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Reflections on the soul-scarring nature of war and the
importance of dissent. Guest post by Rev. Alexandra
Lusak
By mickielynn on 2017-10-25 08:00:01
Journalist, author, and Presbyterian pastor Chris Hedges knows a great deal about war. In his 15 years as a foreign
correspondent, he covered insurgencies in Central and South America; civil wars in Sudan and Yemen; the first Intifada in
the West Bank and Gaza; the Gulf War; the Kurdish rebellion in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq; and wars in Bosnia and
Kosovo. In the introduction to his book, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, Hedges writes, “War is a drug .... War
is a crusade ..._ War exposes the capacity for evil that lurks not far below the surface within all of us.” And he adds: “As
the battle against terrorism continues, as terrorist attacks intrude on our lives, as we feel less and less secure, the
acceptance of all methods to lash out at real and perceived enemies will distort and deform our democracy.”
LS A BOSE. [rae
GIVES US MEANING
CHRIS HEDGES
Published in 2002, Hedges’ words seem eerily prescient in this toxic
year of 2017. The 45th president of the United States, in a speech delivered this Fall at the United Nations, threatened to
“totally destroy” North Korea because that nation repeatedly tests long-range ballistic missiles and passionately expresses
the conviction that its government must pursue development of a nuclear weapon to ensure its sovereignty and security. The
first stop on the president’s first overseas trip was Saudi Arabia, which is engaged in a brutally punishing and starvation-
inducing war with the neighboring Gulf state of Yemen. A war which is supported by American air power and heavy
weaponry. One of the primary purposes for the Saudi visit was to sign an agreement in principle to sell the repressive
monarchy $110 billion more in armaments over 10 years. The formerly oil-rich South American nation of Venezuela has
collapsed into governmental chaos amid life-threatening economic decline under the inept tutelage of its president, Nicholas
Maduro. The U.S. president’s reaction was to issue a vague but unmistakably insensitive threat of military invasion. And
most recently, in a total abdication of responsibility to the multi-national Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a diplomatic
non-proliferation agreement painstakingly negotiated in 2015 by the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Russia,
China, the United States, and Iran, the president refused to certify Iran’s compliance with the terms of the agreement, called
it a ‘deal’, and created a crisis in which the potential for Iran’s development of a nuclear weapons capability has been
enhanced rather than constrained. It seems that the current U.S. default position in the world is to regard every problem as a
possible reason to use or threaten to use military force. [caption id="attachment_ 10456" align="alignnone" width="600"]
_ In war there are no
unwounded Soldiers. Art work by Freda Gutman, From the Humanize not Militarize Poster Exhibit[/caption] Might it be
that the development of social media and a 24/7 cable news cycle which provide virtually instant communication complete
with photographic essays of war’s devastation and death has produced a kind of societal amnesia regarding the cataclysmic
effects of war on everything and everyone caught up in it? Might it be that after 16 years of war in Afghanistan and the
long and continuing brutal war in Syria, as well as ongoing battles in Iraq coupled with reports of massive military exercises
in Eastern Europe and on the Korean peninsula, Americans have come to regard war as a gruesome but unavoidable form of
video entertainment, involving professional armed forces who ‘know what they’re getting into”? Might it also be that the
epidemic of gun violence that so plagues this nation, which is the most weaponized on earth, stems to some degree from our
constant involvement in and relentless exposure to the brutality and devastation of war with the result that war and violence
it aling
Our Nation's
Tans {rom
Lumatic
EDWARD TICK, PH.D.
have become “as American as apple pie”? - fsjehhDr. Edward Tick, in
his important book, War and the Soul, points to the “distortions the soul undergoes in war” which “reshape our cognitive
functions and skew the ways our minds operate.” He continues, “War ...reshapes the imagination as an act of negation,”
and he carefully chronicles the personal experiences, feelings and thoughts of a wide range of combat veterans to illustrate
the traumatic effects of war on what it means to be human. Dr. Tick also emphasizes the point that ‘modern’ warfare, with
its technological sophistication and resultant mass casualties, is especially damaging to the soul, and writes that “(i)n Viet
Nam, soldiers evolved the phrase, “/t don t mean nothin" to tolerate the wholesale destruction surrounding them. Is that
where we are today as a nation? Have we, as 21st century Americans, become so woefully desensitized to war’s capacity to
sear and scar not only lives and lands but the human soul that war “don’t mean nothin" to us? Ifso, we desperately need
the witness of groups like Women Against War, a small band of strong witnesses for peace with justice, ... those voices
within the ...nation that question the state's lust and need for war...._ They give us an alternative language, one that refuses
to define other as ‘barbarian; one that recognizes the humanity of the enemy.” (Hedges, p. 15) For the sake of this nation
and its future, may we be willing to hear those questioning voices, to engage in clear-eyed self-examination and spirited
dialogue, and to move forward in hope to claim healing for our war-withered nation and our war-weary souls.
