The cosmic calculator

A year after I left the Air Force I became deeply connected to the people of First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto, a community of faith rooted in peacemaking and social justice. The congregation had a partner community in El Salvador, accompanying them through exile during the civil war and helping them return to their homes and rebuild their lives. The horrors Salvadorans lived through, at the hands in some cases of the U.S. military and CIA, broke my heart, taking the last bit of gung-ho out of me. 

As the United States geared up for the Iraq war, my years of education from the likes of Robert McAfee Brown, the Rev. Dr. Diana Gibson and hundreds of congregation members who had opposed the Vietnam War, U.S. participation in the civil war in El Salvador, and our country’s many other military misadventures around the globe solidified my anti-war sentiment. As a former intelligence professional, I was appalled at the justification our government was using to invade Iraq. I saw right through the “weapons of mass destruction” story, which we all now know was a complete lie. I joined the likes of former CIA leader and Presidential Daily Brief writer Ray McGovern, United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and other veteran intelligence professionals in speaking out against the rush to war. I traded in my chairborne ranger status to become a standup protester and haven’t put down my protest signs since. 

Of course others in our lives had other opinions. Over many years my husband and I often disagreed with friends and family about issues of war and peace. While we see war as an absolute last resort, and lament the loss of any single human life, others justify the deaths of one, a few, or even thousands to protect the lives of the many, especially if the many are Americans.

Star Trek fans, of course, remember Commander Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, sacrificing his own life in the film The Wrath of Khan, iconically stating that “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few… or the one.” I call that philosophy the “cosmic calculator.” 

Here we are once again in a war justified by that cosmic calculator. Over a thousand Iranians including young schoolgirls are reported to have been killed. Iran’s supreme leader and other senior government officials are dead. Six American soldiers are dead. People in Israel, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Lebanon and Bahrain are dead. Yes, the Iranian government has committed and supported terrorism against military and civilian targets, brutalized and murdered their own people and had few friends anywhere in the world. Despicable regimes litter the planet and decent people across the world should oppose them. I thought, though, that the MAGA movement was vehemently opposed to wars of choice, forever wars, regime change, nation-building and wanted our government to focus on issues here at home. In around 14 months the president has bombed seven different countries, obliterating that narrative. 

Going back to the cosmic calculator, let’s not forget that in an effort to protect Western oil interests and keep Iran from swinging toward the Soviet Union, the United States CIA helped to orchestrate a coup in 1953, killing hundreds of Iranians, overthrowing the popular, democratically elected Iranian government, and elevating the power of the Shah of Iran, an autocratic monarch. That sowed the seeds of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the taking of U.S. hostages, and led us to where we are today. How’s that calculator working out for us? Not well.

The president has now promised that some day in the future we’ll all see the wisdom of his decision to launch this new war. Heroic American troops killed, he callously said, are “just the way it is” in war. His calculation is that the sacrifice of the few will reap benefits for the many. I say it is time to throw out that calculator and replace it with simple math. Every single human life is precious. Let’s nonviolently and loudly hit the streets March 28 with that message. No calculators, no kings.

Craig Wiesner is the co-owner of Reach And Teach, a book, toy and cultural gift shop on San Carlos Avenue in San Carlos. Follow Craig: craigwiesner.bsky.social.