A Weary Foreboding

            I have watched recent events unfold with a weary foreboding. I pray that our leaders will step back from the dark abyss into which we seem to be hurtling. Expanding hostilities with Iran serves no useful purpose. When did we as a nation abandon the careful and thoughtful approach to international relations so carefully crafted during the dark days of the Cold War? History shows that long-term diplomacy works. We talked our way out of conflict with the Soviet Union. Eventually, words, backed up by serious military readiness and a thriving economy, prevailed. What has convinced us that armed conflict with a nation, weakened by decades of ever-tightening sanctions, will serve our national purposes?

            As a veteran of multiple tours in Iraq, I do not see a positive outcome of expanding our conflict. To be sure, Iran poses no existential threat to our nation. We can crush any armed force they can muster. Our military, hardened by almost two decades of continual warfare, will crush any organized opposition with dispatch. But that will not end the carnage. They will simply turn to and employ unconventional tactics and the blood will continue to spill into the ever-thirsty sand. Our experience in Afghanistan and Iraq has taught us the extreme difficulty of subduing a people willing to engage in continual asymmetric warfare. What little international respect we retain will evaporate as we pursue a failed policy with no real end in sight.  Why are we so ready to add to the death and destruction that already plagues the region?

            I urge those who think this enlargement of conflict to volunteer to strap on their kit and join those in harm's way. If you are too old or unfit, consider dispatching your children or grandchildren into the cauldron of hate and violence we’ve helped create. Or, if you are unwilling to take those steps, consider visiting one of the VA or military hospitals serving wounded service members. If viewing the physically maimed turns your stomach, perhaps you can sit with a veteran suffering from PTSD, or volunteer in a refugee camp, helping displaced civilians. Take these steps before you so quickly send others into harm's way.

            There are times in which a nation must resort to engaging in armed conflict. But is this really one of them? What do the Iranians possess that we need? Will an increase in the death toll bring an end to international terrorism? What is the end-state of this conflict? Have we become so calloused to the suffering and privations of war as to accept the current state of things as normal?

            We must work harder to solve these seemingly intractable problems. This cannot be acceptable simply because it takes place halfway around the globe in someone else’s neighborhood. Their suffering is real. I have seen them mourn their lost children. Before we stagger down this path, let us pause, consider, and seek other options. It took almost fifty years, be we managed to end the Cold War without coming to blows through the hard work of well-considered and artfully executed diplomacy. I’m old enough to remember how hard we worked that particular issue. Perhaps it is time to reinvigorate those skills and step back from the dark abyss.