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America’s never-ending wars, Iraq War, Memorial Day 2020, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (2012), Viral human warfare
On this Memorial Day 2020, I reflect on the lives cut short in America’s never-ending wars of terror across the Middle East, following our invasion of Iraq in 2003. I share with you an insightful realization, born of lived experience of war, from the opening chapter of the novel, The Yellow Birds, by Kevin Powers (USA, 2012).
SEPTEMBER 2004
Al Tafar, Nineveh Province, IraqThe war tried to kill us in the spring….
Narrative voice of twenty-one-year-old Private John Bartle of the USA Army from the novel, The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers, published by Little, Brown and Company, USA, 2012, pp 3-4.
Then, in summer, the war tried to kill us as the heat blanched all color from the plains…. The war would take what it could get. It was patient. It didn’t care about objectives, or boundaries, whether you were loved by many or not at all. While I slept that summer, the war came to me in my dreams and showed me its sole purpose: to go on, only to go on. And I knew the war would have its way.
Described in these terms, humanity’s wars operate much like the deadly COVID-19 let loose among Earth’s populations. What will it take to end the spread of viral human warfare? When will we stop losing our loved ones on the frontlines? When will we stop killing vulnerable civilians—women, children, and the elderly—exposed to the virulence of our wars?
KEVIN POWERS was born and raised in Richmond Virginia, graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, and holds an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a Michener Fellow in Poetry. He served in the U.S. Army in 2004 and 2005 in Iraq, where he was deployed as a machine gunner in Mosul and Tal Afar. The Yellow Birds is his first novel.
Three Worlds One Vision 
I find myself more and more drawn to the idea that there are many situations in life where there are not any close to perfect answers. Too often, we and our leaders believe “if only we can do X, then things will be fine.” I doubt the world is that simple as often as we would like.
We believe in our righteousness and idealism, act accordingly, and come up with poor results and unintended consequences. Your readers might want to read Reinhold Niebuhr’s “The Irony of American History.” It is 70-years-old, but captures many of our illusions about ourselves that speak to how we get into unjust wars in the name of justice.
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Dr. Stein, thanks for the recommendation of Niebuhr’s book. I’ve added it to my To Read list.
I agree that there is no simple or perfect answer to the problems we face today in our complex, interconnected, and interdependent global societies. Yet, I believe that when we the peoples of the world are able to agree on the root cause(s) of our current crises, we will be able to determine the steps needed to move forward. More about this in my next blog post.
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Thank you for sharing!!.. it seems that in spite of the knowledge and technology available, all the world’s societies has managed to do is upgrade the “club”… 🙂
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom”. Isaac Asimov
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So true, Dutch! I imagine that Memorial Day must bring its own sad remembrances of your days on the frontlines of our war in Vietnam.
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Such essential questions.
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Indeed, Derrick, but, as Dr. Stein observes, there are no easy answers.
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I worked in Iraq as a teacher and feel particularly passionate about this topic. “Operation shock and awe” wrought a humanitarian disaster on the people of Iraq that is still being felt today (not to mention adding $3 trillion to the US national debt). Now, more than 15 years later, many Iraqis still live without basic services like electricity. I curse the George W. Bush administration, especially Dick Cheney and Donald “the unknown, unknowns” Rumsfeld, for the death and destruction they perpetuated on the Iraqi people. IMHO, all three of them should have been tried before the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
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Thanks for sharing, Henry. My heart is heavy with the suffering our wars have heaped on the peoples of the entire region. How does transforming entire cities to rubble free a people from tyranny?
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When I was in the U.S. Army during the mid-70s, I met many soldiers who served in Vietnam. Although their experiences were never a topic of discussion (I’m not exaggerating), there was something distinctly different about them. To me, they appeared to be a seething emotional storm constrained by willful barriers like a hurricane slamming into large seawalls. I felt both great empathy and apprehension because I wasn’t sure when the waves would breach over them.
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Robert, thanks for sharing your perspective as a U.S. Army veteran. Historically, America’s war in Vietnam remains very controversial. After reading Nick Turse’s account in Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (Picador/USA, 2013), I can well appreciate the “seething emotional storm” that continues to envelop many Vietnam veterans. Warfare brings out the worse in the human species. Despite our social and cultural advancement as a species, we are still barbarians at our core.
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Roseliene, maybe it is the cult-ure of supremacy that is a barbaric affront to our nature which finds calm fulfillment in equality. What if like war, our status-crazed culture of monarchy that caused royals to murder parents and siblings is what brings out the worst in our nature. Immature narcissistic mindsets normally mature in healthy cultures into caring and compassionate mindsets. But the psychological baggage of monarchy still seems to promote self-centeredness and division. The worst idea accepted by most is that some humans are more or less worthy than others… what if our compassionate motivations and our learning brains which mature over many decades are the greatest honor that exists shared by everyone. Monarchy was a uncivilized setback to our societies. For millenia, callous immature tricksters have traumatized gullible humans. Monarchs turned against their own kind and took advantage of those born to trust that their culture cares about them. But we can become truly civilized again by sharing honor once more. We are all greater than any kings that ever existed. We all were born with the greatest honor on earth that can never be improved or diminished. Baldwin understood that it was the mindset of the white Europeans that plagued relations. What if the uncivilized lack of shared dignity puts monarchical cult-ures on a violent immature war path?
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Richard, thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts on this issue.
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My father fought in Vietnam. The memories were like a little death he carried around with him and haunted him his whole life, though he found moments of peace in his relationship with God and now he is finally free.
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Yes, soldiers who survive the brutality of war are still damaged by it. It is like carrying “a little death” around with them. We all need to understand this.
Sometimes people who haven’t served in the armed forces hold misperceptions about soldiers, and that is tragic. Soldiers are human beings like everyone else. Your father was probably drafted and might not have had a choice. I enlisted, but only to escape my failures in civilian life and to honor my father who served in World War II.
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My father actually enlisted before he finished high school. He used to joke that he joined the Marine Corps because he was tired of people telling him what to do. I remember as a child when he got his high school equivalency while in the Corps. He stayed in for 20 years.
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JoAnna, I’m sorry that you and your family have also been touched by the ravages of war on the psyche of those who survived fighting on the frontlines.
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Thank you, Rosaliene. I didn’t understand the depth of those ravages until I was older. I’ve come to appreciate my father’s strength more over the years.
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Thanks for the reminding.
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And thank you for reading, Laleh 🙂 We humans are much like that “lost donkey” you describe so well in your post today.
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My pleasure. Thanks a million.❤️
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Hard to even remember a time when we weren’t making war somewhere, mostly for no valid reason.
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Ken, thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts. Though our endless wars may appear to have “no valid reason” for we the people, they must, indeed, serve some vital purpose(s) for the world’s Power Elite.
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Quote: “Described in these terms, humanity’s wars operate much like the deadly COVID-19 let loose among Earth’s populations. What will it take to end the spread of viral human warfare? When will we stop losing our loved ones on the frontlines? When will we stop killing vulnerable civilians—women, children, and the elderly—exposed to the virulence of our wars?”
There is absolutely no trick to truthfully answering these questions, and they are not rhetorical. The simple truth is that Homo Sapiens loves violence, causing destruction, chaos and death. History is made of such. So, it’s quite simple: change your mind. Willfully choose the path of self empowerment and compassion that leads to the development of empathy. Once one’s nature becomes empathetic gratuitous violence becomes persona non grata.
Wars, unlike viruses, don’t “just happen.” They would not be if no one signed up to fight in them. As long as individuals allow the manufacturing of consent and choose to “join up” because they buy the propaganda, that is how long you will have wars. As long as mass murderers are called “soldiers” and made into heroes (or victims) that is how long you will have wars. May as well face it then, wars will be endless, relentless, heartless and only end when civilization ends for the mindset that loves and needs violence is innate to Homo Sapiens. All man’s works are either the result of violence or attempts to fix the effects of said violence.
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Sha’Tara, I couldn’t agree more with all of the points that you have raised! Without doubt, we are a very violent species. Over the centuries, prophets and philosophical thinkers have arisen to show us a better way forward–“the path of self empowerment and compassion that leads to the development of empathy,” as you mention. I guess we have yet to reach that critical mass of acceptance of a new mindset for us to let go of our innate barbarism.
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Everyone wants to feel powerful and important. Humans naturally unite against anyone who becomes too domineering and we mature to understand that non-violence is most powerful because it’s about respect and sharing honor and uniting to co-operate. Supremacist ideology prolongs violence through insecure, status-crazed jousting for royal privelage, racial superiority, American exceptionalism, or a “way of life” that whitewashes imperial callousness. Real honor, wealth and power are always shared. Power gained through violent force is weak and temporary and never gains real respect. Power gained through love is the greatest and most lasting. Equality is in our blood. We should teach males to share pride with all humans for this. We all were born with the greatest honor on earth, females and males, everyone. This can never be improved or diminished. Only immature, insecure monarchs try to do this and their tantrums only cause trauma.
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Richard, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I look forward to the day when we humans learn to share wealth and power for the good of all.
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When will the wars, the senseless loss of life end? When humans learn to accept each other for who they are, when they learn to embrace differences rather than fear them. When humans put life and the planet earth ahead of profit. In other words, perhaps never and certainly not in our lifetime. Sigh. Good post … thoughtful and thought-provoking.
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Jill, thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts. I sigh a lot, too, at our inability as a species to “live together in perfect harmony” as Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder question in your latest featured song, “Ebony and Ivory.”
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I sigh and utter obscenities more in a year these days than in my prior 67 years combined! I sometimes feel I am watching the history of this nation being played in ‘reverse’ mode.
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Thank you for this Rosaliene. It reminds me of my Syrian refugee friends, who never knew minute by minute the what or why of what was around them, who would be imprisoned or murdered next, always living “without objectives or boundaries.” Stay well.
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Stay well, too, Kim ❤ The Syrian and other refugees fleeing from America's wars in their homelands are always on my mind. Meanwhile, here in our own beloved homeland under lockdown because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, some of us complain about not being able to go to the beach, to church, and to our favorite places and events.
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Do you realize that the COVID-19 justified totalitarianism in “the homeland” is an extension of the same war being waged almost everywhere in the Middle East and Africa, in the South China Sea and on the Russian borders – including in that the endless and deadly trade sanctions against anyone who disapproves of Uncle Sam’s territorial claims? You have become refugees in your own homes, that is until you can no longer pay the rent, then you will be evicted and become homeless and your children will become wards of the state to be raised good little Fascist believers. Follow the bouncing ball as “you” acquiesce to Big Brother’s dictates and choose to ignore finding out the true why’s and wherefores of it. (*you* here is generic, not personal). Your government(s) have declared war on you the now expendable unemployed worker drone and no longer contributing taxpayer so that it will not have to take responsibility for the shit storm it has deliberately caused by blaming it on a chimera of its own invention and eventually on “you” for not adhering 100% to the mandated rules re: virus response. Get ready for increased enforcement of totalitarian rules as a second wave of “COVID” (20?) is unleashed in another media storm of disinformation. Get ready to meet your neighbours as they snitch on you for any peccadillo they feel you’ve committed against their Benevolent State. Get ready to discover what it has meant for the people of Cuba, Nicaragua, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, and etc, etc., to live under the boots of US proxy dictatorships throughout the last century and well into this one. Those who sow the wind, do eventually reap the whirlwind.
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A Good tribute 👍🏻
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Thanks, Anu 🙂
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A neatly drawn parallel, Rosaliene. How easy it is to ignore the things that aren’t on our doorstep.
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Cath, unless we the people acknowledge our participation in the deaths of millions of innocent civilians in our never-ending wars in distant foreign lands, the military industrial complex will continue to profit from warfare, chaos, and human destitution.
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So terribly true, Rosaliene.
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A beautiful reflection, Rosaliene. ❤
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Thanks, Carol. So glad you dropped by 🙂
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Memorial Day makes me sick – it always has. But it’s not as bad as Anzac Day, where they celebrate the senseless massacre of tens of thousands of New Zealand and Australian troops at Gallipoli.
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Dr. Bramhall, I can well understand your sentiments on Memorial Day. Wherever we may live on this planet, we have all been touched by war and its evils.
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Very insightful. My heart broke when I read that passage. Thank you for sharing, Rosaliene!
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Thanks, Camille. Glad that you stopped by 🙂
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We need to learn to put as much or more time and energy into making peace instead of war. I know it’s an uphill battle (funny how our language reflects war.) I know it will be an uphill road – maybe one that goes on forever. Establishing a US Department of Peace could help if it was funded and honored.
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I couldn’t agree more, JoAnna. Instead, we would be ending hunger worldwide, as well as promoting good health and education for people everywhere.
As you’ve observed, it’s interesting the way our language reflects war. For Ninety Percent of the world’s peoples, the struggle to survive is the daily way of life.
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nice blog
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Thanks for dropping by, Sara 🙂
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Everyone wants to feel powerful and important. Humans naturally unite against anyone who becomes too domineering and we mature to understand that non-violence is most powerful because it’s about respect and sharing honor and uniting to co-operate. Supremacist ideology prolongs violence through insecure, status-crazed jousting for royal privelage, racial superiority, American exceptionalism, or a “way of life” that whitewashes imperial callousness. Real honor, wealth and power are always shared. Power gained through violent force is weak and temporary and never gains real respect. Power gained through love is the greatest and most lasting. Equality is in our blood. We should teach males to share pride with all humans for this. We all were born with the greatest honor on earth, females and males, everyone. This can never be improved or diminished. Only immature, insecure monarchs try to do this and their tantrums only cause trauma.
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