Bill Moyers used these words towards the end of his speech last November before an assemblage at West Point.  He boiled down into nine pages the history of American attitudes and control over power – particularly power invested in the military establishment represented by the educational institution called West Point.

Mr. Moyers explained that history had many lessons to teach and that the human response was to ignore those lessons. We repeat the mistakes that formed soldiers and their leaders.  The Founding Fathers of America created a military that eschewed a “standing” army in favor of relying on education and freedom to produce the stalwarts who would go to war when it was forced on them.  It is instructive to compare the wars that Americans can be proud of and the few, including this incursion into Iraq, that were terrible mistakes.  The civilian who is elected President also becomes the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.  That is a crucial point that Moyers makes as well as a basic truth that should expose the ignorance and arrogance of power.  Bill Moyers was speaking before a West Point audience but his words have the impact of real history and not the self-justification of the politicians who, themselves, did not experience war at first hand.

War IS hell.  Going off to be a soldier when you know nothing about battle, guns and death is nothing to be proud of, march in parades for and belong to associations where you congratulate yourselves over and over about how you survived when it was your turn to be cannon fodder on a battlefield.  It was not, as Moyers observed, a game for young men to prove themselves.  It was the use of power – even if elected – of Presidents to declare war although it was the founding fathers who gave that power to the elected representatives in Congress.  It is perhaps better to have one head at the top rather than many who make decisions that often are at cross purposes. War does not produce winners. It produces death.

My memories are not of fighting and shooting at someone shooting back at me.  I got into WWII late and was a “replacement” for someone who was killed - a part of a formation necessary for our leaders to lead into battle.  The leaders that I came in contact with were lieutenants and captains who knew no more about war than I did.  What they knew was to follow orders and then to pass them onto me.  All of us had the same goal. All of us who became soldiers wanted to get back home alive.  The democracy under which we lived decided that most soldiers would be conscripted or “drafted” and sent off to be “trained” to fight the enemy. I couldn’t wait, so I enlisted.  I suspect the enemy is those who use power arrogantly and direct others to fight with heartfelt ignorance. There is this truth, too. No matter how much you educate them, the young are willing to follow ignorant leaders who send them out to fight while the ones that give orders stay at home. This is “patriotism”.