Jonathan Chisdes
VSU Spectator
December 1, 1994
the military

	Recently I was chatting with some friends about our domestic 
problems, arguing where the money would come from, and I 
politely suggested we take it from the armed forces.  I went on to 
say we'd be much better off without a military anyway.  When their 
mouths dropped open in astonishment, I was able to explain that I 
believed that without a military we'll be forced to settle disagreements 
and disputes in a civil and diplomatic manner, as befits a moral 
nation in a civilized world.  When we have a military, the temptation 
to use it is so great; it's simpler to kill the people you disagree with 
than to come up with a compromising solution that satisfies all.  Wars 
just keep fueling each other in a never-ending cycle as each wrong sets 
the stage for the next.  People oppose the murder of a single person on 
principle, but if hundreds of thousands are slaughtered, those same 
people cheer.  Don't they see the inconsistency?  No cause, no matter 
how righteous, is worth killing for.  This is not a new, radical thought.  
Way back in the First Century BC, the Roman orator Cicero said, "I cease 
not to advocate peace; even though unjust, it is better than the most 
just war."
	When my friends finally recovered from their shock and were 
able to speak, they demanded that we need a military to defend 
ourselves.  From what? I asked in response.  America has taken the 
concept of security beyond the ludicrous, assuming incorrectly that 
everyone is out to get us.  Nobody likes war.  We can all disarm 
together, multilaterally, all nations, slowly, stably, with good will.
	One gasped, "But not all the nations will do it.  Some live to make 
war.  Look at Hussein, Noriega, Cedras."  (The "bully of the month club.")
	That's what the administration wants us to think.  They create 
crises just to solve them with force; to justify their existence, to make 
money for weapons manufacturers, to expand our political and economic 
control.  Why did US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie tell Saddam 
Hussein that the US had no opinion on his border dispute with Kuwait 
only days before he invaded?  It seems the Bush administration 
privately encouraged Hussein to go into Kuwait so Bush could make 
an issue out of it, send in troops, and have a war so he could increase 
the military budget, boost his domestic opinion polls, increase US 
dominance over the oil in the region; saving the Kuwaiti monarchy 
was only the superficial excuse.
	Nothing good has ever come from the military (that couldn't just 
as easily come from a non-abusive source).  It's existence has never 
prevented a war.  All it has done is consume mass quantities of money 
and energy that could better be spent elsewhere and advanced the 
economic interests of a special few elite by unjust and immoral acts.  
Violence never accomplishes anything other than destruction; it just provokes 
more violence and brings out the worst in us.  Any solution reached by force 
is an unjust and immoral solution.  We can always 
find an alternative to violence as long as we think creatively.  Look at 
Costa Rica--they have had no military for almost 50 years and have 
survived quite well.
	Our military is a showcase of our technological triumphs but 
also a bleak monument to our utter barbarity.  We're moving into the 
twenty-first century,people; isn't it time we started measuring 
humanity's progress by our moral leaps rather than our technological 
ones?  Complete elimination of all the armed forces on the planet is not 
some beautiful but unachievable ideal; it's a worthy goal and a real 
possibility, as more and more people are repulsed by the military and become 
motivated to work for their dreams.  As Martin Luther King 
said, "I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present 
nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the 'oughtness' that 
forever confronts him."
	Eventually, possibly even in our own lifetimes, there will be a 
world-wide consensus that mankind does not need armies and navies.  
But the more people buy the propaganda of the power structure that 
there are bad guys out there we need to defend ourselves from, the 
farther into the future that bright, shining day is pushed.  The existence 
of the military is a serious moral and physical problem; the sooner we 
face that fact, the sooner we can deal with it.

Author's Note:  This is my last column, so I'd like to close by 
expressing my gratitude to Heath for giving me this opportunity for 
vigorous debate and for working with me on this feature.  I've never 
known a more honorable Republican.  Thanks, Heath, and good luck.