"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address before the Canadian Club, Ottawa, Canada, 1/10/46
Today, I want to honor my father, who served in the Navy, as well as two other relatives—veterans of two world wars who fought against Fascism. One died in World War I; the other fought valiantly in World War II.
I cannot help but think they would be rolling in their graves today. They fought—and, in one case, died—in a world struggling against authoritarianism and Fascism, believing that those forces had to be defeated before they could spread any further. One of these men was himself an Italian immigrant. I can only imagine how appalled and outraged they would be to see Fascism and authoritarianism finding a home in American politics, increasingly institutionalized by the Republican Party and welcomed, excused, or encouraged by so many of its supporters.
There was a time when Republicans thought Fascism was a bad thing.
My relatives fought so that what they witnessed in their own lifetimes would not become our inheritance. And it makes me infinitely sad—and deeply angry—to watch nationalism, authoritarianism, contempt for facts and humanity, the demonization of minorities and immigrants, and the suppression of dissent take root in the country they fought to protect. Their lives, their struggles, their sacrifices and their deaths deserve better. And we—the people they believed they were fighting to protect—deserve better, too (we will see what happens in November).
And now, on a day meant to honor those who have served, we find ourselves once again asking American servicemen and women to fight in a war—this time against Iran—that our own government helped initiate and that, more than seven months later, has still failed to produce a lasting resolution. Once again, lives are being spent, families are grieving, civilians are suffering, and enormous resources are being consumed in a conflict whose ultimate purpose and end remain painfully uncertain.
That makes Eisenhower’s words above feel less like history and more like a warning we have repeatedly refused to heed. He understood war not as an abstraction or a political talking point, but as someone who had seen what it actually costs. He called it brutal. He called it futile. He called it stupid.
Perhaps honoring our veterans should mean more than thanking them for their service. Perhaps it should also mean doing everything in our power not to squander the lives of another generation in wars that never needed to be fought—and defending, here at home, the democratic ideals that earlier generations of Americans were asked to risk everything to preserve.
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