Memorial Day: A Down Payment for Peace



Memorial Day is the day we honor those who died while serving in our nation’s armed forces.  The numbers of those honorees are staggering.    
Civil War:                  750,000                      
WWI:                          117,000
WWII:                        405,000
Korean War:              37,000
Vietnam:                     58,000
Iraq/Afghanistan:       7,000

If there is anything mildly positive about these numbers it is that they show a general downward trend.  Grim as it sounds, the more deadly and specific weapons become, the easier it is to target the enemy while maintaining a safe position.
We can now eliminate a deadly threat by pinpointing the cause of that threat and removing it in a surgical manner.  Consider North Korea which is currently the greatest threat to world peace.  If the 509 Bomb Wing at Whiteman Airforce Base suddenly lost track of its B-2 Stealth Bombers and, concurrently, every nuclear facility, missile launch pad and the last known residence of that pathological little Pez dispenser they call “fearless leader” were all turned into deep, finely powdered craters, I would breathe a sigh of relief.   Of course, we would have to shrug our collective shoulders in disbelief as to how this could have happened.  Given a few hours for the right orders to go up and down the chain of command we could even send a slow truck out to Knob Noster, Missouri and check to see if our long-range bombers were still in the hangers.   They would be.  Cooling down.
We know that in every surgical procedure, clean tissue is removed with the diseased.  Pain is always involved and there can be complications.  But despite all of this, we do not forgo surgery when a life, or even a quality of life is in the balance.  We would like to be healthy and vigorous without medical intervention.  That is our goal, if not for ourselves than at least for our progeny.  The same is certainly true of the larger disease of war.  But let us be realistic.
Weakness never won a war, but strength can keep a peace. 
The decreasing numbers of dead from national conflicts speaks to our continued aversion to the inhumanity, the waste and horror of war.  Our weapons keep increasing in efficacy, but the numbers of American dead keep going down. 
I hope that Memorial Day will become a holiday of history long past for my grandchildren.  I pray for it.  I work for it.  But such a goal stretches my credulity. 
I am a realist when it comes to human beings.  I don’t believe we are inherently good or bad.  We are generally ruled by an instinct to advance our well-being.  We are generally restrained by a group ethos that must include deterrents as well as rewards.  Some people will do evil despite every offer of kindness.  Some people will rise above hate and despair to show goodness in all they do. 
We must play a game of percentages.  If surgery saves the life, you go for the surgery.  If you can’t live in a world without aggression you must make it a dangerous choice for those who would use it to harm us.  World peace will never be achievable on a lasting basis.  That is an honest assessment of the human condition.   But that does not mean it is not a worthy goal, and that is also an honest assessment of humanity. 
On Memorial Day we need to look at the list of dead and try to make each of those lives count as a down payment on a greater, sustainable, and equitable peace.  
If each peace is longer and deeper than the one before, we keep the faith.

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