“McNamara represented all of those superficial qualities of brightness, intelligence and education that are so revered in our culture. One of the many things we can learn from this McNamara experience is that we’ve got to stop revering these superficial qualities of brightness and smartness, and bring up a generation which thinks in moral terms, which has moral intelligence, and which asks questions not, “Do we win or do we lose?” But, asks questions, " Is this right? Is it wrong?"

These are "right on time" words from historian Howard Zinn, reflecting on the death of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara who died this week at the age of 93.

Here is a Torah teaching ingrained in me from my childhood, which has cured into savory spiritual  sustenance over time.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise."

Seems like ever since my high school days in the seventies we have been in a perpetual war.  It pains me to say it – by in large we are a war like nation.  Every July 4th ceremony I witnessed , saving the one at my church, strongly conveyed that patriotism equals war and the military.  We are regularly bombarded with the accusation that anyone who questions the war mentality is a spineless, morally vague, unpatriotic liberal.

When Rabbi Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment he referred back to the aforementioned Torah passage adding its sacred sibling, “Love your neighbor as yourself."

Howard Zinn continued his McNamara commentary, expanding it.

 “Once you enter the machinery of government, once you enter the House of Empire, you are lost… Young people who may be thinking, ’You know, I think I’ll enter the government and I’ll get in there and I’ll make a difference.’ No. The people who made a difference are not the people inside the Pentagon….If people are going to devote their energy to making this a better world, they better not think of getting into that machine that destroyed people like McNamara and that silence them.”

Woefully, I am noticing this decay with Obama.  From my standpoint once he won the Democratic Party nomination he began to take a marked hawkish turn.  He brazenly asserted we can bomb in Pakistan any time we damn well please, and that we must escalate the war in Afghanistan.  He has followed through on both.

War as a way of life permeates the minds of our children.  Video games are primarily shooting galleries.  Military recruiters are given carte blanch in our schools.  Generals and soldiers are unquestioned as the sole embodiment of patriotism. 

If we want to live in a country that considers war the way we now regard slavery diligence is the path.  Diligently teach the compassionate use of power.  Diligently convey that moral brightness undergirds all other intelligence.  Diligently demonstrate that all people of the world are our neighbors.  Diligently promote public service as patriotism in action. Diligently hold up the peaceful as American heroes.  

Teach peace as the way of life, diligently.