We have many myths about war and military service. These false beliefs blind most citizens to the human, environmental, moral and financial costs of war. These myths provide the justification for huge public expenditures on a bloated military establishment leaving insufficient funds for other pubic needs. These myths support military recruiting by making “heroes” of the troops. 

By justifying war as necessary for “national defense,” they make the next war possible.
As the peace advocate Arundhati Roy has written, “Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.”

Chris Hedges is a journalist with extensive combat reporting experience. In his book War is a Force that Gives us Meaning he explains the role of national myths: “The myth of war is essential to justify the horrible sacrifices required in war, the destruction and death of innocents. It can be formed only by denying the reality of war, by turning the lies, the manipulation, the inhumanness of war into the heroic ideal.” 

He says the myth of war “...gives justification to what is often nothing more than gross human cruelty and stupidity.”

One myth is that our many wars were necessary to secure and defend our freedom, keep us safe from enemies and protect our way of life. But war does not make us safer, more secure or more free. In fact each new war increases domestic violence, weakens civil liberties, promotes militarization of our police and increases the power of the executive branch. 

Most wars in our history have weakened our already limited democracy.

War is failure. War means our political leadership did not have the competence and intelligence to resolve conflicts peacefully. All of us pay a price for this failure.

Today’s most egregious case of this failure is the ethnic cleansing and genocide being committed in Gaza. The death toll of innocent Palestinians has now exceeded 40,000 – mostly women and children – and there is no end in sight. 

Israel and the U.S. are not safer from terrorist attacks because of this mass slaughter of civilians. This injustice and genocide only creates more hate to fuel more future violence and terrorism on both sides.
Our country’s political, financial and military support for the genocide in Gaza can only hurt us. There is no rational reason why we should support Israel’s illegal and inhumane actions. We are only proving Martin Luther King’s assertion that we are “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” 

The failure of our political leadership to effectively work for peace and justice for the Palestinian people, or find real solutions to the conflicts in the region, will come back to haunt us in the future.

Another myth is that the men and women who serve in the military are the reason we have freedom and democracy. Their sacrifice is the reason we have the American way of life. They are “heroes.” 

But this narrative is historically inaccurate. Most of our many wars had nothing to do with protecting freedom, civil liberties, or the country. Most were about expanding territory, securing commercial advantage or opposing other political and economic ideologies that were of no real threat to us.
The myth of veterans as “heroes” not only misleads the American public but it is harmful to veterans as well. Most veterans didn’t serve in combat situations and don’t want to be thanked for their service. 
Even many combat veterans do not appreciate this false praise. They know the wars were based on lies and the stated goals did not match the reality. This disconnect can lead to moral injury, PTSD, suicide, alcoholism and drug addiction.

Philip Caputo is a Vietnam combat veteran. In A Rumor of War, a memoir of his war experiences, he wrote, “We believe we were there for a high moral purpose. But somehow our idealism was lost, our morals corrupted and the purpose forgotten.”

On this same point Chris Hedges wrote, “Most of those who are thrust into combat soon find it impossible to maintain the mythic perception of war. They would not survive if they did.”  

In addition he writes, “...the goal we seek when we embrace myth is impossible to achieve. War never creates the security or harmony we desire...”

A majority of the recent veterans believe the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not worth fighting. This is the finding of research by the Pew Research Center. 

We need to listen to these veterans and their stories.

Next week the Twin Ports will have an opportunity hear the stories of some veterans. There will be two free showings of the documentary film What I Want You to Know. The 13 veterans featured in this film believed what they were told. The wars were to protect America, defend freedom, and help the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. 

But what they found on the ground was shockingly different.

The veterans in this film, like so many other veterans of these wars, brought home lifelong physical and mental injuries. They suffered moral injuries from the terrible things they saw and did. 
Their suffering was compounded by questions they can’t stop asking themselves: What was it all for? Why were we lied to? What’s to stop it from happening again?

In the movie, these veterans ask people to be better citizens and take responsibility for the actions of our government. They ask that we insist our government stop creating unnecessary wars of choice.
As one of the veterans in the movie says, “Until the American public acknowledges the lies that were told to us – what actually happened on the ground there and the consequences of war – then it is hard to imagine how we are not going to repeat the same mistakes. It is hard for me to see that in 20 years my children will be called up to fight in the next war that did not need to happen.”

Two Free Public Showings of What I Want You to Know:
• Wednesday, Sept. 25, 6:30 pm, University Minnesota Duluth, Solon Campus Center 120, 1117 University Drive, Duluth 

• Thursday, Sept. 26, 7 pm, College of St. Scholastica, Mitchell Auditorium, 1200 Kenwood Ave,, Duluth
“War and Moral Injury A Conversation with Garett Reppenhagen” 

• Wednesday, Sept. 25, Noon-1 pm, UMD Library Fourth Floor Rotunda, 416 Library Dr, Duluth

• Thursday, Sept. 26, 2:30-4 pm, Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center, 305 E. 2nd St., Superior.