‘After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.’ — President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969)
Editor-In-Chief, Chester “Trip” Buckenmaier III, MD, COL (ret.), MC, USA
Few figures in our collective American history have borne the scale and scope of war like our 34th president, Dwight Eisenhower. Yet, despite being one of the most successful military commanders in history as the supreme allied commander in Europe during WWII, Eisenhower does not speak of glory or fame, rather disdain for war: “War settles nothing.” This lesson, this truth, has reverberated throughout human history. Sadly, the lesson continues to fail to penetrate with each passing generation.
Like so many who digest this column, I have devoted myself to the defense of the U.S. Constitution as a medical officer. I am a proponent and devoted servant of this American experiment in democracy. I have witnessed firsthand American blood and treasure expenditure in far-off lands like Iraq and Afghanistan. The sacrifice of so many young Americans symbolized in my old blood-stained combat boots that I cannot seem to part with. Those professional war experiences, so poignant in my development as a military physician, seem strangely empty. Both Iraq and Afghanistan have fallen back to political and social states hardly better, if not worse, than when America militarily intervened. Please do not mistake me. My family and I have been honored to serve this country. I lament that, despite the hard lesson of the consequences of war on humanity that we learned in the 20th century, this course of action continues to define the 21st century. Like most Americans, I am shocked and dismayed at the megalomaniac behavior of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his unjustifiable war on the Ukrainian people. Putin’s actions solidify his place in the pantheon of world villains. His legacy will emulate Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Bashar al-Assad and Saddam Hussein, among, sadly, many others. These “leaders” placed a premium on their own power at the expense of their own people and humanity generally. Putin’s unprovoked war, as with those of other tyrants, in the end, will settle nothing.
This is not the editorial I would have desired to produce this month. Instead, I wanted to use this April 2022 editorial to announce my retirement on the 30th from active federal service. My career has been defined by the last 18 years of conflict during America’s longest war thus far. Until recently, I often commented that I had never known being a military staff anesthesiologist without war since I finished my fellowship training in 2001. As an educator of young military physicians, I often quip that I have had my war, and, if history is any gauge, they should devote themselves to learning their profession, as the next American war likely was not far in the future. I did not expect and fervently hoped my motivational jest would not hold true so soon. I am confident that our military, which includes my eldest daughter, will always prevail on the battlefield. I am dismayed that we may call them so soon after our last campaigns. So much blood and treasure spent these past decades, and now possibly more, to settle nothing.
I fervently believe that America is and will remain the world’s finest example of democracy and freedom. We remain, despite our mistakes and stumbles, the model and leader of the free world. I will always defend this experiment in individual rights, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. More humans on this planet are becoming familiar with the ideals so eloquently expressed in the Constitution—the fundamental right of all humans to freedom, justice and self-determination is the cornerstone of our democracy. No matter how vicious, tyrants will fail against a population schooled in these basic ideas. Undoubtedly, Putin is discovering the difficulty in conquering a people, like the Ukrainians, who have tasted freedom.
Admittedly, this editorial has been rather morose, even for me. It is hard to be positive when so many innocents are needlessly suffering in Ukraine, but I am trying to keep my eye on the prize. My wife and I have planned this retirement, traveling and living in a recreational vehicle and then a sailboat, for 30 years. We are excited to enter this next stage of our life and the exploration and learning it will make possible. I have agreed to continue this column in 2022, possibly longer, if you, dear reader, will continue to have me. It has been my honor, for perhaps too brief a time, to be a part of federal medicine, and count myself as one among you. Unlike war, each of you in federal medicine accomplishes so much every day that is positive and hopeful for humanity. Your efforts are what will, someday, make evil tyrants finally an unpleasant footnote of our collective past.