This country was born in war and has experienced many since. Indeed, in our early years there was a government organization dedicated to it, The Department of War. In 1949 after the end of WWII, its name was changed to the Department of Defense (DoD) as it’s known today. This name change was meant to signal a change in military stance – a peace through defensive strength strategy. The nuances of this strategy were never clearly defined and seemed to vary with the political tides.

Our most recent wars seem to have strayed from the defensive posture that the department name implies. Instead, war strategy seeks to impose peace through strength – an approach that fails to recognize the human condition characterized by stiff necks accompanied with a desire for freedom and self-determination. Subservience is not peace; it is a slow boil that will require more cycles of war to contain.

War in its kinetic expression has always involved death; it is the old men that have sent the young into peril. For many who survive the experience, the burden of lives taken is one that is carried for the remainder of their own lives. War at a distance with long reach weapons may seem remote and detached from everyday lives. Yet, the weight of war is etched on headstones of the fallen, in the psyches of veterans, and in the balance sheets of economies. War always represents failure in human civilizations, particularly when it is chosen.

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Kevin Deeny