War Memorials Only Honor Failure

by Coleman P. Gorham

We don’t need a National World War II Memorial. War
memorials are only markers of failure. You disagree?
Then, read on.

My credentials: I speak for the voiceless millions of
brave warriors killed in battle, many of whom are
buried in far-away graves. I have seen many of these
brave men killed and wounded on the beachheads and
battlefields from Sicily to Salerno, to Anzio, to Isle
of Elba, to France.

I watched the litter bearers carry blood-stained bodies
down to the beach where they were buried in shallow
graves. Their rifles, with hanging dog tags capped by a
helmet, served as a burial marker. There was no time
for a graveside service. I thought of their families
and their future shock and grief. These grim scenes
will forever haunt me.

I saw an ammunition ship hit by German dive bombers
explode, leaving only a scene that looked like a
nuclear mushroom cloud. I watched as my own ship was
bombed. I accompanied the ship’s doctor as he dispensed
morphine to the wounded lying on stretchers that
covered both the main deck and the tank deck.

Two of my high school classmates were killed: one over
Germany and the other in the Mediterranean when his LCI
(landing craft, infantry) hit a mine. On my return home
I met with the latter’s family to grieve his death and
celebrate his life.

If we allow the Defense Department to chart our future
safety, we are foolhardy. Let’s face it. The military
extablishment is, at times, without a moral compass.

Here’s a case in point. In WWII the United States and
Britain felt the need to rehabilitate France after its
crushing defeat by the Germans. In the Mediterranean
the Germans used Elba to attack allied ships, so the
Allied Command elected to "take out" Elba. The plan was
for the United States to supply the ships, the British
their commandos, the French their colonial troops (from
Africa) with French officers.

Before the launching of the invasion, the American land
forces broke through the German lines and proceeded
well beyond Elba, which made it no longer strategic.
Instead of canceling the invasion, the Allied Command
went ahead with the invasion causing the slaughter of
hundreds of French colonial troops and French officers.
This was totally immoral. A simple blockade would have
sufficed.

We should stop building memorials celebrating failure.
It is obvious that we lack the tools for peace. The
souls of our fallen warriors must be saying: "They’ve
got it all wrong. Let them erect peace memorials in the
form of a Peace Department and a Peace Academy to
counterbalance the Defense (War) Department and the
military academies."

These brave souls would also advise our leaders to stop
shouting remarks such as "Bring it on," "We’ll chase
you down and kill you" and "We don’t need a permission
slip from the United Nations."

A Peace Department and a Peace Academy can study the
art and science of peacemaking and the causes of war,
something a cold, hard granite memorial fails to do.
What do we have to lose? If the "greatest generation"
is to leave a meaningful legacy, then we must follow up
by establishing a Peace Department and erecting a Peace
Academy so that our fallen brothers will not have died
in vain.

OTHERWISE, we will continue building war memorials and
will run out of space on the Mall in Washington. I
firmly believe that if Congress had created a Peace
Department after WWII, we would not be in Iraq today,
We wouldn’t be looking fearfully for mushroom clouds
and wouldn’t have had to create a Department of
Homeland Security. We have been reacting rather than
acting.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich has filed a bill to create a
Peace Department. So, I say to our senators and
represenatives, we, the "greatest generation," have
done our job. Please do yours by supporting this bill
and making a Peace Department a reality.

Coleman P. Gorham of Cape Elizabeth, Maine is a retired
U.S. Navy officer.

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