No More War

As America hurtles mindlessly down a path that will inevitably lead to US troops engaged in combat in Ukraine, I think we all should be mindful of something.

Looking at the past 100 years, our current national population right now has the least experience at war than at any other time. When I grew up, every Dad in the neighborhood was a vet of either WWII or the Korean War. Now, not only are most people not combat veterans, but most people DON’T EVEN KNOW a combat veteran personally.

Our elected leadership is no better. The likes of Bob Dole, Daniel Inouye, George McGovern, George H.W. Bush and John McCain are long gone. The  current 118th Congress is composed of only 18.4% veterans, the lowest level in at least the past 75 years (except for the 117th Congress, which was slightly lower). Even there, and with no disrespect to the likes of Dan Crenshaw and the men and women who lost their lives or were wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were low intensity conflicts that little resemble the sort of high intensity, WWII-style combined arms warfare that is taking place on the Ukrainian steppes. (And OBTW, Little Teddy Lieu’s tour as a USAF JAG officer writing wills at Travis AFB counts for nothing.)

So we have a President who avoided the draft because of asthma, a Congress with virtually no understanding of war, an electorate that largely thinks “Call of Duty” is what war looks like, federal agency bureaucrats who think enlisting in the military is a career choice only for those who have no better option, “strategists” in think tanks and universities who never wore a uniform and cling to outdated concepts from the 1980s, and generals and admirals who made their rank less through effective combat leadership and more through their skin color, or what is between their legs, or their fealty to DEI.

This, my fellow Americans, is a recipe for disaster. The routine understanding of the cost of war that once permeated our nation is gone. Our veterans are a tiny minority of the population thanks to an all-volunteer force. Very few people understand the consequences of entangling ourselves in a high-intensity conflict between two fascist, heavily-armed regimes (one of whom, OBTW, happens to have enough nukes to exterminate humanity five times over).

And please don’t embarrass yourself by saying American troops are not to be involved.  Based on the propaganda on our airwaves, the decimation of the Ukrainian fighting-age population, and the reckless nature of the legislation Congress seeks to shove down our throats, American armed involvement is inevitable.

The only way we stop the inevitable now is to get the House of Representatives to set aside this insane course of action. If you are a veteran, or the loved one of a veteran, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE call or write your Congressman or Congresswoman, tell them what you know of war, and beg them not to go down this insane path.  (The phone number for every member of Congress is on their webpage; talk to the staffer who answers, tell them what you think, and ask them to pass your sentiments onto their Congressperson.) If enough of us do this, perhaps we can avert a bloody disaster of American carnage. Yes, Russia is evil and fascist. Yes, Putin is evil and fascist. But Ukraine and Zelensky are just as evil and fascist. Fighting this war is not in America’s national interest—call Congress and tell them!