Eugene weekly., May 28, 2015, Page 7, Image 7

VIEWPOINT
B Y G U Y M AY N A R D A N D M I C H A E L C A R R I G A N
Will We Ever Learn?
WE STILL SUFFER FROM PAST WARS AS WE CHARGE AHEAD
M
emorial Day has its roots in the
aftermath of the Civil War when
Americans searched for a way to
honor and remember the three-
quarters of a million people who died
in that horrifi c confl ict. The original declaration in 1868
called for “strewing of fl owers or otherwise decorating
the graves” of the war dead, hence its original name,
Decoration Day.
In his classic song, “Where Have All the Flowers
Gone,” Pete Seeger traces a cycle of young girls picking
fl owers, fi nding husbands who go off to war and then
to graveyards, which are adorned with fl owers, which a
new generation of young girls will fi nd. And the circle
begins again — on and on and on. It is a song of honor
and love — and a fundamental forgetting that allows us
to again be led off to another war.
“When will we ever learn?” the chorus asks again
and again.
Fifty years ago, May 1965, the fi rst 3,500 offi cially
recognized U.S. combat troops arrived in Vietnam. A
few months later, President Lyndon Johnson committed
to sending 125,000 more. “I do not fi nd it easy to send
the fl ower of our youth … into battle,” he said. But he
did, again and again. Within three years, more than half
a million Americans were fi ghting in Vietnam.
Just over 40 years ago, the last Americans left Vietnam.
The country was reunited under a communist government.
That’s exactly what would have happened, all historians
agree, if we had not blocked national elections called for in
the Geneva Accords — the diplomatic agreement reached
at the end of the Vietnamese war of independence against
France — in 1954.
How different would our country be if we had
allowed those elections to take place — never sent all
those troops, never dropped all those bombs, never
situations in Syria, Iran and the Ukraine, as well as the
continuing crisis in Iraq. A proposal to authorize use of
force in the quagmires of Syria and Iraq is lurking in the
wings of Congress. We are already leading a bombing
campaign in that area and have 4,400 ground troops in
Iraq (a fi gure eerily close to the fi rst commitment of
combat troops to Vietnam). Sabre-rattlers in Congress are
calling for more ground troops and trying to undermine
what could be promising negotiations with Iran.
As we refl ect on Memorial Day 2015, have we
honored the dead and wounded of Vietnam, Afghanistan
and Iraq by fl owers and forgetting — forgetting again
the bluster and blunder that sent so many off to wars
that ultimately failed?
When will we ever learn?
We still suffer the consequences of that war, with our veterans wounded
in so many ways — and because we have still not learned its lessons.
spent those billions of dollars? We lost 58,220 fl owers
of youth. More than two million Vietnamese died.
We still suffer the consequences of that war, with our
veterans wounded in so many ways — and because we
have still not learned its lessons.
In more recent history, our wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan have cost us dearly in lives lost or deeply
damaged and trillions of dollars of lost opportunities to
do good in the world. And, as in Vietnam, those wars
have not made us safer or freer or more respected in
the world. Rather than bringing stability or peace to the
Middle East, we have generated deepening chaos.
Now, we face choices about how to deal with diffi cult
Let’s honor them by remembering — remembering
that we could have avoided those wasteful wars and
their tragic sacrifi ces. Let’s honor them by acting now
to prevent future futile military adventures. Write your
representatives to oppose the use of U.S. military
force in Syria and Iraq and new sanctions against
Iran. Support diplomacy, humanitarian assistance and
regional solutions.
Let’s honor all those sacrifi ced in our wars by
working to allow the fl ower of our youth to blossom
and build a more just and peaceful world. ■
Guy Maynard and Michael Carrigan are members of Progressive Respons-
es, the peace program of Community Alliance of Lane County.
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EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • MAY 28, 2015
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