The Trail To Twilight For The Gods

About the Book

The Trail to Twilight for the Gods? A poem about martial odds and the epic struggle sans cease between the Gods of War and Peace. A nest of martial mysteries re conflicts through the centuries. Though men may fight to do what’s right, they oft use might and clash by night. Yet is this plight the fault of man, or is it part of heaven’s plan? Do some famed Gods give mankind dreams that promise peace but bring extremes, while others play to change man’s way and delay Twilight for his Day? And is a masked grand plan in play to break the Gods’ veiled war-prone sway and hasten Twilight for their Day? This Trail leads on to trenchant rhymes that sing about our troubled times, bring our darkening world more light on why men fight and clash by night, give us hope we can do what’s right and show us trails that skirt Twilight.

About the Author

Now put your war-prone plans away. Now let my Grand Scheme guide your way.—Prometheus. He saw men march and clash by night. He studied war and why men fight. He planned, for the nation of might. He found, in the City of Light, By logic’s light in dreams at night, A plan to put martial plans right. Then he planned to spread this insight, For our darkling world needs more light. [1] He wrote this epic poem-drama for today To reveal how and why our world has gone astray And what it must now learn and do to change its play, Find its lost way and postpone Twilight for its Day.

Ben Klotz received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota in 1969 while working for the RAND Corporation. America was vainly fighting an unpopular war in Vietnam with conscripts. To improve matters, newly-elected President Richard M. Nixon proposed to replace conscripts with volunteers. He appointed a Presidential Commission to review his proposal. Attention naturally focused on its cost. Experts feared an all-volunteer army (AVA) would be expensive to recruit but the author’s team at RAND predicted it would be a bargain in normal times. [2] However, no leader predicted an AVA would be a Faustian bargain: a doubleedged sword, an easily overused weapon like the Foreign Legions of the past—and thus a cause of abnormal times.

The Presidential Commission quickly recommended a volunteer army. It became a reality four years later. The author went on to teach economics at Temple University. America went on to fight longer and more frequent wars. All were costly. All were ultimately in vain, or worse. In 2017, the author diagnosed why and prescribed a tested remedy with positive side effects:

Washington, we have a problem. The United States has become the world’s police officer, but we can’t go on like this. We simply can’t afford the rising cost, and we are not even a good cop. Our war costs, post-9/11/2001, have accelerated past $4 trillion, while our post-Soviet propensity for war now exceeds Britain’s comparable post-Napoleon propensity. Our politicians, lacking military experience, have too often chosen inappropriate military responses to various global challenges. Without a military draft to provoke public outcry against war, and without a major enemy against whom to focus our efforts, we have chosen to fight a series of minor enemies worldwide without carefully considering how each war would end. [3]

We became the world’s top cop because we have the globe’s best weapons, logistics and soldiers, and the cost per war initially seemed affordable. But affordable wars naturally encouraged more wars: enough more to escalate total military costs, casualties and enemies. Our modern drone technology is encouraging similar escalation despite initially promising to reduce it. Meanwhile, our repeated conflicts are discouraging volunteers and raising the cost of attracting, equipping and keeping them. Our volunteer force is wearing out.

Ever more experts think the best solution to our increasing military problems is a return to the draft, but only as part of a no-exemption universal service system wherein all young people serve their country in one way or another, the sort of peace-prone socially-cohesive system favored by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and by ever more nations in the war-weary socially-stressed world of today. [4]

In 2018, the author Began to build with ancient lore This Trail to Twilight for the Gods, This set of songs about war’s odds,To spread his message a durable way In a long poem that has much to say About the epic roots of war’s grim play And why states still trip over them today. May hidden truths his rhymes reveal Help man right wrongs the Gods conceal. May man use Ike’s tool so well-cast To bury mankind’s checkered past, Build an Age of Peace that will last And bring man glories unsurpassed!
The author is currently alive and well, and living in Washington, DC—near the White House. Too near.

_____________________________________________________________________________
[1] J. W. v. Goethe’s last words: More light!
[2] Benjamin P. Klotz, The Cost of Ending The Draft: Comment, The American Economic Review, December 1970.
[3] Fred Charles Ikle, Every War Must End, Columbia University Press, New York, 1971.
[4] Ben Klotz, Our Never-ending Wars Have to End, The Washington Post, November 17, 2016, p. A20.