"The Obscenity of War" - Commentary by Tony Seton

The Obscenity of War

A bunch of years ago, a friend of mine who had flown helicopters in Vietnam told me I didn’t have a right to criticize the war because I wasn’t there. His plaint was one I’d heard before and subsequently; because I hadn’t served, I couldn’t talk about what went on there.

This military-superior attitude is dangerously pervasive in our country today. People in uniform think they have special authority because they put their lives on the line. They think they know more because they are the ones who do the fighting. They think that civilians know less, are worth less, and don’t have a right to question them.

This came up most obtusely in New Jersey where some members of a community say that others shouldn’t take issue with a National Guard pilot accidentally firing his cannons into a school one night. In time of war, comes their argument, the military shouldn’t be questioned; it’s unpatriotic and undermines our troops on the ground. Puh-leeze.

We’re hearing that about Iraq, over and over again. If some of us not wearing uniforms don’t think being there is a good idea, we should keep our mouths shut anyway, if we are real Americans. In the next breath they talk about our men and women fighting and dying to preserve our right to speak our minds, a right apparently we shouldn’t take advantage of.

In truth, despite some heroics scattered amidst the carnage, fighting wars is a stupid, ugly psychotic activity. And while we might be cautiously grateful to those who would don the uniform and pick up a gun, I’d be much more pleased if they instead told the politicians and generals to go get bloody themselves.

Yes, I would accord that there were times in our history when fighting with honor was appropriate. Most times, however, intelligent intervention prior to the killing and dying would have been more sensible and humane, for both sides.

War is not a good idea. Those who like it, our military, are people who have climbed the company ladder, who mindlessly followed mostly-stupid orders, who slaughtered strangers on the altars of greed and perversion.

Joseph Heller described the purported grandeur of war this way: "Men went mad and were rewarded with medals." Such is the military, and our culture today. It’s time we grew out of it, before they kill us all.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.