From Christopher Boardman:
News that an American soldier went on a rampage and killed 16 civilians, mostly women and children, in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan, should anger Americans of all faiths and political views. There is no good that comes from such senseless acts of violence, and it puts a dark blotch on America’s reputation.
A few years ago I sponsored a resolution in the New Harford Democratic Club asking the club to disavow the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan. The measure was voted down, much to my disappointment. Also in 2010 I ran as a candidate for Congress in the 2nd District, as I did in 2006, against the war in Afghanistan, just as I previously had opposed the war in Iraq. I was not elected. Rather than dwell on issues like I am too old, I am too heavy, I am not good-looking enough, I don’t stroke the local media enough, I don’t have enough money, it is my firm conviction that the American people and voters of Harford County are just fine with the fact that others must die for American security, and the goals don’t even have to be well-defined. Violence is not the answer, simply, but Americans view violence as okay, as long as they can avoid responsibility for letting their tax dollars pay for it.
We have seen the terrible destruction that mostly young men wreak when they go on shooting rampages in the United States. (Don’t change the gun laws, by the way, I am sure many will say, but not me.) Just because the violence affects others in other countries who may worship in a different way does not make the violence any more acceptable. Have we no shame? Why can’t the United States be a peaceful, peaceable country? Isn’t all human life God-given and sacred?
There are so many needs that need to be addressed on this planet, economic, medical, educational, nutritional, it should be clear we should not be devoting the resources to violence and mayhem. I have written to national leaders again and again and it seems they never listen or learn.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is the only person I know who was never elected to an office in the U.S. who has a national holiday in his name, and that is not because he perfected violence against his brothers and sisters. It is because he summoned moral authority to bring change about in a peaceful way. Dr. King was probably the most important leader in our nation in the 20th Century. When are more Americans going to live and learn by his example?
Christopher Boardman
I would never be confused for being a war monger, but you take the random act of one ill soldier as a fait accompli that all we do as a nation is destroy, kill, maim and plunder other nations? I think if you don’t love it, you can leave it. I don’t mean blind alliance to a nation that doesn’t respect the will of other nations, but of a faith deeply founded in the belief that 99.999999% of what we do is done with honorable intentions and good will towards others. MLK while a great American was not by any means perfect either. Other non-presidents and world leaders such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Robert Kennedy, Benjamin Franklin, set and followed the principles on non-aggression and peaceful demonstration in their acts, but this doesn’t mean that war is also an end to brutal dictatorships, genocide, holocaust events and terrorism in today’s world. While, can’t we all get along is an admirable trait to follow, the reality is that this world was conquered by greed, power, religion and the economic gains.
I read a bumper sticker that said war is not the answer. War is not an answer, it’s a means to an end or it should be. The answer should be peace and freedom – sometimes the only way to get to it is by having the courage to put down those who would think nothing of mowing over the small and weak – ala Hitler murdering the Jews. I too don’t understand why Iraq but after 9/11 when we knew that Afghanistan was harboring murderers – we could not sit back and cower. Maybe if we had kept the eye on the ball in Afghan we would have been out long ago.
We place a heavy burden on a very small population of our countrymen to defend us. We should ensure the fights we wage are absolutely necessary – I don’t agree with Ron Paul about everything but I do think if a country is going to wage war then it should be a war declared by all its citizens via Congressional declaration and nothing less. No citizen soldier should have to redeploy to a war zone multiple times yet we sent our troops 4-5 times back to Iraq and Afghan. We don’t remember the sacrifice these men and women and their families have made except maybe after a disaster in war or on a holiday. Let’s agree to be grateful to those willing to serve and sacrifice. The tragedies of war are inevitable, not to diminish their horror but sometimes you have to fight for yourself and those who can’t fight for themselves.
Christopher Columbus comes to mind as another having a holiday though not elected to office… his legacy is rather controversial, however.
I understand your convictions. I applaud you for them. However, how many “acts of kindness” would it have taken Hitler to abandon his quest? Seriously – how many?
You are correct – the killing rampage was senseless. You are wrong – it relfects our attitude. He will be punished. That is what makes the U.S. different. When actions like that happen we put the people on trial and punish them. There are other places that make those people heroes. Perhaps you forgot the images of people dancing in the streets of Gaza on 9/11 – did you? If you can’t see the difference there is nothing I can do to help you.
PS
Glad you lost the election.
C. Boardman,
This is one of only a few countries in the world that would even give you the space to write and publish that nonsense. Even your own party of Dem/Libs here in perhaps the most liberal state in the nation won’t support you. Even you don’t believe all life is God-given and sacred. Stop with the phoney baloney.
So, could his act of violence have stemmed from his multiple deployments, not seeing his family, seeing his friend’s limb blown off….the list could go on, I’m sure. I do not mean to make excuses for his actions….they were deplorable and tragic.
I’ll even agree with you that most of the backwards-living people in the small villages over there are being sold a bill of goods that depict us as murderous infidels. His actions certainly didn’t help our image problem in that part of the world.
However, I feel that the men and women that put themselves in harm’s way simply because it’s part of their job, deserve the admiration and respect of this country. As the saying goes….”Don’t let one bad apple spoil the whole damn bunch”.
I’ll stand with the troops, regardless of whether or not I feel they should be fighting this “war” or not.
I don’t see how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan really benefit us or those countries. I think we should use our military more carefully, such as in Iran before they get a n-bomb. Millions must support these wars or they wouldn’t volunteer for the military. As someone said, we are a war like world and have been since the beginning of time.
Just because one joins the military, doesn’t mean it supports war. There are many who join for the chance at an education, specialized job training, chance at travel, stability, support for a family, and many other benefits.
You don’t need to be a pacifist (which I am) to demand the United States government clean up its act and stop killing people in other countries. Rep. Ron Paul has the right idea when he states that the Constitution must be abided to; before any act of war is undertaken, the Congress is required to issue a declaration of war. The Obama, Bush and other administrations broke the law and violated their oaths to uphold the Constitution by going to war without this authorization as did Members of Congress who enabled them to do this. This erosion of constitutional power is as much a danger to the Republic as any other kind of usurpation, but Americans have been compliant in allowing this to happen.
The Afghanistan massacre has echoes of My Lai in Vietnam in 1971 where up to 500 civilians were murdered by U.S. forces. Lt. William Calley was convicted of murdering 21 of those civilians but only served three years of a life sentence. Where is the outrage over this most recent event?
The Vietnam War casualties for Americans were 58,000 dead and for the Vietnamese up to 2 million. The American public bought the nonsense that the communist dominoes were falling in Indochina and soon the commies would be swarming the beaches of Australia and then California if they weren’t stopped in Vietnam. President Johnson’s presidency was ruined by the excesses of Vietnam, almost the same can be said for Richard Nixon’s presidency. Yet since 1975 when the war ended, the Vietnamese have not even invaded their neighbors in Indochina. Was it possible that those of us who were students at the time were right, that the U.S. was trying to put down a war of national liberation?
My generation lived the Vietnam War every day, but today’s generation does not bear any responsibility, instead putting the burden on enlistees who are overworked and overtaxed in many ways. In my generation there was the draft; I happened to get a conscientious objector status and I spent two years serving the country, working on an Indian reservation and then in two hospitals. That is one of the reasons why I am a registered nurse today. Young people, men and women included, should be required to fulfill a national service requirement of two years, to serve in the military, in Americorps, the U.S. Peace Corps or some other service organization devoted to helping others. THOSE WHO REFUSE TO HELP ANYONE AND DON’T WANT TO SERVE AT ALL SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO PAY $10,000 TO THE GOVERNMENT NOT TO SERVE. As some people have stated, FREEDOM IS NOT FREE and some people such as soldiers serve disproportionately while other spoiled brats such as Mitt Romney and Dick Cheney want to be commanders in chief of the free world without doing a day’s work as an ordinary soldier or as a poverty volunteer. The same can be said about Martin O’Malley, Robert Ehrlich, Dutch Ruppersberger and thousands of elected politicians throughout the country. There is no shared sacrifice.
My father was a highly decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the Pacific theater in World War II. He saw thousands of dead people on the beaches of islands in the Pacific and may have narrowly escaped death himself. After the war he converted to Quakerism and its peace testimony because he believed human beings had to find better ways to solve conflicts than through violence. That is also why the United Nations was formed.
Another great advocate for peace was President Dwight Eisenhower. He once did a documentary of WWII in which he described being able to walk across a huge battlefield and never needing to step on the ground because there were so many dead bodies on the ground. It was clear to this great general that a better way had to be found.
It is true that the impulse for violence and warfare is deeply embedded in the DNA of the human race. That being said, we should still strive to do better.
Mr. Boardman,
You said: “Yet since 1975 when the war ended, the Vietnamese have not even invaded their neighbors in Indochina.”
Reply: So exactly what was Vietnam doing in Cambodia from 1978 to 1989? My guess it looked more like the military take over it was rather than another installment of Woodstock you may think.
My advice – know your history before you say things that are just plain wrong.
Thank your father for his service, and I feel confident your service was appreciated by the people you served on the reservation – thank you. As for mandating service of any kind – no thank you. This is the US – we ought not to be forced to do anything. We ought to survive by our own initiative or be left to rot in our laziness.
You asked this question that I found interesting: “Was it possible that those of us who were students at the time were right, that the U.S. was trying to put down a war of national liberation?”
I guess you didn’t see what happened in Vietnam after 1973, did you? I knew a young man whose father threw him over a fence in a bid for freedom from those you saw as liberating heroes. It took his father 20 years to reunite with his family and in that time he was subjected to re-education. In case you don’t know what that entails, well, let’s just say he thinks waterboarding would be a trip to the water park by comparison.
So, no, I don’t think you and your kind were right. You were wrong to the extent that the guiding philosophical difference of that war – communism vs. capitalism – saw capitalism win in the end regardless. Vietnam instituted economic reforms akin to the Soviets dabbling in free markets during the 1980s. In other words, the war of aggression led by communist North Vietnam against free market South Vietnam that resulted in millions of deaths was senseless. And made senselessly longer by demonstrations of weakness of will by groups of misguided college students during that time. The burning of the American flag, flagrant violations of federal law, and spitting on returning veterans by your kind are what fueled the determination of subversive forces in that conflict. Forces that were attempting and succeeding at putting others under their oppressive rule.
I say again – I’m glad you lost the election.
Thanks for your story about one man being thrown over the fence. I can tell you, even show you, the story of hundreds of young men who were so damaged by our involvement in Vietnam that they still wander the streets of Baltimore. The cost of that war will never be known.
I won’t argue the reasons we were there with you, as you have made up your mind about it. Obviously, so have I, but I can tell you as one of the “misguided college students” you speak about, that our actions did not prolong the war. But they did not end it either. The national support for us being in Vietnam gradually shifted with the nightly telecasts of bodies and body bags, the true nature of the conflict being publicized thanks to brave journalists, and the state and condition of those who returned. My parents and their age group were the ones who ultimately turned against the war and exerted the influence that got us out.
We were an idealistic bunch who were not always correct in our actions, but absolutely correct in our thinking. Many of us continue to work within the system now for change, as we continue to reach out a hand to our brothers and sisters who were damaged by Vietnam and the wars that followed. The casualites are enormous, the costs to this country catastrophic, and we continue to know that we all should strive to do better.
Do yourself a favor and take time to read “The Fog of War” by Robert McNamara.
Wow Billy… My friend’s experience was like nearly a MILLION others. Nice to dismiss it so casually from memory of days so long ago.
Nice to hear of the great concern you had for the returning veterans… is that why those around you (as I am sure you didn’t) spat on them? Please don’t try to cleanse your conscience 40 years later by saying you cared about them then – or now. Spitting on people demonstrates the care and concern your comrades had for the veterans. Good for you that you thanked them and helped them along – unlike virtually every other person standing with you.
You are aware that “Fog of War” is a documentary by Errol Morris, not a book by McNamara, no? I confess, though, it was inspired by a book McNamara wrote… For a balanced look: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2003/12/the_evasions_of_robert_mcnamara.html
Thank you, Localguy. I should have said about Robert McNamara. I still urge you to read the book.
No need to cleanse my conscience. My idealistic youth lead into a career that has allowed and enabled me to assist, encourage and treat a population that our country sent into conflicts and then essentially abandoned when they were unable to assimilate well as a result.
I count myself as incredibly fortunate that I was able to observe this country’s involvement in Vietnam from a college campus, that my number did not come up in the lottery above 150, and that I was able to decide to use my education, talents, and motivation to work in career that made a difference, and continues to make a difference in the lives of others daily.
My hope for you, Localguy, is that you can say the same.
Idealism was a nice thing. Perhaps it is good that we have it in youth so we don’t spend our entire lives shaking our heads and wondering what is the matter with people.
I like to think my career makes a difference in peoples’ lives. I’m not idealistic about it, though. I know that no matter what you do or how you do it people will always find a fault.
I never intended to come across in this conversation sounding harsh or anything like that. I find it annoying when people like Mr. Boardman distort the past to push an agenda. Convictions are good whether I agree with them or not. Acting on them even better. But when statements are made ignoring the bigger picture or dismissing the pain and anguish of others just to further those convictions – yeah, I have a problem with that. Maybe that makes me something ugly in the eyes of others – I prefer to think it makes me honest.