Too much to handle
This week we have been given ample reason to question continued funding of the US military. In a Senate hearing requesting an additional $87.6 billion in supplemental funds, $67 billion of which is for the war on Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth revealed that the cost of the war on Iran thus far has been $37.5 billion in military spending. This calculation does not include the toll on human life, on the people of Iran, on the people around the globe struggling with the inevitable effects of restrictions on oil and petroleum-related products, or on the distortions of life created by a war that has no purpose but to kill.
The Trump attacks on Iran are likely the most unpopular military operation launched in the last 50 years. “A Washington Post-Ipsos poll released last week found that only 29 percent of Americans support the war in Iran. A POLITICO poll found that Trump supporters who identified as “MAGA” voters said there were conditions to their continued support, with 37 percent saying they would only continue backing the conflict so long as prices for Americans did not rise.”
This lack of support has been achieved in spite of the efforts of the Trump regime to hide the costs of war, restrict and punish reporting of it, downplay the death toll of Americans, and obscure the devastation and destruction of the conflict.
People oppose this war not only because of its cost or its lack of authorization by Congress, but because it implicates all of us in killing. We have seen twenty years of such abuses of power in Afghanistan and Iraq. While the Pentagon seems unable to learn from these horrific mistakes, people across the country are making judgments about the wisdom of violence against other peoples.
In the Senate chambers, Hegseth could not deliver his opening statement without repeated interruptions from people in the audience shouting, “No War” and holding signs. Police had to remove them before Hegseth could continue.
Hegseth then faced pointed questions he refused to answer from democrats challenging the basis of the war. After more than 3 hours, the hearing ended in a shouting match between our own Senator Gary Peters and Hegseth. Peters said the war was a “failure” and criticized the administration for launching another “forever war.” Hegseth shouted back, "Shame on you," and he said Peters has "Trump derangement syndrome."
The spectacle of a Secretary of Defense who unable to defend or discuss his objectives in a public hearing should make all of us shudder. This man, this administration, and their adolescent lack of control have their hands on the deadliest weapons on earth. And they want more of them.
Those of us who are seeking ways to create relationships based on respect, thoughtfulness, and collective concern for the future of life can learn something from the moving article written by the soldier turned journalist Thomas Gibbons-Neff. He reflects on his decision to reconcile the violence he committed in the name of defending the USA. In response to a question from a man in Afghanistan about why so many US service members survive war only to return home and kill themselves. Gibbons-Neff writes:
It was a question that haunts many of us. I tried to explain how we carried the crushing weight of our own shattered expectations: We had grown up on the nostalgia of World War II, then done something we were supposed to be proud of. Instead, what we got from our politicians and generals were evasions and lies. Our commanders could never articulate how our deployments, and all the violence we committed and the losses we suffered, made anyone safer in the United States.
We were left to figure everything out on our own while they landed lucrative jobs at defense companies and collected big fees on speaking circuits. For some people, it was too much to handle.
This latest spectacle of abuse should make it clear that unlimited destructive power is “too much to handle.” When the people who hold that power have no self-control, no moral or ethical guides, and no boundaries, it is too much for all of us to handle. A world without war is possible only if we who long for peace organize for more human ways of living together.