Guest Commentary
President Trump has “commander in chiefed” an end to the illegal U.S. role in the war in Syria. And there are reports the Commander in Chief may order a draw down in Afghanistan, the war that keeps on giving!
Knock me down with a feather! Turns out it ain’t that hard to end a war! It must be a Christmas Miracle!
In the lifetime of the post 9-11 generation, the U.S. has started many a war, but ended nary a one. Is this a new era? Is it evidence that this Christmas, Christ may return? I do not know how else to understand it.
Of course, the usual suspects are grumbling about this, Lindsey Graham among them, but let us give Trump credit for standing up to the war profiteers and their bought and paid for apologists, peace may break out before anyone thought possible!
Even the Senate has gotten into the act, moving to end the U.S. war on Yemen fought by Saudi Arabia, a lapdog dependency if ever there was one, so the U.S. could pretend it was just “supplying aircraft fuel.”
Can this Christmas miracle continue? Dare one hope it spread? Imagine, as John Lennon musically urged, no war. Impossible? That is what Christmas miracles are all about, accomplishing the impossible.
The U.S. is officially fighting undeclared wars in seven countries, according to the White House’s latest war report, known as the “Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Military Force and Related National Security Operations,” the unclassified portion admits the U.S. has ongoing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Niger — all under authority granted in the 2002 “Authorization for the Use of Military Force” to fight al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Wouldn’t it be a miracle if all seven of these “official” wars ended over Christmas by order of president Trump?
Wouldn’t that be an amazing reaffirmation of the teachings of Christ, who told St. Peter that violence was not the answer, not even to defend Christ himself from arrest by the Romans? Wouldn’t that be a wonderful Christmas gift to all the soldiers at risk of death and disability, their families and the people of those ravaged, war torn countries? A Christmas miracle indeed!
Now that I am ramped up, why not go for the whole enchilada! Let’s end ‘em all, not just the “official” wars but all those unofficial wars as well.
“We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing,” Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in October 2017. That was in the wake of the combat deaths of four members of the Special Operations forces in the West African nation of Niger. Turns out the U.S. has Special Ops forces deployed to 149 countries in 2017.
Because these are “secret” not “official” wars, just like Graham, one cannot be sure how many of these secret wars are still going on, or how many were added in 2018. It would take a Christmas miracle just to keep track of them.
So, why not a Christmas miracle to end them all at one fell swoop?
Maybe it is a propitious time to end all these wars.
Given the danger of a confrontation with Russia over Ukraine, and China in the South Seas, where significant opponents with nuclear arsenals await, maybe the U.S. should stand down from the brink and embrace the Christmas miracle.
I am ashamed to admit it, but I was losing my belief in Santa Claus given the plethora of unremitting bad news. But now I am going to sit down and write Santa a letter — I am asking him for a Christmas miracle!
Kary Love is a Michigan attorney who has defended nuclear resister in court for decades and will on occasion use blunt force satire or actual legal arguments to make a point.
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