Why I Detest War

Being a child of World War II, I was taught from early on that wars--just wars in particular--are necessary facts of life. My father was a veteran of World War II. One of his brothers was killed in the war, a victim of the only fatal airplane crash in Australian history. My earliest memory of any war was the Korean War. I knew not when or why it started. I only knew it was on the "Camel News Caravan" with John Cameron Swayze every evening. When a truce was declared, one of the most vivid memories I have was of a group of recently released POWs being asked if they wanted to return to the U.S., the answer being a resounding "No!" I could never reconcile myself as to why they wanted to stay in North Korea

Of course, all throughout my formative and teenage years the Cold War was a fact of life. Living in the Washington, DC suburbs was such an idyllic area for a young student of history. However, that changed in October 1962 with the Cuban Missle Crisis. While a lot had gone on in the background and in secret, President Kennedy gave a speech on Oct 22nd "of the highest national urgency." In Mr. Kane's U.S. Government class in high school, that was the main, and probably only, topic of discussion. At home, it was also the main topic of discussion. My maternal grandparents lived deep in the mountains of West Virginia and we made plans to go there in the event of an emergency. I now know that there would have been only 30 minutes warning in the event of an attack. That is terribly frightening now that I look back on it. If it had happened, very few 0f us would be around to talk about it.

A scant four years later, as the Vietnam War was escalating in the summer of 1966, I received notice to go for my draft physical on July 14th while living in Chicagoland. I recall the date because, as I was on my way to work afterwards, I saw the newspaper headlines telling of the eight student nurses who had been murdered on the south side by Richard Speck. I knew I had passed the physical and that the next step would be my draft notice. To forestall such, I ended up enlisting in thre Air Force, figuring that sooner or later I'd end up in Vietnam. I figured that, if I had to go to Vietnam, it would be on my terms and not those dictated by any draft board. My first assignment out of tech school was Patrick Air Force Base, FL--a cush assignment on the Atlantic that served NASA and the Kennedy Space Center. Unfortunately, that good fortune lasted for only four months before I was transferred to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon. As far as I was concerned, I was on a glorious crusade to make the world safe from communism.

While the first few months were uneventful, once the Tet Offensive began things changed markedly for me. Working in a building on the fightline as an air freight in-country load planner, I was on duty the night the offensive started and it was one of the most traumatic things I have ever experienced in my life, especially when bullets started striking the building as I was standing 0ut back with some of my buddies at daybreak. I got a bit used to expect the attacks, both while on duty or back at the barracks.

However, one night a couple weeks later I had the most seminal moment in my life. I was sleeping in my bunk on the second floor of the barracks when we came under attack with rockets and mortars. Those of us upstairs had to run down the outside stairway for cover and, as I was doing so, I happened to see a poor dog, running hellbent for election, down the street, scared out of its wits and wondering what the hell was going on and knowing it was certainly something he wanted no part of. Feeling compassion for that poor animal, I realized at that moment that war is so damn useless and so damn immoral. Nothing gives anyone the right to take another's life. While there may be a legal right to take another's life, such does not equate to a moral right. I don't care if it's war, capital punishment, justifiable homicide, or whatever. It's simply wrong.

Vietnam was an undeclared war, as was the Gulf War and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Granted, some wars may be justified such as the American Revolution or World War II, both of which were fought to rid the oppressed of despots. However, this is not to say I am in favor of certain wars. I am against all wars, not only because they are immoral but also because all end up as rich men's wars but poor men's battles.