A Marine journalist's perspective: It's all about pride

A friend of my niece’s joined the Marines a year ago leaving college to become a Marine journalist. She told me she didn’t fully understand his motivation for joining, as he was generally opposed to the current wars. Yet they are friends and when he was on leave recently, before his possible deployment in Afghanistan, she asked him about the attitude toward the war among his military colleagues. Her friend described the predominant attitude comes down to a question of pride. Especially prevalent among officers is that they do not want to be seen by history as losing the war. So, like the Soviets brief escalation before withdrawing in an effort to save face and like Nixon in Vietnam, U.S. soldiers are being sent to kill and to be killed so we can “withdraw with honor.” So some colonels and generals can hold on to their pride.

When will we learn not to go to war? When Americans learn a more truthful perspective on American foreign policy; and one that does not sidestep the modus operandi for the wars—imperialism—that assigns working class Americans the role of protecting “our” interests abroad. This education will take courageous social change activists to challenge and change deeply held beliefs and myths. The cynical manipulation of public opinion that got us into Afghanistan and Iraq must be stopped or more war is in our future.

I would argue that if peace-minded Americans want see the hope for a better, more peaceful world that Obama spoke about during his campaign it is necessary to take up this challenge. It also may be the best way to lend “support” for his presidency to give him the room to make different choices than expanding a war that should not have been started.