Imagining Neocons As Soldiers

What if those quick to commit America to new wars had to fight in them?

Ai image by Midjourney. ( Note: Senator Lindsey Graham served in the military but was never a combatant.)

I’ve never been a pacifist - to say the least

As a Christian, I believe some wars are just, and necessary. Evil must be confronted - and dealt with.

There’s no doubt, for instance, that Israel must respond to the horrific attacks on its people which killed 1300. (There are also still 203 hostages held by Hamas, many of them Americans.) After all, if an act that barbaric can occur and Israel can’t respond forcefully, there is obviously no deterrence against future attacks.

That said, I have evolved on the issue of war in my lifetime. You live long enough and you can’t help but become more cynical. I know too much.

(Caveat: Clearly, though I am a conservative, I’m focusing my criticisms, via these Ai images, on the Republican establishment, many of them Presidential candidates, as I have zero hope for any wisdom or leadership to come from a Democratic Party that can’t - or won’t - define what a woman is.)

Ai image by Midjourney.

In any case, back to my cynicism.

I lived through the distortions from the Bush Administration about WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction), used as an argument to invade Iraq.

I watched September 11 become a pretext in which to expand the surveillance state. Today, the “terrorists” our intel agencies seem most concerned about is our neighbors who might vote differently from Washington’s establishment elite (i.e.“MAGA”).

I observed The Biden Administration leave the hardliner Taliban (who once harbored Osama bin Laden) 85 Billion dollars of American military equipment. We also left our Afghan allies hanging - some literally - off the landing gear of our hastily departing C130s. (This, after 7,200 American soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan and an estimated 500,000 Iraqis were killed in Iraq alone.)

I’ve also watched the war play out in Ukraine with no end in sight. Witnessed the ubiquitous Ukraine flags (and emojis) flown by people who probably can’t find it on a map. Or tell you the origins of the complex conflict (other than Putin/Russia bad!). A conflict in which escalation is said to be the only option, according to the hawks on both sides of aisle.

Meanwhile, I see our own citizens slowly dying on the streets from a pandemic of high-octane drug abuse. America’s next generation recently masked and locked out of schools - all for a mild virus, which was no threat to them. Our nation’s churches ordered shut during the pandemic, while strip clubs and Cannabis and liquor stores were left open.

And most glaringly and hypocritically, our borders flung wide open, purposely, while we spend our time, money and energy fighting to secure other nation’s borders.

So, I’m highly cautious of America engaging in any more forever conflicts in which over time we lose the plot, along with trillions of our nation’s blood and treasure - all while allowing America to precipitously decline.

Which is where the idea for these images came from. Because I really do wonder, if more Americans, especially the ones so enthusiastic to enter into new wars (ie our current political leadership) - who never seem to learn lessons from past wars - if they had to fight in the next conflict, would they be as eager to commit to another one?

Ai image by Midjourney

Perhaps America’s all-volunteer army makes entering into these endless conflagrations too easy. We - and our leaders - don’t feel the cost. The pain of parents who’ve lost sons and daughters. The disfigured veterans who must live with PTSD, who’ve lost arms, legs and eyes - all for national interests that are often hard to quantify.

The wars, after all, are over there - far, far way. Eventually, they become nothing more than a back page story, at best, eclipsed by the latest Kardashian feud. (It’s worth noting, should a multi-front geopolitical conflict erupt, I would imagine conscription/the draft will likely return.)

And I worry that big money does, indeed, influence American foreign policy too much these days. Perhaps it always has.

I’m in good company, apparently. In President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address he famously warned:

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

It seems, at least to me, Eisenhower’s fears were not, well, misplaced.

And, of course, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson also cautioned against foreign entanglements as a general rule. Clearly, we have ignored our founder’s admonitions.

Ai image by Midjourney.

All this to say, when it comes to engaging in large scale wars, critical thinking, not emotion, is crucial. Yet repeatedly, in my lifetime, our politicians’ rationale for engaging in aggression seems high on pathos and all too low on rational thinking.

At this point in my life, my conscience compels me to step off the mindless war train. After all, I ask myself, if I were shipped off to Ukraine to fight, would it be eminently clear to me why? How can I ask someone else to do so then?

Let’s pray for wisdom for our leaders - especially those who call themselves “conservative”.

We certainly need to be conservative in a precarious moment such as this.