How's it going, America,
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Let’s get into it:
It’s Veterans Day, and I could hear the parade from my back porch as middle school kids donned their band uniforms and marched through town. It’s a joyous thing about small-town life, where the people of the community are the ones to organize and step out onto the streets to honor those who served our nation.
As I sit here in my comfy little house, surrounded by enough food, water, and sustenance to last until the next trip to the grocery store or delivery from Amazon, I ask myself a question that has been plaguing me. Are our prosperous American lifestyles made possible by the waging of overseas wars? Is our comfort predicated on keeping violence at bay by engaging in it far from home?
I am far from an advocate for war. I oppose war at every turn. During the Cold War, the US used soft power to create influence overseas, and into the 21st century we endeavored to spend our way out of conflicts just as our enemies grew more vicious, bringing terror to our homeland, and even our allies began to hate us. At home, disdain for military efforts and disappointment with the lack of success—which is partly due to the lack of a stated goal—led to distrust of our undertakings overseas.
Fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, and now Iran, whether with men or drones, seems excessive when our nation seems more at threat from domestic policies than we are from overseas threats. But what does the war machine provide that we take for granted? What does it provide that we are unwilling to give up? What do we take from the industry of war even as we condemn the use of force?
These are my questions on this quiet Veterans Day, upon which I am grateful for those who fought tirelessly to ensure that this quiet, this children’s parade, is what I see from my back porch, where no harm or foreign threat is likely to find me.
Libby