Throughout the decades there has always been a war for each generation of Americans and accordingly, an anti-war or Pro-Peace Movement to hedge against the violent dogma. The wars of the 20th Century started off with what most would call “just wars”, or a war that is worth fighting on ethical grounds. No one I know would argue against going into Europe to fight the Nazis or even the retaliation on Japan, despite the use of Nuclear weapons on civilian cities, for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Up through Korea we mostly stood behind our government and it’s use of force overseas until the Vietnam Conflict struck a chord with the hippie movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. People of all political stripes united to voice their opposition to “our boys” dying overseas for a trivial conflict that did not affect our own National Defense. So we had an anti-war, Pro-Peace Movement. Flower Power was in full effect. Fast forward and we have not had a just war since.
There are many who would say the Gulf War was a war for resources and to protect our national interests in so far as it protected our energy resources and therefore our economy. We sent in troops to protect the Petro-Dollar and that was that. A short war but not a just war. Fast forward a little more to 9/11/2001 and what happened afterwards.
As a United States Marine I remember everything about that day and the months and years following because it would shape my entire life there after.
That morning I woke up to get ready for class, a 19 year old (by two weeks) Sophomore on a full scholarship at a local Private College. I got up before 8am and my father was downstairs watching the TV. I turned on the TV in my room and my Dad yelled upstairs to turn on the news. I watched as I saw one twin burn as the other waited in it’s shadow and we just stared not knowing what was going on. We heard it was a plane. We saw as the second plane hit the building in my kitchen in the house I grew up in on Long Island, the iconic suburbs of America. Boy did I have no idea how great my childhood had been. As I raise my children now I am saddened at how they will never live in a world pre-9/11 and what a shame that is.
Personally I was a 1320 SAT student with a 3.5GPA and an All-Conference Cross Country Runner who was a Freshman MVP and College Record Holder. I didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career but I tried to get decent grades, that is until 9/11. After that day the thoughts I had in my head about joining the military, something I had thought about since I was a Boy Scout seemed more like my destiny and my DUTY than a choice. This was clearly my time to serve my country and I was willing to die for my homeland, still am.
I went to the recruiter the next day and signed up to take the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) for the Marine Corps (since I would never wear those terrible Navy uniforms, the Air Force wasn’t ‘military’ in my mind and between the 8 week Army and 13 week plus month of Combat Training Marine Corps I knew I was a Marine at heart and it was an easy decision.) When I got my 99 score my recruiter threw the MOS book at me and said pick whatever you want. I picked the hardest school, Aircrew, and eventually got assigned to the CH53E, Super-Stallion Heavy Lift Helicopter, as a Crew Chief/Door Gunner. I shipped out for boot camp a few months later. Never did it cross my mind that America would do anything except find who planned 9/11 and destroy the threat.
Roughly a year later I watched as the Marines in my barracks jumped up and down as President Bush gave the ultimatum to Iraq and the Hussein family. It made my stomach turn. I knew in my heart that this was not to find Bin Laden and that in retrospect we went and bombed Iraq right away but I was blind to that in the emotion of the era.
I knew as a door gunner I would be shooting .50 caliber bullets and 7.62NATO rounds down on people and moving objects as if I weren’t killing anyone. I knew it would destroy me as I have a high level of empathy. I made the Marines kick me out after all the training because I could not consciously kill people I know did nothing to hurt my country. I succeeded and went home to become a EMT and then into the larger healthcare field to more or less equal out the damage from the Marines. When people ask me what I did I say the opposite of what I do now. I used to be a well trained killer and now I am a well trained lifesaver. Praise the Lord for that blessing.
But this brings me back to my premise, my generation has suffered unjust wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan and into other nations like Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, African nations as well as Turkey and who knows where else. The same generation plagued by huge College debt and an opioid epidemic. We get called the generation of complaining Millenials even though I am technically Generation X. Mine is a forgotten generation lost in PTSD, self-loathing, guilt and expected to succeed despite a reduced economy and a population increase not to mention terrible economic prospects. So where are the anti-War Vets?
We are right here, asking people to please stand for our anthem instead of tellin the NFL it will be boycotted for not supporting the friends who have died in an honest pursuit of protecting everything those Stars and Stripes represent, home. Fast forward again and we have hyper-partisan politics splitting my generation and the ones after it and even our parents because none of us fought in a ‘just war’. Even when a Marine shoots a sniper he knows inside he is not protecting anyone other than the team he was sent in with. This is where they keep us, in a state of perpetual heightened awareness and vigilance even though the facts say we should lay down our arms and go home.
So we have the ‘Patriots’ and the Leftists now and people like me are Radically Centrist. We have conservative values but most have somewhat liberal social stances because, well, we know the government should protect our constitution and the freedom of the citizenry, and we ARE the government at the end of the day. As I like to say “Politicians start wars, Troops fight them.” But why is there no Peace Movement like we have had with Vietnam? Why do both sides fight over who we should be bombing? To me it is a sad state of the nation and of the minds of the people.
We need, as a generation, 18-39 years old, to be anti-war no matter where we stand on the political spectrum. We should always oppose war. We should always question the validity of Swift violent action in a foreign land and doubt what our politicians tell us. But we don’t. We live in an age of the world-wide web and live in echo chambers of confirmation bias. We believe 100% in the utter stupidity that is the two party system. We use paper money and let the government spy on us without a large upheaval. Why?! Why as a people who are willing to die for the safety of our nation do we not have the tenacity to demand more from our representatives? Why do we glorify Seals with the most Sniper Kills and allow torture that we know does not work?
Why? I don’t get it. Why do we have a population that is well trained to murder for the flag and yet is unwilling to take an honest look at our foreign policy choices both in the past and going forward? Why do we fight each other in these Marches when we all don’t care if people who are homosexual get married to one another? Why do we fight when we agree our government should never come between a Doctor and a Patient (Roe v Wade)? I don’t have to be pro-choice to be pro-get-Government-out-of-our-personal-lives! So as a generation we really need to stop believing we are powerless to change the country and the world because it is up to us to do so. It’s our turn to take the keys from Grandpa and say enough! Will we go into Syria again and have the Red Team supporting it for one reason and the Blue Team supporting it for another when we should all be united against it. Where is the empathy? The only blood worth spilling is that if the tyrants who control us and it is high time that we took back this Planet in the name of Peace and Justice because I will never shoot based on the news again. I give my life to Jesus Christ and beg for forgiveness and all I can do now is try to serve man for the rest of my life.
I will teach my kids, as I already do, to question everything lest they fall for lies and emotional pleas. I will try to instill in them duty but righteous tenacity in understanding right and wrong. Are you doing the same? Or are you falling into the trap they have laid out for us through the CIA Project Mockingbird mainstream media? It’s up to you you know, it is up to you and what you say today, what you do tomorrow and how you feel about yesterday.
Don’t die wishing you had done something different with your life. It is never too late to change course. Even rivers change direction over time. And sometimes we must swim upstream to get where we need to go. Now is that time. Live for peace. Speak peace and love. Remove the hate that we are programmed to have. We naturally love but we learn to hate. We can unlearn it too and learn to reconnect with what Jesus taught us, to love thy neighbor as thy self. What could be wrong about that?
