Three Ghosts
The One Question Washington Cannot Answer
The ghosts of conflicts past wander the American military cemeteries and memorials scattered across the globe.
Eisenhower’s ghost, like Jacob Marley, warns us as he walks amidst the fallen who rest in symmetrical lines of white marble gravestones. He speaks of the consequences of the unchecked power of the military industrial complex and the state of perpetual war we’ve been in for the last quarter century.
George Herbert Walker Bush’s ghost wanders the corridors of Washington and whispers, “Congressional support, global coalition, overwhelming force, clearly defined mission.”
Donald Rumsfeld’s spirit struts through the concentric rings of the pentagon clutching a memo he wrote and sent to senior aides in the spring of 2002 just a few months after the attacks of 9/11 and the beginning of the war in Afghanistan.
“I know I’m a bit impatient, but we are never going to get the U.S. military out of Afghanistan unless we take care to see that there is something going on that will provide the stability that will be necessary for us to leave. Help.”
He was right.
It would be another 20 years and the conditions were never met.
Two weeks ago the United States went to war with Iran. We were told Iran was two weeks from a bomb. Months earlier, we were told its nuclear capabilities had been completely and totally obliterated.
In a turn of phrase that was clearly written by Secretary of War Yossarian they tell us that the war is both nearly over and entering a new phase.
Marine expeditionary units are deploying to the region.
Play it again, Sam.
Our enemy is capable, determined, and cornered. The cyber attack against Stryker indicates that the Iranians understand that they can destabilize the ‘Great Satan’ without firing a shot directly against the homeland.
The first week of the war cost American taxpayers $11.3 billion.
In one week, we’ve spent the FBI’s entire annual budget for FY 2026 of $10.1 billion. Add in the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities at $207 million each and we still have some change left in the sofa cushions to restore funding to both the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and National Public Radio.
We gave the order, launched the attack, pulled the trigger without notifying congress, and without debate. Without national consensus.
The ghosts ask:
What is the mission?
What is the end game?
How long does it last?
What does victory look like?
Where is the national resolve?
Where is the debate?
Where are the controls?
Without deliberation. Without explanation. Without accountability. We have borrowed money to pay for a war our children’s children’s children will be paying interest on. To what end?
Ike turns towards the eternal flame that illuminates his successor’s grave and reminds us that “every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
The spirits gather in Arlington’s Section 60 waiting for the newest war dead and ask, “Are we safer today than we were yesterday and are we worthy of their sacrifice?”