War is always an agonizing dilemma. As a member of an Ethical Society and a
humanist, my truth lies in considering how a war would affect me, my family, my
friends, and the wider world. OK. Here is my bottom line: Would I be willing to serve with the military? Would I be
willing to have my children serve?
I like to think that World War II was a
war that I would have been engaged along with my children. My father signed up and spent his entire
military career in the signal corps at Camp Leonard Wood. He lost his only brother during the war when
the plane Raymond was piloting was downed over France . Being in diapers, I did not get to enlist. I objected to the Vietnam War and
refused to participate. I also wonder
about the shear number of conflicts in which we are engaged. So many young people maimed and dead.
Now we are gearing up because our
President drew a red line that was crossed.
Do the strong have an obligation to protect the defenseless? Do we make a further mess because both sides
represent interests anathema to decency - the government is an old-fashioned
dictatorship and the rebel groups are mostly racial religionists. So, the talk is of a surgical strike. Apparently that means sending ballistics to
destroy enough government facilities to encourage the dictator to cease using
nerve gas. That would seem to be just
enough force to protect the defenseless.
Does that relieve me of having to reach my
bottom line?
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