Commander in Chief

On December 2, President Barack Obama announced his plan to send
an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan, which will bring the
number of US service members there to nearly 100,000. Members of
Congress, other politicians, columnists and editorial writers
responded with support, opposition and everything in between. A
column by Nicholas Kristof published in the December 4 edition of
the Santa Rosa Press Democrat described an imagined Afghan
villager’s ambivalent attitudes about the Taliban, the presence of
tens of thousands of US troops, the corruption and incompetence of
the central government, and the seeming threat that the outside
world poses to Islamic piety. Kristof then quotes Greg Mortenson.
“It was all decided on the basis of congressmen and generals
speaking up, with nobody consulting Afghan elders. One of the
elders’ messages is we don’t need firepower, we need brainpower. 
They want schools, health facilities, but not necessarily more
physical troops.” Mortensen wrote a book called “Three Cups of Tea”
which describes his experience building schools and other basic
infrastructure in Afghanistan and Pakistan following the advice of
local community leaders. Kristof goes on to say that for the cost
of deploying one soldier for one year in Afghanistan, it is
possible to build about 20 schools of the kind Mortensen has
built. 
No one, supporter or opponent, seems to be surprised by the
President’s decision, reached after his consultation with civilian
and military advisers. The attitude of both supporters and
opponents of the troop build-up seems to be one of resignation as
much as either hope for victory or fear of deeper and deeper
involvement with no end in sight. The fact that the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq are being fought by our all volunteer armed
forces seems to have created an emotional distance from these wars
for all but the troops themselves, and, of course, their families.
Religious convictions based on a fairly literal reading of the New
Testament Gospels, especially the Sermon on the Mount (St Matthew
5-7), as well as my understanding of the sacrificial death of
Christ on the Cross as the ultimate act of heroic, redemptive
non-violence, cause me to be opposed to all wars. At the same time,
I admire the soldierly virtues of courage, self-sacrifice, and
obedience the duty; and I respect and pray for those who
conscientiously serve, especially those in combat.
I returned home from running some errands just as the radio
broadcast of President Obama’s December 2 speech was coming to an
end. My daughter Mary Agnes, her husband Stuart, and their 4 year
old and 2 year old girls were visiting us from Los Angeles. Mary
Agnes had listened to the whole speech and I asked what the
President had decided to do. “He’s sending 30,000 more troops,” she
said. “I just don’t know, I just don’t know.” Stuart came into the
room and heard us talking. He is a Los Angeles Police Officer, and
a Marine Corp reservist. He simply said, “He’s the
Commander-in-Chief. That’s it.” Mary Agnes said to Stuart, “I just
don’t want him to send you.” Stuart told her not to worry, their
girls came in, and the subject of conversation changed. But for
that one, brief moment, there in our kitchen, at the end of the
President’s speech, I got a glimpse of something beyond domestic
and international politics, beyond the opinions of Congressmen and
Generals, and, for that matter, beyond my own opinions. A woman
with two small children who doesn’t want her man to go, and a man
who is a Marine who says, “He’s the Commander-in-Chief. That’s it.
Don’t worry.”
Canon Marvin N. Bowers is a retired clergyman and may be
reached at

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