War
“War-huh. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.” So goes the lyrics to that song “War” that comes to mind when I think of war. The song was written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for the Motown label in 1969.
I had the opportunity to watch a documentary on the impacts of war last weekend at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) highlighted the primary consequence of war - the destruction of families and community. That impact is mostly ignored by those who choose war as an option for dealing with conflict. The documentary tells the story of Thavisouk Phrasavath and the impact that the overflow from the Vietnam War had on his family who were eventually forced to leave Laos and ended up in a slum in Brooklyn New York. They suffered many hardships that literally tore the family apart. Thavisouk Phrasavath who was also the co-director of the movie spoke afterwards about how he hoped that by telling the story of what war had done to his family that it might influence others to work towards preventing future wars.
At a brown bag lunch session at my work this past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to hear some more accounts of the impacts of war. This time the accounts were from our current Iraq War.
The first speaker gave some of the highlights from his son’s three tours of duty as a US Marine in Iraq. He told how his son’s training in boot camp consisted of teaching the new recruits how to shoot a gun, break down doors, and search Hollywood-type mockups of buildings for insurgents. The recruits then got a first hand lesson in finding out what it was like to deal with the stress of being shot at with live ammunition. The 18 to 24 year old marines who made up the bulk of his son’s platoon were then shipped off to test out their new skills by guarding conveys as they traveled across Iraq. Their ultimate test of the effectiveness of their training came to play when they implemented the policy of confronting potential enemy vehicles that approached the convoys by first signaling the vehicle to stop, then shooting at the ground in front of the vehicle, then shooting at the grill of the vehicle, then shooting the hood of the vehicle, then shooting at the windshield, and finally shooting the driver. All of these decisions and actions needed to be conducted within 60 seconds of first encountering the vehicle. These lessons are obviously important to know if you hope to survive a war.
The second speaker was a middle-aged major in the National Guard who had also served a tour of duty in Iraq. His experiences were from a different perspective; his role was to serve as an inspector to make sure troops received equipment that they needed to fight the war. The equipment might include armor for their humvees, guns, or other supplies. He job was also to conduct inspections to make sure the equipment did not disappear, which it apparently often did. All this work could be conducted in temperatures that could reach 140 degrees while wearing armor to protect them from being killed by bullets or bombs.
It was hard for me to understand how war can be talked about as a viable solution to our problems when history seems to teach that all wars result in are more wars and more violence. The Twelve Step community uses a definition for insanity of trying the same thing over and over again, and hoping for different outcomes. This definition seems to fit well our continuing practice of using wars to impose our wills on others.
Applying Greenleaf’s best test of servant leadership – What is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived? – it is clear that all war is far from servant leadership. War is the ultimate in coercion, and its consequences are the ultimate example of its failure to bring about peace, stability, or community. So why then do we continue to choose war to try to solve our differences?
I had the opportunity to watch a documentary on the impacts of war last weekend at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) highlighted the primary consequence of war - the destruction of families and community. That impact is mostly ignored by those who choose war as an option for dealing with conflict. The documentary tells the story of Thavisouk Phrasavath and the impact that the overflow from the Vietnam War had on his family who were eventually forced to leave Laos and ended up in a slum in Brooklyn New York. They suffered many hardships that literally tore the family apart. Thavisouk Phrasavath who was also the co-director of the movie spoke afterwards about how he hoped that by telling the story of what war had done to his family that it might influence others to work towards preventing future wars.
At a brown bag lunch session at my work this past Wednesday, I had the opportunity to hear some more accounts of the impacts of war. This time the accounts were from our current Iraq War.
The first speaker gave some of the highlights from his son’s three tours of duty as a US Marine in Iraq. He told how his son’s training in boot camp consisted of teaching the new recruits how to shoot a gun, break down doors, and search Hollywood-type mockups of buildings for insurgents. The recruits then got a first hand lesson in finding out what it was like to deal with the stress of being shot at with live ammunition. The 18 to 24 year old marines who made up the bulk of his son’s platoon were then shipped off to test out their new skills by guarding conveys as they traveled across Iraq. Their ultimate test of the effectiveness of their training came to play when they implemented the policy of confronting potential enemy vehicles that approached the convoys by first signaling the vehicle to stop, then shooting at the ground in front of the vehicle, then shooting at the grill of the vehicle, then shooting the hood of the vehicle, then shooting at the windshield, and finally shooting the driver. All of these decisions and actions needed to be conducted within 60 seconds of first encountering the vehicle. These lessons are obviously important to know if you hope to survive a war.
The second speaker was a middle-aged major in the National Guard who had also served a tour of duty in Iraq. His experiences were from a different perspective; his role was to serve as an inspector to make sure troops received equipment that they needed to fight the war. The equipment might include armor for their humvees, guns, or other supplies. He job was also to conduct inspections to make sure the equipment did not disappear, which it apparently often did. All this work could be conducted in temperatures that could reach 140 degrees while wearing armor to protect them from being killed by bullets or bombs.
It was hard for me to understand how war can be talked about as a viable solution to our problems when history seems to teach that all wars result in are more wars and more violence. The Twelve Step community uses a definition for insanity of trying the same thing over and over again, and hoping for different outcomes. This definition seems to fit well our continuing practice of using wars to impose our wills on others.
Applying Greenleaf’s best test of servant leadership – What is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived? – it is clear that all war is far from servant leadership. War is the ultimate in coercion, and its consequences are the ultimate example of its failure to bring about peace, stability, or community. So why then do we continue to choose war to try to solve our differences?
posted by Tom Jablonski at 10:39 PM
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