When the president first signed the executive order on Sept. 5 to rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, my immediate response was, “No!” It seemed wrong to proclaim the United States a warrior nation. The White House fact sheet is an anathema to the aspirations of just and peaceful relationships: “The United States military is the strongest and most lethal fighting force in the world, and the President believes this Department should have a name that reflects its unmatched power and readiness to protect national interests.” I cringed at the thought of celebrating the lethality of the U.S. military. I protested that in a free society, the death of an opponent is never the goal. A Department of War communicates a threat to the sovereignty of other nations and their people.
However, now I am not as adamant in my opinion about the inappropriateness of a Department of War. Considering the current administration’s policy to conduct diplomacy with rockets, bombs, drones and cyber threats, it may be most honest to acknowledge, as unpalatable as it may be, that the U.S. today depends upon a Department of War to assert the country’s superiority. Rather than pretending that our military is a defensive force, perhaps it is healthier to tell it like it is: a country that is poised to attack at any time.
The rub is, fellow citizens, that the more threatening the country becomes, the stronger the opposition. The U.S. economic and military posture has made enemies who have responded by initiating terrorist attacks. Israel has used U.S. military aid and sales to facilitate its war in Gaza and Lebanon. Israel’s actions against Palestinians in the Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza have raised generations of angry enemies, resulting in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. Also, the Department made a statement that it “has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Israel for its purchase of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) and related equipment. The estimated total cost is $992.4 million.” These are not defensive weapons.
The dire consequences of having a Department of War and its “precision kill” weapons may help us to see more clearly the results of being a sword-rattling nation. Maoz Inon, an Israeli citizen, has observed in the book “The Future is Peace,” “baseless hatred is a fundamental human failing seen in the racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism that blind us to the humanity of our neighbors…” Facing this uncomfortable reality may become the motivation to seek alternative ways to conduct diplomacy.
By bringing into the open hatred and human failing, marks of a warring society, perhaps we may learn that the best defense for our country is to approach others as good neighbors, even though there will be significant resistance. Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian, observes there are many waring forces that seek to pull down advocates for peace with justice for all. In “The Future is Peace,” he wrote “To work for peace means facing the worst of humanity; it means enduring suffering, facing scorn, carrying humiliation, and struggling not to sink into the darkness of trauma that threatens to pull you down.” We are living in a turbulent time. A warrior society exacerbates the troubles. Facing this reality may give clarity and courage to advocate for an end to the warring posture of the nation.
For example, after the experience of World War II, the U.S. had lost its taste for war. It initiated the Marshall Plan to financially assist and rebuild western Europe. The U.S. responded, like a good neighbor, not with tanks but with aid to 16 countries.
A model for development and aid to neighboring countries in need may still happen today. We can become a nation that concentrates on the tools of defense rather than the instruments of offensive war: Tools of the harvest. Tools of medical care and healing. Tools for acquiring understanding of other’s motivations, beliefs and customs. Tools of trustworthiness that generate good neighbors. Then, perhaps the Department of War will atrophy and become a needless, useless appendage to good government and good relationships with other nations.
John Buttrick writes from his Vermont Folk Rocker in his Concord home, Minds Crossing. He can be reached at johndbuttrick@gmail.com.