October 4th

October 4th is a fitting day to remember troops who are fighting a questionable battle in Afghanistan. It seems we have been at war quite a bit on this day throughout history. In 1777, colonial forces battled the British at Germantown, five miles north of Philadelphia, and we fought them again in 1812. In 1918, World War I was ongoing; in 1943, World War II was in full swing; 1952 saw war in Korea, and in 1964, Vietnam. Not to mention all the wars fought against the Indigenous Nations of this hemisphere.

According to US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, there have only been 10 years in the entire 236 year history of the United States where the country was not militarily involved somewhere ( 1796, 1797, 1826, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1845, 1897, 1977, 1979). We have fought wars with or had military interventions in: England, France, Mexico, Spain, French Polynesia, Algeria, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Greece, Indonesia, Argentina, Peru, Canada, Fiji, Samoa, China, Turkey, Nicaragua, Japan, Uruguay, Panama, Paraguay, Angola, Columbia, Taiwan, Korea, Egypt, Haiti, Chile, Brazil, Philippines, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Syria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Soviet Union, Croatia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Greenland, Netherlands, Iceland, Italy, Vietnam, Lebanon, Thailand, Laos, Israel, Zaire, Cambodia, Iran, El Salvador, Libya, Grenada, Chad, Bolivia, Liberia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Somalia, Macedonia, Central African Republic, Albania, Congo, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Tanzania, East Timor, Serbia, Nigeria, Yemen, Cote d’Ivoire, Georgia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Pakistan, Uganda, and Afghanistan

Also, in what some would consider an act of war, on this day in 1927 workers began defacing the sacred Paha Sapa (Black Hills) in the Lakota Nation in clear violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1868 which exempted the region from white settlement forever. In a clear insult to the indigenous people, the huge head of George Washington was sculpted onto the face of the sacred mountain, to be followed later by Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.

We need to find better alternatives to resolve disputes. People have long memories, and with today’s technology, those memories are getting longer and more precise. You cannot send in your troops or defeat a nation in an armed conflict and expect them to roll over quietly and go away; or forget. Their descendants will take up the fight, and it will continue forever unless both sides can come to an agreement.

There are conflicts in the Middle East that have been ongoing for thousands of years; there are still resentments from both World Wars, as well as Vietnam. The Korean War really never ended. And today, we are stirring the pot again in Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating yet more multi-generation conflict. Young people on both sides are being killed because old people in their country are clinging to the thought that they can beat the other side into complete and lasting submission. But history has proven again and again that it never happens.

Despite that, politicians still campaign by puffing out their chests and saying that we can crush anyone in the world and they will go away. Mitt Romney was proud last night to state in the presidential debate that he will not cut the defense budget. We have massive poverty in this country, yet our defense budget is six times China’s and more than the next top twenty defense spenders combined.

It is simply time to stop.

And if you really think people are prone to lie down like sheep, ask any Lakota this question. Who owns Mount Rushmore?