Not For Your Comfort

January 29, 1991

As the images flickered on the tube, reflecting censored versions of the operations of Desert Storm and the Iraq enemy, I recalled a clause from Scripture, “there is no discharge from war.”

The words come from the Wisdom Literature of the Jewish Scriptures. In the 2nd or 3rd century B.C.E., a wise writer, but hardly optimistic, reflected on the human condition. He is identified as Ecclesiastes, (“preacher” in the Greek), Koheleth, (“leader of an assembly” in the Hebrew). This comment appears in the 8th verse of the 8th chapter: (RSV)

“No man has the power to retain the spirit,
or the authority over the day of death; there is
no discharge from war, nor will wickedness
deliver those who are given to it.”

Moffatt translates the verse this way:

“NO man can hold the winds in check or control
the day of death; in war there is no furlough
and wrong is no shield for wrongdoers.”

There is no discharge from war, even though fond hopes and millions of prayers earnestly petition that victory will arrive quickly, Saddam Hussein crushed, and our men and women brought home to be honored by a nation grateful for their courage, loyalty, discipline and skill. But there will be no discharge in war. (I write as one who still believes sanctions against [Iraq] should have remained in force for a much longer period.

There will be no discharge for the dead, soldiers from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the other allies and the dead in Iraq. Soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines, civilians – will the victory have been worth the lives of those who died? Being human and patriotic, we will count and mourn our dead. We won’t grieve overmuch about the civilians who perished in the desert war, will we? The difficult recovery from death and damage will be far away. (We may allot billions of dollars to repair and restore the destruction caused in winning.)

There will be no discharge from war for our veterans who come back with battle wounds from which they may never recover. As they spend their lives maimed or ill, how many will be bitter that their loyal service was a life sentence?

There will be no discharge from war for those who return dislocated in mind, emotion or family life, traumatized by the experience of what they saw, what they did and what they knew others did.

There will be no discharge from war for the many species of marine and bird life perishing in the Gulf as a result of Iraq’s opening the valves and poisoning the waters with millions of gallons of oil.

There will be no discharge from military responsibility when the war ends. We have had forces in Germany for 45 years, in Korea for almost 40 years. Will the responsibility of victory keep service men and women in the scorching desert for decades, too?

There will be no discharge from the mammoth debts incurred in the war. No one seems to be giving any serious thought as to how we pay. Contributions from Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be substantial, but our national deficit will be even more of a serious threat. Will we face the problem openly and realistically? Or, will we, in the words of some Southern politician, say, “Don’t tax me, don’t tax thee, tax that fellow behind the tree.”

There is no discharge from war. Whatever and whenever the outcome, the burden will be heavy. The human family carries the pain, scars, and deaths uncountable from the unending wars which seem the main theme of the opus of history. Can we change the raucous, deadly discords to some harmony? Perhaps, if the world players persistently rehearse the same score, with determination, understanding, skill, cooperation and, I hope, with some touch of humor. That might indeed be a New World Symphony.