Sometimes I think how contemptible President Bush's treatment of the military has been, in terms of deployment, money, and bennies, and I read accounts like this ambush, and after I get done shaking from the awfulness and terror of the melodrama, I realize something.
President Bush probably wasn't a fan of the TV series M*A*S*H. The show, when it wanted to be, was funny, because humor has a lot of its origin in incongruous contrasts, and you can't get more incongruous contrasts than in war. And humor has a lot of its origin in pain, and you don't get more pain than in war.
But when it wanted to say something, what M*A*S*H said was pretty clear: It said that war is the worst possible result of all human activity. The cost of war in the destruction of human lives and things humans value is almost unimaginable and nearly unbearable. (The origin of this sentiment, obviously, lies in M*A*S*H's genesis in the time of the Vietnam War, so I won't say any more; and also obviously, war is sometimes necessary despite the cost, and I won't say any more about that, either.)
I'm not sure that it's possible to observe war and have human empathy and not conclude that war, like the Iraq war, cannot be optional. Its cost is always so great that it can only be justified morally when it is unavoidable and the alternative is worse.
But President Bush and his brain trust have taken us into an optional war; they have chosen to inflict war's damage without justification. Their doing so is not laudable; it is small-minded, it is violence-minded, and it places insufficient weight on human value.
Posted by Greg at April 12, 2004 11:26 AM