The Peacenik is Dead
After my first Afghanistan tour, I was working as a staff officer and got tasked with a very normal “staff officer” duty. The invasion of Iraq was looming and even though my unit had just come home from combat, the anticipation was it wouldn’t be long before they were heading back. This was early 2003, and boy they couldn’t have been more right.
There was a young Paratrooper in the unit, with a young wife, and he decided that he was now a conscientious objector to war in any form. I was tasked to investigate the validity of his request to change his status.
The short version of the story is his young wife had been advised by some very dishonest people from a local religious organization that he could claim to be a conscientious objector and not have to deploy again. During all the preliminary discussions and interviews, I allowed the wife to speak out, interrupt, and say whatever she wanted without stopping her. I let the representative of the local religious organization make a statement. But, the whole time I watched that young Paratrooper.
Eventually, I asked the wife and everyone else to leave the room. Only then did I get the real truth. The young man didn’t want to go again. He did it once and didn’t want to deploy again. He wasn’t opposed to war and wasn’t afraid of dying or getting hurt. He just didn’t want to. The whole thing was an excuse cooked up by his overbearing wife. Needless to say, that kid went to Iraq that fall because it was his obligation.
In spite of everything, I did have a touch of admiration for that young man. Yeah, his wife had him by the balls. Yeah, he tried to shirk his duty. But, he actually KNEW he didn’t want to go back because he had already BEEN once. And he admitted it among a sea of Type-A warriors. That took a different kind of guts.
Unfortunately, what we see today is a nation full of Warhawks who have never BEEN.
Whether it is Israel/Hamas or Ukraine/Russia, everyone wants the US to support the fighting. In the vast majority of these cases, these same people have nothing real invested. And by real, I mean people. And by people, I mean them or their family.
It’s easy to stick a flag in your yard and say, “I support Ukraine”. I mean, if you’re from Ukraine and you support Ukraine from suburban America by sticking a flag in your yard, what does that mean? Shouldn’t you be doing more? Like go there yourself and fight? Or send your son or daughter?
Or if you aren’t from Ukraine, are you still willing to send your son or daughter to fight? Or is it acceptable to support the war as long as it is someone else’s kid that has to fight?
It’s cool to stand on a University campus and shout “Free Palestine!” but you’re really not doing shit. Really. You’ve invested nothing. Risking a few hours in a holding cell in an American jail is child’s play. Seriously, I challenge you to pack your stuff and head over there. Join in and see how motivated you are.
I admit there is a LARGE number of American Jews who have family members in the Israeli Defense Force. I know quite a few that DID go back to serve after October 7th. They put their money where their mouth is. Yes, given the opportunity to STAY in America OR leave Israel, many of them served to defend their nation. They have skin in the game. Good for them.
The reality in both Israel and Ukraine is that people are DYING. And they are dying because no one is stopping the killing. These conflicts are being CHEERED ON around the globe, on behalf of one side or the other, by disinterested parties with nothing invested who are treating it like a sporting event. The people cheering have nothing invested.
And they’ve likely never BEEN.
Except right now, President Trump is trying to stop the conflict in BOTH places. And he is making progress. He stated multiple times during his campaign that he just wanted to stop the killing. That’s the endstate. No more killing. He doesn’t give a shit about who wins or who loses. He wants the innocent people, and even the not so innocent people, to stop dying. And there are people standing in the way of that on “principle”.
We used to have hippies and peaceniks that stood AGAINST war on principle. At least that I could understand. Killing is bad. War involves killing. You don’t have to go to war to know that. What we have now are Warhawks. Among an entire generation of men and women that have been to war, there is a large population of people out there that HAVE NEVER BEEN and are pushing and chanting and protesting for MORE of it. At no risk to themselves. Or their families. At all.
Seriously, WTF.
Go ask a Veteran how they feel about killing. The ones who have been around it probably won’t answer you. If someone does answer, watch their expression and their emotions change. They KNOW. Now decide if YOU are willing to be the subject of that story. If YOU are willing to risk that much. Then decide how much these wars are worth to YOU.
If President Trump can stop the war in Ukraine by signing a piece of paper that says “Russia didn’t start it”, do you really care? If it saves the lives of tens of thousands of people, is it worth it? Or are your principles too important from WAY OVER HERE in the United States, in the comfort of your apartment, in no danger at all? Covered in Cheeto dust with a Diet Coke by your side. Yeah, you alone with your principles. Warhawk.
I have more respect for the Peacenik or the Hippie than I do for the “never been there” Warhawk. At least their principles make sense. Unfortunately, we have a lot more of one than the other.
The Peacenik is Dead. Long live the Warhawk.