Independence Day and Veterans
A
friend, another military veteran, told me that often he felt angry when people
thanked him for his military service. I have since noticed that I sometimes react
with uncertainty, discomfort, or even anger. After reflection, I identified
several different sources for these reactions.
First,
the comment “Thank you for your service” often seems gratuitously glib. I’m
proud of my military service. I enjoyed performing a job that was personally
rewarding and that allowed me to make a difference in people’s lives while
supporting a cause greater than self-interest. Many times, the thanks come from
people in such an oft-handed manner that I wonder if the person has ever really
thought about the sacrifices that people in uniform make almost daily, e.g., the
long hours with no overtime pay, frequent and extended separations from loved
ones, and going into harm’s way. I wonder how many of the people thanking me
begrudge paying their taxes, would never consider volunteering for the
military, and think that government bureaucrats (this includes numerous
military personnel, especially senior ones) routinely waste large sums of tax
dollars.
Second,
verbal affirmation is occasionally nice to hear but actions speak more loudly.
Saying “Thank you for your service” is no substitute for fulfilling a citizen’s
responsibilities to vote and to communicate opinions to elected leaders. In the
U.S., civilian politicians, not the military, decide the conflicts in which the
military will fight. Currently, the U.S. is waging three de facto wars
(Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya). Military personnel regularly go into harm’s way
in two of those theaters. Yet polls show that only a minority of Americans
supports U.S. involvement in these conflicts. Furthermore, Congress has funded
most of the $1.3 trillion cost to date for these three wars through budget
deficits rather than risk voter outrage over tax increases. Tomorrow’s citizens
will pay the bill for today’s wars.
From
a Christian perspective, terming any of these conflicts a just war is
problematic. One requirement of a just war, for example is that the war has a
reasonable chance of success. Neither the wars in Afghanistan nor in Iraq, in
spite of eight plus years of U.S. occupation and billions of dollars, has
succeeded in establishing a secure, stable, and prosperous democracy. For
example, the Afghan war is now the longest war in U.S. history. The approximate
$120 billion that the U.S. will spend in 2011 on the war in Afghanistan represents
$4000 per Afghan and dwarfs the projected 2011 Afghan GNP of less than $20
billion. Development spending from the U.S. and other nations will total
roughly $2.5 billion this year in Afghanistan. Yet the Afghan government
remains mired in corruption, actually governs relatively little of Afghanistan,
and wants us out.
Fought
with an all-volunteer force (and private contractors!), the wars have not ignited
a political firestorm of opposition as the Vietnam War did. Few Episcopalians
serve in the U.S. military, as, similarly, do few children of politicians and
few graduates of elite colleges and universities. Following GEN Petraeus’ 2007
Congressional testimony, coverage of the Iraq war on the evening news dropped
from 25% of broadcast time to 3% by mid-2008.
Why
is the Church so silent about these wars? If more Episcopalians served in the
military, would the Episcopal Church – its leaders, clergy, and members – speak
more volubly and vociferously about these wars? What would Jesus say about the
U.S. fighting wars of choice in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya? True support for
our troops entails ensuring that the military fights only morally justifiable
wars.
Third,
true support for the troops includes caring for the troops. Cards and care
packages are nice. A warm welcome home for units returning from Afghanistan and
Iraq represents a healthy morale boost and moral improvement, sharply
contrasting with the unwarranted abuse that many personnel received when they
returned home from Vietnam. These are easy, positive steps.
However,
effective caring also requires improving government policies and programs. More
than 7200 American military personnel have died in Iraq and Afghanistan; tens
of thousands more veterans have returned home physically or mentally wounded,
sometimes permanently disabled. These casualties constitute an underfunded
emotional, social, and financial liability. Programs to help returning veterans
reintegrate into their families and into society are a good first step, but
much remains unknown about how best to do this. (One good resource for dealing
with PTSD is Unchained
Eagle
led by Episcopal priest Bob Certain; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
has also developed a valuable congregational resource, Care for
Returning Veterans.)
Many Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities are ill equipped and staffed to
aid women veterans; the VA lacks sufficient resources to assist the growing
number of wounded veterans. The Church and a grateful citizenry will rightly
advocate for military veterans and their families, adequately funding programs
for warrior reintegration, healthcare, education and employment benefits,
family adjustment support initiatives, etc.
Finally,
the Church has a unique role to fill: helping returning warriors, especially
Christian ones, to deal with their guilt for having committed, assisted in, or
witnessed acts that in peacetime are immoral but that are necessary elements of
warfighting, e.g., killing. In the early Church, the Church sometimes required
a Christian returning from a just war to abstain from Holy Communion for as
long as three years as an act of penance and moral rehabilitation. That seems
excessive. Conversely, simply welcoming the returned warrior with open arms and
verbal thanks for a hard job well done compromises the Church’s moral teaching
and fails to honor the veteran’s often real and spiritually healthy feelings of
guilt and uncleanliness. Private confession and pastoral counseling can help.
More importantly, TEC can beneficially develop a process and liturgies for
reintegrating returned veterans into the Christian community, perhaps most
appropriately linking these to the Lenten journey from Ash Wednesday to Easter.
The
Fourth of July offers a great time to celebrate not only American independence
but also military veterans, thanking them in word and deed, remembering them in
our prayers with the Collect for those in the Armed Forces of Our Country:
Almighty God, we commend to your
gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and
abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in
their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset
them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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