Sunday, June 1, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.
A May 26 editorial in the Las Vegas Sun supported the National Moment of Remembrance. The idea was that at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day we stop to reflect on the valor of our servicemen and women and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Then we are “to offer a prayer for peace.”
It’s a nice sentiment, but it’s not likely to end unnecessary wars. I doubt that divine intervention will save us from future disasters such as those we have experienced in recent years, unless it is by working through us by our telling the truth to power.
The majority of our military is composed of people who have limited economic and employment opportunities. They are usually patriotic people who just hope they are sacrificing for a noble cause, but they probably care more about each other than the cause.
They would keep doing their job even if they knew that Afghanistan was more about the Taliban and pipelines than about Osama bin Laden. They would keep on even if they knew that Iraq was about oil reserves and not about WMD or ties to al-Qaida.
It is our moral responsibility as citizens to speak the truth to power when it counts, so that the sacrifices our military people make are not in vain.
There were many who failed to speak the truth to power when it counted in 2002 and 2003, including the media and our Congress. But there were exceptions to that rule, and there were notable people who protested. People marched in the streets. And there was Mohammed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency, calling President Bush’s evidence of an atomic program in Iraq “false” and “a forgery.”
We can resolve to speak the truth to power or we can stop our baseball games for a minute once a year and pretend we care.
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