Seeing The War Through Old Eyes

Author Dan Strawn prepares us for his series: A Collage of War

PROLOGUE (Colleen):

This guest post is written by 87-year-old American citizen Dan Strawn—an elder with a long view and no appetite for theatre.

We’ve all heard plenty of “qualified opinions” about this non-war war. So why read one more?

Because in a political dust storm, we can lose our bearings without noticing. Blind spots don’t show up with sirens; they quietly become "normal" — especially when the news keeps kicking up fresh debris.

So here’s the question I hold as I read Dan’s words: Am I more devoted to defending my stance -- or to seeing the truth through the lens of historical fact?

Dan isn't selling a side. He offers a wider frame—one that asks us to slow down and consider what history reveals when we allow our hearts to settle long enough to actually see.

Here is Dan’s perspective — elder-clear and citizen awake.

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(Dan Strawn):

Today I want to talk about war.

I was 64, soon to be 65 in March of 2003 when I penned the following poem just prior to the invasion of Iraq: 

A Patriot's Letter

© Dan Strawn 2003

Dear Mr. President:

When you embrace Saddam

In that

Grave Dance of Death

When you and he

Wage war

Remember this

Blessed are the peace makers

From High on Mt. Olympus

The wails of mourning mothers

In Bagdad and Boise

Sound the same

Now I'm 87, soon to be 88. My old eyes see clearly. What I see is reinforced by the wisdom that comes by living a lifetime of doing some things right counterbalanced by some other things that were, in retrospect, foolish. 

My view of our present national status is bleak, our future is dismal, and our stellar reputation in the world is diminished. The direct cause is President Trump's obvious lack of character and compassion, poor management skills, apparent inability to avoid lying even when telling the truth would benefit him, and a host of other low caliber traits. 

Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, he started a war.

He didn't declare one, since doing so requires an okay from the House of Representatives. He just attacked in mid-negotiations with Iran, which was a complete surprise to them as well as the rest of the world. 

Surprise attack. That's not the kind of thing nations do to countries you're negotiating with. Historically, it more often ends up with the attacker on the worst end of the outcome.

Japan learned that the hard way when they attacked Pearl Harbor while we were negotiating with them. They had intensions to declare war before the attack, but their five-thousand word declaration of war was delivered too late to their embassy in Washington D.C. The Japanese ambassador delivered the decoded declaration two hours after the attack. The Japanese intention was to have it delivered about the time their planes were flying off the decks of the aircraft carriers.

Tension was high. We had solved the Japanese code and knew something was likely to happen but had no idea when or where. But neither we nor they had fired a shot until Japan's surprise attack. The next day, President Roosevelt asked Congress for a declaration of war. 

A declaration of war. That's yet to happen in the war Trump started.

Think about this: What President Trump is bragging about is how we have supposedly neutralized Iran's ability to fight back. Weeks have elapsed; the state of Trump's war is now being negotiated. It is a long way off from being resolved. The World Waits—Despicable! 

Trump has gotten himself in a real pickle and sullied the world's respect for what we in America spent two and a half centuries to establish.

I knew we were going to war when President Trump changed the name of The Department of Defense to Department of War. 

"That's a sure sign he intends to negotiate with power rather than negotiation," I said to myself. "I wonder how long it will be before we are at war with somebody."

It wasn't long—a month? two? certainly no more than three!—and Trump had the United States Navy blowing defenseless boats out of international waters off the coast of Venezuela. 

Folks, I have studied our country's history for seventy-seven of my eighty-seven years. In our country's infancy, we sent the Marines to the shores of Tripoli, Libya. Yes, it is the Tripoli in the Marine Corps hymn. The Marines' mission: stop Libya from attacking our merchant ships in international water. 

Doing what the Libyans did to our ships back then was piracy. It is piracy today, no matter who chooses to do it. We shouldn't be surprised that Trump became a pirate by using our country's armed forces. A trait of his business negotiation style was to bully the little guys, knowing they lacked the ability to hold out — Shameful! Cowardly!

Never mind the fact that killing combatants unable to defend themselves flies in the face of our Navy's attack protocols. Never mind the fact that we have values that say all people, not just American citizen's, have a right to a trial before we kill them, unless of course they are trying to kill us, which was hardly proven when they were blown out of the water by those carrying out President Trump's orders — Despicable! 

In my seasoned-by-time mind, there is only one reason for a nation to go to war with another nation: the other nation attacked them first.  

Accordingly, nations who attack first without positive proof of their adversaries' nefarious intent have never justified the lives wasted and human-progress stalled by waging war. Hence the poem I wrote at the top of this essay. 

So what are we to do? We have a chief executive who is in over his head in a war he started by attacking in the middle of negotiations. His only defense is laughable: "In my opinion," he said, "we had to attack first because they were going to attack first," or words to that effect. 

Huh…

In my career in business management, an opinion was nothing more than a verbalized wish unless it was backed up with facts.

Trump, for the record, was informed by our own experts that Iran had neither the intent now nor the capability to attack us in America for an estimated ten years. So his opinion falls in the wish category .I wonder how he can sleep at night, knowing that the realization of his wish—just for starters—cost at least 150 Iranian girls their lives in the war’s opening hours. 

It doesn't matter which country directed the missile, or why. Those precious little girls were murdered inside their elementary school. It would have never happened if Trump had stashed his wish and focused on negotiating — Shameful! Disgraceful! An Unnecessary Tragedy!—that those little girls became what the military calls collateral damage instead of growing up, falling in love, raising children, and…and…living long lives! — Indefensible!

War should never have been waged.

I'm not here to tell you what to do in November. But I know what I'm going to do.

I'm going to vote for the party that will disable President Trump by: (1) holding him to the terms of the budget The House of Representatives built, and (2) checkmating him and any future presidents from unilaterally waging war.

Rest assured, I will vote for the party that does the most to neutralize Trump. I hope you see why and I encourage you to do likewise.

I'll be back soon with a collage of war-poems and prose that speak to why we humans, not just we Americans, have to put war in our past.

Don't forget—

"Blessed are the Peace Makers!

for they will be called the children of God"

--Matthew 5:9

From High on Mt. Olympus

The wails of mourning mothers

In Bagdad and Boise

Sound the same

These words were true when I wrote them in 2003,

they are true today, and were true

when Zeus and Hera ruled on Mt Olympus.

So, there you have it. I'll be back soon, 

--Dan Strawn, an American who is working to Make America Good Again.

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Thank you for reading. If you’d like, share your thoughts on this post in the comments. And if reflecting feels easier with company, you’re welcome in the Bowl of Light Café — a free online space to rest, refuel and reconnect, together. You can also find your invitation at SongRise.live.

--Colleen