Against the War Machine

I am not a strict pacifist. But I oppose wars of aggression and expansionism.

You may think that that is a distinction without a difference. Let me explain.

In 1961, the Republican President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation at the end of his second term in office. In the speech, he warned about “the military-industrial complex.” The phrase is a quaint but useful nickname for the now longstanding relationship between the U.S. military and its arms industry.

Ike warned that the burgeoning war machine of the Cold War era might “endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”

He explained:

“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 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.”

Ike, the former five-star Army general and supreme commander of the Allied forces during World War II, could have used his speech to reminisce about his wartime victories. Instead, he warned Americans that the military-industrial complex, if left unchecked, would undermine America and the world.

If Ike were still alive, what would he say about the military’s current whopping $961 billion budget? Would he scratch his head and wonder what America could do instead with nearly a trillion bucks? What would Ike think of the approximately 800 U.S. bases around the world? That sure sounds like an empire stirring up enemies abroad.

What of the ongoing attritional Russo-Ukrainian War? It was fomented by and is sustained by America’s military-industrial complex, which has made billions of dollars from arms and munitions sales to Ukraine. And the bloodbath in Gaza? Ditto. Should Christians write off their Slavic and Gazan brethren in deference to America’s militaristic, hegemonic agenda?

Did Ike, a politician and belatedly baptized Presbyterian, take more seriously the threat of abusive war powers than do most Orthodox Christians? Whose job is it to call out a political class wedded to companies that profit from death and destruction — if not the Orthodox, whose patristic legacy is pro-peace? We pray for peace during each Divine Liturgy. There is no Orthodox just-war theory, as the Orthodox Peace Fellowship explains.

In 1942, Alexander Schmorell was a 24-year-old Orthodox Christian medical student living and studying in Munich. Repulsed by various aspects of the Nazi regime, including its militarism, Alexander and a few trusted friends named themselves the “White Rose” and began actively opposing the Third Reich. They launched a seditious leaflet campaign to inform and bestir their fellow citizens. Here’s an excerpt from their first leaflet: “Offer passive resistance — resistance — wherever you may be, forestall the spread of this atheistic war machine before it is too late.”

Alexander’s biography narrates his story of resistance through his eventual arrest and beheading by the Nazis on July 13, 1943, to his glorification in 2012. He is now St. Alexander of Munich. “Service to Christ takes different forms and modes in accordance with times and circumstances,” observed Metropolitan Onuphry of Ukraine during the pan-Orthodox glorification ceremony.

St. Alexander of Munich (July 13 n.s.), pray for us!

The U.S. government’s own atheistic war machine tragically has been on the war path for most of its 250-year history. How many of the wars were unnecessary? Can you sympathize with anti-war activists’ opposition to them?

Taxing, printing, and borrowing money keep the war machine going — but so does your polite tolerance of it.

Yes, you.

Silence is complicity. No excuses. Offer a moleben service for peace, and practice repentance and forgiveness — those are Orthodox essentials. But also educate yourself and speak out about the war machine.

You won’t be alone. Many notable people still doggedly trudge through this morass, although none of them provides an Orthodox perspective on the topic. Ron Paul calls out the war machine, as do Ralph Nader, John Whitehead, David Swanson, Dave Smith, Glenn Greenwald, Scott Horton, Medea Benjamin, and Caitlin Johnstone.