On this Memorial Day, it seems appropriate to highlight the example of Andrew J. Bacevich, the author of a fascinating book, The Limits of Power:  The End of American Exceptionalism. Bacevich lost his son, Andrew Bacevich Jr.  in Iraq, but shies away from discussing the issue.  He did talk about it briefly with Bill Moyers last August, in a moving interview, well worth watching in its entirety.  (Bill Moyers\’ interview)

Following Bacevich’s lead, perhaps on this day we can begin thinking of how we can support our soldiers in meaningful ways by becoming truly engaged with our nation’s foreign policy and its actions abroad, not just by placing stickers on our cars.

Here is a brief excerpt:

BILL MOYERS: You say, and this is another one of my highlighted sentences, that “Anyone with a conscience sending soldiers back to Iraq or Afghanistan for multiple combat tours, while the rest of the country chills out, can hardly be seen as an acceptable arrangement. It is unfair. Unjust. And morally corrosive.” And, yet, that’s what we’re doing.

ANDREW BACEVICH: Absolutely. And I think – I don’t want to talk about my son here.

BILL MOYERS: Your son?

ANDREW BACEVICH: Yeah.

BILL MOYERS: You dedicate the book to your son.

ANDREW BACEVICH: Yeah. Well, my son was killed in Iraq. And I don’t want to talk about that, because it’s very personal. But it has long stuck in my craw, this posturing of supporting the troops. I don’t want to insult people.

There are many people who say they support the troops, and they really mean it. But when it comes, really, down to understanding what does it mean to support the troops? It needs to mean more than putting a sticker on the back of your car.

I don’t think we actually support the troops. We the people. What we the people do is we contract out the business of national security to approximately 0.5 percent of the population. About a million and a half people that are on active duty.

And then we really turn away. We don’t want to look when they go back for two or three or four or five combat tours. That’s not supporting the troops. That’s an abdication of civic responsibility. And I do think it – there’s something fundamentally immoral about that.

Again, as I tried to say, I think the global war on terror, as a framework of thinking about policy, is deeply defective. But if one believes in the global war on terror, then why isn’t the country actually supporting it? In a meaningful substantive sense?

Where is the country?

Yesterday, President Obama met Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in which Netanyahu emphasized the Iranian threat to Israel’s security above all.  Security has always been Israel’s number one concern, understandably, given the history of atrocities Jews have faced.  For Palestinians, the key issue is justice–righting, or at least acknowledging the wrongs done to them in the creation of Israel in their midst, beginning with a United Nations partition plan that placed over half of the land in Jewish hands, even though Arabs comprised two-thirds of the population.  What is lacking in the security-justice equation is the obvious–peace.  Netanyahu said in the meeting, “Everybody in Israel, as in the United States, wants peace.”  Sure, majorities on both sides want peace, and yet, it continues to be elusive.

Yesterday too, I re-watched the documentary Encounter Point with my students of my History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict class.  It is an incredibly powerful film, portraying a group of Israelis and Palestinians, who have lost loved ones due to the conflict, and yet are championing reconciliation, non-violence, and true peace.  If those very individuals who have lost the most to this conflict can put their fears and tragedies behind them and work together, why can’t the leadership?  These are the true unsung heroes, whose efforts deserve American attention, support, and bolstering.

From the Encounter Point website, “If you lost your loved ones to violence…If you spent ten years in prison…If conflict drove you from your home…Would you seek revenge?  Or would you struggle for peace?”

Encounter Point