Antiwar Talk Can Be Depressing
by James Glaser
July 16, 2012

One of the hardest things to deal with if you are an active antiwar advocate is talking to retired career military men. Just your explaining truths to them could very well send them into a depressed state filled with guilt.

If you finally get through to them that most of our wars are fought to continue the profits to the Defense Industry, they often come to realize that they were used as pawns, and that all their comrades were killed or maimed in order to make some rich Americans richer. It is very hard to realize that your life's work was not only filled with deception, but was thought of by many to be evil.

Yes, it is evil to kill, even if you are killing enemy soldiers to make money for your employer or increase the power of your country. The killing of innocent civilians, including children, is thought of as even more evil, but killing children and other innocent civilians happens in every war, and usually in larger numbers than the deaths of military personal. Your participation in that war or those wars for career military personal means that you are a paid killer, and yes that is an evil thing to be.

After World War II many of the soldiers tried for war crimes attempted using the "I was just following orders" defense. It didn't work then, and it doesn't work now.

Career military members bask in the praise of their families, churches, and the general public during their retirement years, but many end up looking for mental health treatment from the VA as they come to realize that they were used, and that they should have known better.

General Smedley Butler, the winner on two Medals of Honor, said this about his time in the Marines:

My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military.

General Butler said these words after his retirement from active duty. He, like many who make a career out of the military, only realized what he had done when he had the time reflect on his career.

So remember this, Anti-war activist, when you start talking about why war is evil and wrong to someone whose life's work was fighting in war, you just may be pouring salt into an open wound they never knew they had, and that can be devastating, or it may bring out a lot of anger that you weren't expecting.

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