A Dirty Little War...

 

 

"It's a dirty little war
Three-Five-Zero-Zero
Take weapons up and begin to kill
Watch the long, long armies drifting home"

Three - Five - Zero - Zero
Hair

There is a reason why some of the biggest peace lovers in the country are veterans of combat. Unlike when we were kids playing "king of the hill" or some other battle game, war is an ugly business. Even stand off warfare, where smart bombs and cruise missiles are becoming more common, is ugly. Killing someone or seeing a fellow soldier fall in battle are life long scars that are carried by many.

A man I worked with years ago was a former A-4 Skyhawk pilot in Viet Nam. He had been retired from the Navy for many years and was deep into his second career. One time, we both attended an off site training event for the purposes of team building. During one of the exercises, we were to reveal to team mates something which was deeply held or repressed. It was a very hard exercise for most.

This man, who I deeply respected, told me a story he had held inside for decades. He was coming back from a bombing run from North Viet Nam. He was out of bombs, but still had a full compliment of 50 caliber rounds. He radioed the carrier and asked if there was someplace useful he could unload the rounds, or if he should return with them unspent. It was suggested that a tree line on the way back might have some bad guys in it, so if he wanted to, he would take a pass or two and unload the 50 caliber rounds. He did, and then returned to the carrier.

A few days later, he received notification that when Marines had performed recon on the tree line, they found some dead bodies - lots of dead bodies. My friend was told there were almost a hundred dead people in the tree line. Rather than feeling ebullient, he was devastated. Even though this was war, he knew he had probably taken many lives. It was no longer abstract - it was real.

My point in telling this story is this - war is an ugly business. Someone once said the purpose of war is to kill people and break things. It is true. Warfare has gone from close combat to stand off attacks. However, regardless if you kill someone with a bayonet or use a cruise missile with a high powered warhead, the end result is not pretty. In fact, it is awful. War should always be the path of last resort. Our military is not to be used as a video game. It is a lethal killing machine which should only be used when there is no other option to protect the homeland.

As we stand on the precipice of another war scenario, we really need to think about lessons we should have learned in the past and how this action could affect our future. Once the first cruise missile is in the air, there is no way to un-ring the bell. Our future will then be cast. People will die - some innocent, some not. Regardless of the outcome, the actual event will be dirty and ugly. Soft tissue being blown up by high explosives. As clean as we try to make the outcome, it will still be a dirty little war....