Columbus doctor views 'window into joy and suffering' through eyes of Ukraine refugees

Ean Bett, M.D., is a family medicine physician in Columbus.

I recently returned from two weeks on the border between Poland and Ukraine where I volunteered with a medical and humanitarian group providing care to Ukrainians who were fleeing their war-torn homeland.

Each man, woman and child sought comfort in a unique time of need, and I am thankful to have been able to participate in their care as a physician. But each time I witnessed soldiers crossing the border into Ukraine in the middle of the night, as a U.S. citizen and someone who has traveled across this ever-shrinking world of ours, I could not help but be reminded of Eugene Jarecki’s film, “Why We Fight.”

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For those who are unfamiliar, the film’s thesis centers around President Dwight Eisenhower’s famous 1961 farewell speech on the emergence of the military-industrial complex. In it, he stated, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

While the U.S. Senate voted 86 to 11 on May 19 to pass a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine, including at least $30 billion worth of both direct and indirect U.S. military equipment and weapons, I sat in a makeshift medical tent in Medyka, Poland with President Eisenhower’s words of caution again ringing true in my mind.

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There is no doubt the war in Ukraine is a direct result of Russia’s barbaric acts of aggression, but many of us have lived enough to know if we are not careful, this story does not end well.

While we are barraged with images of death and destruction in Ukraine via social media and the 24-hour news cycle, I reflect back on my friends and classmates who have served in other wars during my adulthood; some returned home to live their lives, others did not. We must be unbelievably cautious, and not stoke potentially cataclysmic events, to avoid a similar fate for our brothers, sisters, neighbors, and children who currently serve in the U.S. military.

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Ukrainian men and women are fighting for their lives, their country, and their future. We should most certainly aid them to the most reasonable extent, but we should also acknowledge that unfortunately, our American involvement in overseas wars has not recently been so just, as President George W. Bush recently admitted.

Ukrainians deserve our support, our aid, and our humanitarian efforts, which is exactly why physicians, nurses, and civilians from all over the world have gathered on the border between Poland and Ukraine, while others have ventured into the war-torn country. But we must also proceed with caution to avoid a protracted conflict akin to those which drained the U.S. of trillions of dollars and indefinitely fueled the military-industrial complex as “Why We Fight” so accurately warned.

As a physician, I have been privileged to share in some of the most wonderful, as well as heartbreaking, events in people’s lives; we are given a window into the joy and suffering of the human condition unlike any other calling in the world. From this place and my humanitarian perspective, I wish no further death and destruction on the people of Ukraine; I hope this war ends soon through peaceful negotiations and not nuclear conflict.

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As citizens of a global superpower in an increasingly interconnected world, we all must also exercise our own duty if unable to provide medical care or humanitarian support, as other members of our Columbus community have done.

The duty we have as citizens is to vote, not only with our hearts, but with our minds toward the future of our country and world. We must think long and hard about what potential leaders have said and done regarding this war to discern how they would govern if given the chance.

And so we must remember President Eisenhower’s own parting words in our current and future world view: “Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose… As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war – as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over a thousand years – I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.”

Ean Bett, M.D., is a family medicine physician in Columbus.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Columbus doctor volunteers to provide Ukrainians medical care