Some candid talk about war and faith

At every level of governmental organization, our nation is talking about budgets.

Budgets are revealing of the values of our nation. Budgets are just as much moral statements as the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. The language that is used may be different, but the essence is plain for the reader, who reads with thoughtful consideration.

Dwight Eisenhower was the first candidate for U.S. president for whom I voted. I believed he was not just a war hero, but also a man of high moral integrity. While history has shown he had his flaws, I remember him for two things. He proposed and initiated the building of the interstate highway system. I have driven the interstate highways from California to Maine and from Florida to Washington. As I have driven this magnificent system, I recalled Eisenhower and his grand dream.

The second thing for which I remember Eisenhower is his comments about war weaponry. Many people remember his comment about the dangers of the American military/industrial complex. America built the highway but did not listen at all to his warning about the partnership between American industry and American military.

His more important statement about military weaponry is longer, harder to remember, but equally ignored. “Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired, in the final sense, is a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

I had respect for Gen. Eisenhower as a leader in World War II, but that was an exercise in destruction. Dead Americans on the beaches of Normandy were his nightmare. The construction of the interstate highway system was an exercise in building in which Eisenhower must have found great satisfaction. The great sadness of his life must be an America that has not listened to his warnings about the cost of weapons that robs every vulnerable American citizen.

The budgets that continue to feed an American military monstrosity are moral documents that fail every test of decency and moral sensitivity.

In the discussions about our federal budget, few people are willing to attack the military portion of the budget. With attitudes that would please Ayn Rand, legislators are willing to cut appropriations for health care, education, the arts and public television, while leaving intact military expenditures.

Americans have become obsessed with the nation’s military strength. Just as the alcoholic is addicted to alcohol and the drug addict is addicted to his drug of choice, Americans are addicted to military spending. Here in Alaska we cannot imagine life without Elmendorf Air Force Base, Fort Richardson and Eielson Air Force Base. They are billed as being essential for American defense. In truth, second only to oil, military spending is one of the economic driving forces of the Alaskan economy. Alaskans love military spending because it benefits the Alaska economy.

Slated for elimination from the federal budget is funding for Alaska’s Denali Commission. What does the Denali Commission do? It builds water and waste systems for the Native villages that dot our vast state. It builds health clinics and provides basic dental care for the benefit of the residents of those same villages.

And the words of Eisenhower ring in my ears.

As we examine military spending, the great folly is not military spending, it is war itself. War is about killing human beings. The winner of wars is the nation that is willing to kill people beyond the tolerance of its foe. As obscene as military spending by America might be, it is nothing compared to the loss of life that accompanies every war.

Our current war in Afghanistan has claimed the lives of more than 6,000 Americans. An additional 40,000 have been wounded. Those who will suffer psychological problems for the remainder of their lives are added to the human toll. The casualties of allies and enemies far exceed the losses suffered by Americans. While President Obama has promised withdrawal of American troops, the killing and the injuries to life will continue.

When we talk of the human costs of war, the conversation takes a different turn. If our legislative bodies voted on the military budget in terms of life, rather than dollars, would the vote be altered? Voting $300 billion for the Afghanistan war is acceptable. Would voting another 3,000 dead Americans and another 10,000 wounded Americans clarify the vote?

Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine, has recently pointed out that the issue of the human cost of war does not move the power brokers of America. Since the draft was set aside in favor of an all-volunteer military, middle- and upper-class Americans have almost disappeared from the enlisted ranks of the U.S. military. Americans who are doing the dying are from the ranks of America’s minorities and poor.

As we examine war and its costs, its unacceptability becomes even more dramatic. The true costs of war are being hidden in an unassailable federal budget. We are deluded if we think budgets are not moral statements.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His e-mail address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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