, 2002

By: Lorenzo Dee Belveal

This "Veterans Day" marks a significant point in the life of our country: Once again, our political leadership is rattling the sabers of war and threatening to expose countless millions of innocents to the rain of hell from the skies, the seas, and the land. 

As a veteran of WW-II, I recall thinking then that we were doing what we had to do to rid the world of Hitler and Hirohito - so our kids would not have to fight another war ten or fifteen or twenty years later. But we were wrong. 

Korea exploded in our faces a few years later, and it was barely over before Viet Nam took its place on the international stage.

Now it's the "war against terror" and a reprise of the first war against Iraq. It seems that every generation has to confront its own challenge at arms. Except this one strikes me as being unique.

Presidential oratory to the contrary, notwithstanding, I can't escape the gut feeling that our fearless leader (no pun intended) has gone looking for this conflict. I can't escape the feeling that he welcomes an opportunity to 'finish' the bloody work that his father abandoned in mid-stream. But since this very real possibility is never a topic of public debate, we will never know the answer until the bombs have started raining down. And probably not even then.

As a veteran of WW-II, I can't help comparing our present situation to that leading up to "the big war": The very real threats of Hitler and the Japanese empire were palpable. The entire world understood the mortal hazard the Axis Alliance presented to the peace-loving nations. The evidence was copious, clear and endlessly discussed. 

I worry that this is not a defining characteristic of our present war preparations. An official blanket of secrecy shrouds everything in a cloud of innuendo and clever "explanations" that only 'insiders' are able to validate. The rest of us are being "propagandized" - and I don't like it. 

The faceless "spokesmen" for the equally anonymous "administration" say that the plans call for putting 250,000 ground troops into the Middle East, in preparation for the Iraq campaign. This, along with another 265,000 call-up of the National Guard, to augment our domestic security activities. And there is also grand talk of fleets of bombers, and ships - and "smart bombs" and chemical and nuclear weapons. 

Taken all together, it begins to add up as an epic confrontation. It is beginning to sound like a "real" war, in which even the theoretical winners stand to lose a great deal. I wonder if we all realize this. 

Nobody hates war like those who have taken part in one. As for the others, I fear the reality of Robert E. Lee's admission may be the only guiding axiom. 

General Lee, overlooking the shambles of a corpse-strewn battlefield is quoted as having declared, "It is good that war is so terrible, else we should become too fond of it."

I worry that our President has never personally experienced war. I fear that he envisions it in terms of spectacle, great victories arrayed on a heroic-sized canvas - for all the world to see. Since he knows nothing of the personal horrors of war, I fear that he might be much more eager for it than would an experienced veteran, for example. 

In any case, we appear to be inexorably commited to another season of death, destruction and all it entails for both the engaged armies and their hapless civilian populations. 

May God be with us. 

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Lorenzo Dee Belveal                                                                                        U. S. Navy - World War-II
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