The honor of the United States is being diminished like spring snow melting into mud season. The executive branch of the U.S. government is casting aside integrity and honesty to be replaced with coercive power, hegemony and wealth. For example, with the airstrikes against Iran, the U.S. is breaching the Olympic truce resolution of Nov. 19, which urged nations to suspend all military activity until March 15.
Sports gives people the courage to see an opponent “not as an enemy, but as a partner in a shared endeavor,” the United Nations said. The Olympic Truce is a “living metaphor” for peace at a time of heightened global tensions. There is no honor for the U.S. when it tarnishes its membership in the UN by ignoring its vote to suspend military activity in respect for the Olympics.
Our country also debases its honor by brandishing its warpower, corrupting its relationship with institutions of higher education and reneging on its collective bargaining with unions.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes against Iran violated international law, including the UN Charter. Two days later, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired back, speaking at the Pentagon, “No stupid rules of engagement, no nation building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win and we don’t waste time or lives.”
Concerning higher education, Hegseth said, the universities are “factories of anti-American resentment.” They have become “breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination” that undermine military values, he said. He supported the Pentagon decision to forbid members of the military from attending Columbia, Yale, Brown and other universities starting next school year.
The power of the executive has also been asserted against the National Treasury Employees Union by terminating its collective bargaining agreement with unionized workers employed at the Internal Revenue Service. It is apparent that the United States has chosen to sacrifice its honor in the way it is relating to unions, universities and the United Nations.
It is sad to observe that our nation’s leaders are becoming less than honorable in their attitude, actions and international relationships. It seems that honor is being sacrificed to a penchant for uninhibited self-interest. As such, leaders rely upon the accumulation of money and alliances with the powerful to bamboozle the citizenry. As a nation, leaders seek like-minded autocrats who depend upon territorial wars and dishonest alliances to advance financial and territorial gain while strengthening the hegemony of their own kind. The old proverb takes root: “there is no honor among thieves.”
However, it has been said the success of republican government depends upon the character of its citizens. I would add, upon its leadership as well. In an abstract of “Sacrifice and Sacred Honor” by Peter Brandon Bayer, written in the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, it is declared that the founders of the U.S. asserted in the Declaration of Independence that government is legitimate only if it governs according to eternal moral precepts. They pledged the new nation’s “sacred honor” to uphold steadfastly the principles of moral government.
Today, there is a mantra being repeated out there: “Make America Great Again.” If there is an “again” in that aspiration, let it not be a return to denial of the painful bumps in history nor the reinstatement of the domination of white male superiority or the might makes right mentality. Instead, let us make America worthy to be honored for its industrious search for those “eternal moral precepts” that may be found among, yet incompletely realized, values of respect, integrity, honesty, care, love of neighbor and international cooperation. Urge upon our elected town, state and national leaders that we expect nothing less. Success relies upon their honor and ours.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.