Country too focused on military power
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Editor,
Independence Day was magnificent in Western Montana. We celebrated by taking a short hike on Flathead Lake‘s Wild Horse Island. While there, two F-16 fighter jets flew over in low close formation. They appeared to be headed for demonstration “fly-bys” at July 4 community parades.
Seeing these planes caused us mixed emotions. We felt amazed and proud that our free society can produce such magnificent technology. We wondered, though, for what purpose?
We honor the young pilots who fly these crafts and the thousands of talented and dedicated people making such a demonstration possible. But amazement cannot stifle our feeling that those planes and the way they are used on the world stage fly in the face of the founding principles we value and treasure most about our country.
Our country has engaged in unending undeclared warfare, now “hot” in three sovereign foreign countries. We now communally act as though we have the right, through our federal government, to deploy this awesome military might anywhere on the globe at any time. We do not believe our Constitution grants that authority unless our Congress, representing us, declares war. The last executed Declaration of War was passed by Congress and signed by President Roosevelt a day or two after Pearl Harbor was attacked at the end of 1941, almost 70 years ago.
Among D.C. officialdom, the wisdom of this policy that the United States must dominate a global military empire appears unquestioned. Why, then, do so many people feel uneasy about this? Many, like us, find it to be beyond distasteful. And why does our society seem to be collapsing under the weight of this self imposed “duty?"
We close loving our country and sorrowful for what we have let it become.
Cynthia Macklin Preston and Jay Wilson Preston
Charlo
