I don’t usually listen closely to the “Today” show. This morning, though, I was taken aback by the interview of fallen Navy S.E.A.L. Aaron Vaughn’s parents, Billy and Karen and his widow Kimberly. His father had quite a bit to say. Excerpts follow:
..."after 9/11, Aaron told me and his mother that he wanted to be a S.E.A.L. and he said that he had wanted to ever since he was a little boy...he loved his country, he loved God... he honestly believed and saw black and white that what we were involved in...is a war for survival of our republic.
Aaron knows that the war, Islamic fundamentalism, radicalism has gone on for hundreds of years if not thousands, and it can be traced through history... he felt that the very existence of our republic is at stake, and because of that, Aaron was willing to give his life.
...S.E.A.L. team six... those men felt the same way and they see it clearly, they see it black and white. So many of us don't. Aaron told me...that he had a class where he said, Dad, there's three kinds... of people in the world, sheep dogs, sheep, and wolves. I can honestly say that S.E.A.L. team six are the sheep dogs. Sheep dogs always see the warning, black and white, clearly. Most of us are sheep. We don't usually see it."
Follow along below the opium poppy for more.
Everyone who enlists in the military has their reasons. Love of country is a powerful motivator, as is the sense that when our country is under threat, it’s an opportunity to step up be the hero. Feeling a religious calling may be a factor for some. For many, it’s steady employment at a time when jobs in the civilian sector are scarce.
At the national level, our government has its own reasons for committing our blood and treasure to a difficult war. Leveraging our collective need for vengeance following the 9/11 attacks, Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan was launched in early October 2001. Nearly 10 years later, there are more questions than answers, with the cost of war escalating to an estimated $3.6 billion a month, and with the possibility of exiting this quagmire as dangerous – or more dangerous – than the status quo. The human costs, casualties and life-altering bodily and brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, and family losses, are beyond calculation.
Meanwhile, Osama bin Laden, persona non grata #1 in the war on terror, has been killed, not in Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, a long-time incubator of terrorism that we consider an ally.
Afghanistan remains of strategic interest for several reasons. Geographically, it’s at the crossroads of the Middle East, South Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia. Geologically, its rugged landscape holds over $3 trillion in untapped mineral resources, including iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and lithium, the metal critical to the batteries powering our computers, BlackBerries, and other indispendable gadgets.
US geologists, sent to Afghanistan in 2004 as part of “rebuilding” efforts uncovered Afghan and Soviet maps of these deposits. An internal Pentagon memo has suggested that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium”. This sort of game-changing geological [re]discovery has attracted world-wide interest, with resource-hungry China leading the pack.
In addition to its daunting topographic challenges, Afghanistan lacks the infrastructure, labor force, economic system, and governance to deal with the prospect of mining at the scale contemplated, much less the ability to broker international agreements for mineral rights, infrastructure construction, shipping, and other support operations. However, it’s clear that these strategic interests appear to be fueling our government’s desire to remain in Afghanistan. They’re not, however, the “public” reasons for the war, which remain disturbingly vague.
If the S.E.A.L.S really are the “sheep dogs”, what warning are they seeing, and how is this shaping the conduct of the war? What does this tell us about America’s motivations in this interminable graveyard of empires? Are we really in Afghanistan to fight “Islamic fundamentalism, radicalism”? If so, why have we limited the arena to Afghanistan?
If this is truly our primary motivation (which I doubt), we should consider our Afghanistan adventure a crusade rather than a war. As such, the American taxpayers will rightly question why our government would be engaged in a holy war.
This “holy war” aspect of our military messaging does serve as a powerful recruiting draw. I doubt that our young men and women would risk their lives to defend the rights of multinational corporations engaged in a massive land-grab for mineral rights. Many would, however, feel a call of duty to defend America from a “black and white” existential threat in a “war for the survival of our country”.