Orthodox Reflections

“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”

That is the blunt, arresting prose of Smedley Butler (1881-1940) in his book War Is a Racket.

During his career in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1898 to 1931, he participated in every major war, including World War I. He attained the rank of major general and was the most decorated Marine in history. After retiring, however, he became a peace activist and an outspoken critic of America’s wars. His 1935 book alleges imperialist aims to American foreign policy and protests the saber-rattling leading to World War II.

I realize that war is a complex topic. Wars are a result of sin, greed, and selfishness but also are God’s call to repentance and humility. God allows wars to occur in order to bring people to their knees.

But on some fundamental level, war is a lie. I react against it.

I believe “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). We Orthodox sing that line of The Beatitudes, along with the other lines, during each Divine Liturgy.

On war, I generally agree with the former U.S. Congressman, veteran, and presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul. He is fond of saying that the United States has thousands of diplomats; therefore, why don’t we use them instead of sanctioning and bombing?

Why, indeed? Is it because war is profitable and the so-called “elites” are imperialist?

The American republic devolved into a massive empire long ago. This empire controls the world’s reserve currency (the dollar), which is used both in its massive military spending and in international trade. The empire commands approximately 1,000 bases around the globe, including several flanking Russia. It tramples life, liberty, and property and stirs up enmity wherever it goes.

I imagine the neoconservatives who run the empire quoting Shelley, without a shred of irony: “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

But I urge every politician vying to be the next American Emperor to face reality. Your empire is crumbling, and it has destabilized much of the world with its needless wars.

Reel it in. Bring home the troops to re-enter civilian life. Stop tramping about in search of monsters to destroy.

Nota bene, all trolls: If Russia had 1,000 bases around the world and was threatening to draft my children, I’d say the same thing.

I protest the U.S. House of Representatives’ recent vote to automatically register 18- to 26-year-old men for a potential military draft.

These esteemed “representatives” of the arms industry added this auto-registration scheme to their version of the eternally abominable National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As of this writing, the U.S. Senate was considering its own version of the NDAA, which includes women in this auto-registration scheme. Neither of these bills is law yet.

It sounds like the U.S. empire wants to send your sons and daughters to slaughter Russians on the battlefield, so the empire can strip-mine Russia’s vast resources and plant the LGBT flag there.

June 16, 2024 – Kiev now has a Pride march courtesy of the U.S. National Security State

And, like all empires, the U.S. empire is crazy enough to try it.

On principle, I say: Do not allow your children to join the military. Resist the draft, if and when it comes. In the event of a draft, the Selective Service site provides conscientious objectors with options for alternative service in lieu of military service.

“Live not by lies,” the writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn advised in his 1974 essay: “And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal non-participation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!”

Not through me, Emperor, not through me.

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In that spirit, I have compiled the following anti-war selections. They are mostly brief excerpts, and I encourage you to follow the links to the originals.

“War Is a Racket,” book by Smedley Butler, 1935

“A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small ‘inside’ group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. . . .

“Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few — the self-same few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

“And what is this bill?

“This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

“For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds again gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.”

“To the Belligerent Rulers of the Nations,” letter by Elder Philotheos Zervakos, Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Longovarda, Paros, Greece, 1940

“Listen up, you kings and rulers of the nations who love war, and be wise!

“Almighty God and Creator of all things has made you kings, lords, and rulers of nations and peoples, and your people have trusted you to govern them, to rule your subjects with justice and truth and, as affectionate fathers and excellent rulers, to provide and ensure the prosperity, happiness, and salvation of your peoples.

“Why do you forget your purpose? Listen up and be wise! You have killed hundreds of thousands of blameless and innocent people by handing them over to slaughter, fire, and the seabed. Hundreds of thousands have you made miserable, hideous, seedy, hungry, naked, and homeless! . . .

“What will you enjoy, what will you gain if you see the whole of Europe rolling in blood and its cities disintegrating into piles of ruins? You are responsible for all of the above! Consider that you are mortal people! You will die even though you are Lords and Governors.”

“I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier,” song by Alfred Bryan and Al Piantadosi, 1914

I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder
To shoot some other mother’s darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles.
It’s time to lay the sword and gun away.
There’d be no war today
If mothers all would say,
‘I didn’t raise my boy to be a soldier.’

“The State,” essay by Randolph Bourne, 1918

“Bourne’s essays attack the sanctity of war by showing how it leads to the moral collapse of society by destroying the peaceful interactions and principles on which society rests.” —Wendy McElroy

“War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. The machinery of government [sic] sets and enforces the drastic penalties. The minorities are either intimidated into silence, or brought slowly around by [a] subtle process of persuasion which may seem to them really to be converting them.”

“Mother’s Day Proclamation,” statement by Julia Ward Howe, 1870

The abolitionist and suffragist Howe repudiated her early support for the Civil War and wrote this “call to action” for mothers to promote world peace. Her idea was a precursor to the modern Mother’s Day.

 “Arise, then Christian women throughout the land! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether baptized in water or tears. Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.’ Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we can teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

“Farewell Address,” speech by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

Eisenhower, a Five-Star Army General and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in WWII, warns about the dangers of the growing military-industrial complex.

 “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

“We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

“Oh Stay at Home, My Lad,” poem by A.E. Housman, 1922

Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough
The land and not the sea,
And leave the soldiers at their drill,
And all about the idle hill
Shepherd your sheep with me.

Oh stay with company and mirth
And daylight and the air;
Too full already is the grave
Of fellows that were good and brave
And died because they were.

“The Song of the Mud,” poem by Mary Borden, 1917

This is the hymn of mud — the obscene, the filthy, the putrid,
The vast liquid grave of our armies. It has drowned our men.
Its monstrous distended belly reeks with the undigested dead.
Our men have gone into it, sinking slowly, and struggling and slowly disappearing.

Description of The Christmas Truce of 1914

What happened next would, in the years to come, stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches, and to meet in the barbed-wire-filled ‘No Man’s Land’ that separated the armies. Normally, the British and Germans communicated across No Man’s Land with streaking bullets, with only occasional gentlemanly allowances to collect the dead unmolested. But now, there were handshakes and words of kindness. The soldiers traded songs, tobacco, and wine, joining in a spontaneous holiday party in the cold night.

“Orthodox Christians and Conscientious Objection,” article by Jim Forest, 2008

“While they have many things in common, one of the differences between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches . . . is that the just war doctrine was never embraced by the Orthodox Church, despite the fact [that] Orthodox Christians have been as likely to take part in wars as their western counterparts.

“The Orthodox Church never saw war as something which could, even in the case of warding off invaders, be regarded as just or good. Even in situations where there seemed no viable alternative to war, war was regarded as an evil, albeit a lesser evil, but still evil, as inevitably war involves killing and the commission of other grave sins. For this reason clergy were and still are forbidden by Church canons to be combatants in war. Even to kill another person in self-defense or by accident precludes a person from serving at the altar. Thus there are Orthodox priests who do not drive a car because of the danger of inadvertently causing someone’s death.”

Excerpt from the Litany of Supplication in the Divine Liturgy

For all things that are good and profitable for our souls, and peace for the world, let us ask of the Lord.

Grant it, O Lord.

That we may complete the remaining time of our life in peace and repentance, let us ask of the Lord.

Grant it, O Lord.

A Prayer for Peace

Almighty God and Creator, You are the Father of all people on the earth. Guide, I pray, all the nations and their leaders in the ways of justice and peace. Protect us from the evils of injustice, prejudice, exploitation, conflict, and war.

Help us to put away mistrust, bitterness, and hatred. Teach us to cease the storing and using of implements of war. Lead us to find peace, respect, and freedom.

Unite us in the making and sharing of tools of peace against ignorance, poverty, disease, and oppression.

Grant that we may grow in harmony and friendship as brothers and sisters created in Your image, to Your honor and praise. Amen.

—Cassandra St. John, an Orthodox Christian

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OR Staff Note: As of late June 2024, it is estimated that Ukrainian losses average 2,000 a day. The Ukrainians are dying in an unwinnable war. Old men and young boys are being sent into the meat grinder with minimal training. The damage to Ukrainian cities and towns has been devastating. And for what? For NATO’s dream of crushing and dismembering the Russian Federation? How can we ask Ukrainians to fight to the last man for a goal that is of no benefit to them whatsoever? How can you ask them to keep fighting, when there is no hope of victory? And, to keep fighting for a government that oppresses the Orthodox Church in the territory controlled by Kiev? How can we, as American citizens, sit idly by while “our” government is openly attacking the Orthodox Faith around the globe? The U.S. has fallen under the control of a National Security State that is the enemy of all good people everywhere. Orthodox Christians are uniquely suited to forming the core of a new anti-war movement. May we answer the call.