At What Cost Victory?

Our Nation's blood and treasure spills across the desert sands until any sane man must feel compelled to ask a simple question - at what cost victory?

Surely the once beloved but now abandoned kin of heroes fallen by the way can in anguish cry out - "We've already paid too much: so much, too much. Yet, for what and to whom?" They perhaps cannot answer themselves, least not in the particulars wrought from their sadly isolated grieving. As a society is it not now appropriate for us to take to heart John Donne's real wisdom when he wrote, "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee" (Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, #17).

Yes, the bell should and must toll for me, as well as thee, anything less would be an egregious abandonment of heart and matter for a Nation gone to war. Treasure, I'm willing to for now leave with more dispassionate men who calculate such; more accurately than I, perhaps. But blood sifted down through sands and pebbles deep till lost, forever gone - at least that must be reasoned with in the fragile temporal consciousness of the collective body politic, as well as in my prosaic mind today. It is, altogether, well worth the accounting for, I think. We owe it and them that, don't you agree?. Thus, sad, weak and cheapened with my only metaphorically bloodied fingers I count and seek some ethereal equation to balance the divine loss I feel and see.

Yet, for answers, I find divinity itself to have too great a challenge in these particulars. This is, after all, a national political question. Invoke your or my God to assuage each grief, we can do; but to use God to justify the hearts and minds of an electorate such as ours comprised, we cannot do. It's in our constitution. One God may provide an ample justification for this few, or that. But while God is fundamentally in our make up - it is not the God of the one, but a one of potentially many and consequently all too capable of yielding insufficient or even contradictory rationale. Where then does a mind turn when it seeks to balance for itself such a heartfelt price for what some might even label an excursion? Personally, my mind seeks the solace of an answer in principle. Principle being, perhaps, the last best hope for a divine majority of the minds of men and women within a secular society.

There was, is and sadly likely always will be evil in the world: ungodly, I can't say, but inhumane, certainly. It poisoned, preened and plowed mass graves burying stilled hearts by the thousands and in so doing silenced the shallow breathing souls of millions left alone, but only half living.  An evil postured and so encumbered a world, not frail but delicately balanced, with a blind ambitious attack against a neighbor and then in a continuing belligerent threat, the cost of which can never be measured nor its ultimate result have been safely predicted.  While in an even larger view - if terror takes the hostage then what of, not just a country, but an entire region held hostage to an endless fetid deprivation born of an individual's or a group's lust for power or greed?

Call me foolish, or overly simplistic but I question here not to ponder some grand root cause or the greater world's transgressions. It can be calamitous to simply ponder too much and wring one's hands in the face of evil: it's all the more foolish to simply ponder when you're wringing thoughtful fingers stained with another's blood. Those who bled and will bleed deserve the question answered far more than I ever will. So, I seek now only to answer a thing, not to question all things in their behalf. And if that's too simple then so be it. But if you can validate an evil's existence and potential danger, it seems to me you can reasonably conclude the rightness of its removal from the world. And I find it sound to conclude that this particular brand of evil left alone would likely one day present a cost so incredible in blood and treasure that no ledger exists that could accrue and maybe one day dispense the debt.

I cannot accept certain elements that would pronounce our national motives superficial or fully self serving. They most often point to "big business" as the root cause of that imagined evil. But business, while I use its terms, is not "us" as Americans. It is merely "of" us and far from uniquely so. And to the extent that it is "of" us, it is only so because it works. Seen in its entirety capitalism, quite simply, has brought more freedom, more wealth, greater health and greater security and opportunity to more people in the world than any government, political party or other ideological entity. And it is not democracy or America. It is capitalism, a system we foster yet do not exist for - by any measure. It exists for us and I am not embarrassed by it. There is no greater proof of its rightness than the ongoing embrace of same by every part of the world that can accommodate it. And even parts of the world that cannot accommodate it today long for its future benefits in some form. The notion that business is the face of some great evil America is a myth, as it is now more global in nature and welcomed as such even more so than our own Department of State.

As a government, America has shown through practice, principle and years of history that we are not imperialistic. We helped liberate Europe - we did not occupy it longer than needed or requested. We liberated Kuwait and once again no objective world can question our motivations or actions. The Phillipines, Grenada, I could go on. If some divergent section of our body politic wishes to wrongly characterize the greater whole, I say, God bless you, you can do that precisely because we are America. It is to your detriment not mine so long as this lesson is lost upon you. And if a however large radical group of foreign misfits who actually are intolerant and at least regionally imperialistic wish to cast us as evil I can only dismiss it as the manipulative double speak of an entity that has proven itself as unprincipled and truly dangerous for all who come under its influence, or rise up against it.

So I am ultimately left with solving an equation between a proven good and a proven evil. Given that the evils we currently face, totalitarianism and terrorism, have and clearly will kill enmass again if possible alters my question and changes my math. It is not "what price victory, but "what price defeat?" To my fellows and more importantly to the suffering families of the fallen I can only say that the price of not facing down evil at this time in our history is just far too high to consider. What can reach into our country and kill over three thousands innocents within minutes can also do much worse. And the causes it endeavors and the underpinnings that support it must be destroyed. And there is no cost, not even the destruction of our very way of life, that I would forego in addressing these evil forces we face. Because to lose would likely mean losing that very thing, our way of life. And I would much prefer going down in the fighting for it, than simply surrendering and letting it happen.

I am sorry for your suffering. I am as feeling as I can be for your loss but I know that can never be enough. If you struggle please at least try and believe that what you have lost was lost for good and for a right principle. And remember as I said above, principle may be the only divinity a truly secular society can embrace. Comfort yourself with the words of whatever God you choose, should you choose to. And comfort yourself by knowing that a way of life that has proven itself more than worthy could not exist without the sad sacrifice of the brave and the noble like you and yours. Know that the fight is not done. It will not be done soon. But it is the truly good fight that must be fought and must be won. And when you find yourself questioning, perhaps you'll ask yourself, as I do, what price defeat? I truly hope that brings you the comfort that it does me as we continue in a just cause born of good principle. That is all I have to offer you. It is my faith, in man, in America and, most of all, in you.

Comments

[Nickie Goomba]

Just want to take this opportyunity to thank you, CC, for your great site. Best Christmas wishes to you...and, of course, Peace on Earth.

[Terry Gain]

Dan,

Your words are truly touching and heart rendering. This Canadian continues to be overwhelmed by the love and devotion to duty that characterizes American military families. I am humbled and troubled whenever I contemplate the sacrifices which are being made not only for America but for all of mankind. I wish I could properly expresss my deep respect and love for the people of your country who are doing their best to create a better, safer world- especially in the face of such much cynicism regarding the effort. God bless you all and have a peaceful Christmas