Andrew Bacevich is a historian, a B.U. Professor Emeritus, and a retired Army Corp General who served in the Army during the Vietnam War. Bacevich has authored many excellent books and articles on American foreign policy and our proclivity to go to war. He has been a persistent critic of George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq under the pretense of Iraq hiding nuclear (WMD’s) weapons, even though UN Inspectors found no evidence of this. Thousands have died (including Bacevich’s son, Andrew, who was killed in action in Iraq) and we are still spreading war and destruction in so many parts of the world.
Bacevich’s articles, in the Atlantic Monthly, speak to his concern as to whether the new Secretary of Defense James Mattis is equipped to lead the formidable U.S. military. He comments on Mattis’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in January.
“The most intriguing aspect of the exchange between Mattis and members of the committee was the absolute absence of interest, from either side, in how the armed forces of the United States have performed in recent years. In Afghanistan, in the now-resumed war in Iraq, in U.S. combat operations, large and small, in Pakistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria — none has yielded anything approximating conclusive victory. However you define U.S. aims and objectives — promoting stability? Spreading democracy? Reducing the incidence of Islamist terrorism? — they remain unfulfilled…”
“… First under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, that penchant for activism has found U.S. forces continuously in combat. How can it be that their many sacrifices and the hundreds of billions of dollars expended have landed the United States in such a precarious predicament? Has America dropped an insufficient number of bombs? Have
U.S. troops invaded, occupied, or raided too few countries?” Yet no Senator thought to ask Mattis for his views on why this has been the case…”
“… Senior civilians and senior military officers today engage in their tug of war over military minutiae — when, how, and whether to conduct a raid —because doing so enables them to sustain the pretense that the United States is engaged in a strategically purposeful enterprise: that America is killing people pursuant to some plausible political outcome. The truth of the matter is that America is killing people — terrorists and others — because its leaders don’t know what else to do…”
… Killing people and bombing things has become a substitute for policy and indeed for thinking. Where there should be strategy, there is a void…”
Our Easter Hope reminds us that polar opposites of this proclivity for war and destruction that Bacevich speaks of can be found in Pope Francis’ heartfelt pleas against wars and the Catholic Worker (CW) Movement. Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, CW’s founders, were totally opposed to war. “Thou shall not kill.” Even during WWII, a war that had almost total support in the U.S; Day and her followers demonstrated against the war and wrote of pacifism in their Catholic Worker newspaper.
Has the little group realistically any influence to change U.S. policy?
I think so. The CW movement of total pacifism is very much alive. The CW’s have a great influence on me and many friends around the U.S. (even our American Bishops?). The Gospel message they proclaim is clear: There are alternatives to war!
At the Catholic Worker Beatitude House in Guadalupe, CA, Dennis Apel and wife Tensie Hernandez serve predominantly the Mexican /Latino farmworkers and their families who work in the surrounding fields. For years Dennis and friends, have demonstrated at Vandenberg Air Force base reminding us that U.S. nuclear weapons are on hair trigger, capable of killing
millions of people. (see articles on Vandenberg in www.cpfphila.com). Last year Dennis was arrested for crossing a yellow line and sentenced by a harsh judge to four months in prison for trespass, even though he had not entered the base. A host of appeals re earlier demonstrations and arrests gained support from lawyers and remarkably went to the Supreme Court. (see 2013 articles re Vandenberg: Denis Apel and Supreme Court – www.cpfphila.com.) Some people pay a heavy price to wake us up.
Art Laffin at the Washington D.C. Dorothy Day Catholic Worker for many years has been a weekly presence at the Pentagon. I was fortunate to attend on one occasion and was deeply impressed by their message: ‘Our Prayer - A Disarmed World’ and ‘We will not raise Our Children to kill.’ Through the years these protests at the Pentagon (and at White House) have led to arrests. The Dorothy Day House also offers food and hospitality to the most vulnerable. In addition to activities in DC area, Art led a group of peace makers across Cuba to Guantanamo prison where a large number of suspected terrorists from around the world are housed, some indefinitely, without trial. Art and the others were a presence calling for an end to torture and for trials for the incarcerated. Opposition to the death penalty is another of Art’s passions. When he was younger; residing in CT. his brother was murdered by a stranger. Art opposes the death penalty regardless of the action. He is called on to speak of his opposition to the death penalty throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Finally locally in Kensington, we have the House of Grace Catholic Worker. Johanna Berrigan and Mary Beth Appel, a Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioner, provide hospitality at the Cassie Temple House, care for a large CW community garden, and some twenty years ago founded a health clinic next to St. Francis Inn. The clinic has been providing services these twenty years to uninsured and homeless individuals. I remember a grace-filled time several years ago, when I helped out with the showers, a group of Villanova Student Nurses washed the feet of all the women and men present and fitted them with socks and shoes. It felt like a Biblical moment. This foot clinic is offered several times through the year.
In addition to the Kensington activities, Johanna, Mary Beth, and Bishop Tom Gumbleton founded and continue to support the Kay Lasante “House of Health” Clinic, a Haitian operated health clinic and community out-reach project in Port au Prince, Haiti. I have been to Haiti with Johanna and Bishop Gumbleton, only once, and have seen the poorest of the poor.
There is an article by Johanna Berrigan in this issue. Read it. She speaks of Kay Lasante and their work with community.
The Catholic Workers and Pope Francis remind us, all is not darkness! There is a Christ-like dynamic presence, offering an- other way – no to war and killing.
Don't give up hope!!
Sources: Andrew J. Bacevich, The Atlantic Monthly
A Pledge for More of the Same at the Pentagon, 1/12/17
What Are U.S. Forces Doing in Yemen in the First Place?, 2/8/17
Woodcut: R.McGovern