Soldier Worship
One of the whole reasons for this blog was to have a place where a person could express their views, no matter how against-the-grain, or unpopular, in an environment where he could avoid having his face pelted with rotten food and hung by his toes.
That person is me. And this is one of those views.
It needs to be said at long last. Folks, not everybody in the military is a f*cking hero.
Not everybody in the military is a noble patriot, willing to put his or her own life on the line in the cause of freedom. Not everybody in uniform is a shining specter of what it means to be a great American. They’re not all brave, they’re not all warriors, they’re not all protectors of all things good and just in the world and they’re not all saviors in the fight against evil.
They’re just people.
And just like any segment of the population, you’ve got your good apples and your bad apples. Difference is, these bad apples have guns, bazookas, and tanks at their disposal. That’s why rank and discipline is so important in the military. Without it, you wind up in situations like Abu Ghriab.
And like any other segment of the population, they have their individual passions, agendas, motives, and plans. In other words, they didn’t all sign up for the military with the intention of fighting for the cause of freedom and the American Ideal and to keep their homes and families safe.
Sure, some do. But people join the military for any number of reasons – I know, I’m of the socio-economic class of people who actually go into the service, so I have many friends and family in the military. Some join because of a sense of duty. Some do it for the specific types of training they can receive in the military that would advance their career. Some join so the military can pay for school. Some just love guns. Some have a tradition of service in their family that they feel a duty to uphold. Some join because they’re in economic dire straits and have no other way out. Some join up to be with friends. Some wish to travel the world. Some have political or public service ambitions for which a background in the military would be helpful. Some just grew up around the military and found themselves wandering into it.
The service they perform is admirable and their sacrifices real, no matter what. But to say that each and every one is a valiant soldier advancing the cause of freedom is to deny their individuality, their very personhood. It’s like these people who are so surprised to hear that some soldier can sing. Or write. Or paint. Or any other number of things that these multi-talented human beings find their passions in.
Taking that away from them makes them into icons, not people. And that’s denying their very souls.
Besides, we have this idea of every serviceman and woman as front-line grunts with 80 pounds of gear in 120 degree heat, dodging bullets on a daily basis. Yes, there are those soldiers, but there are also truck drivers. Mail carriers. Quartermasters. Equipment technicians. Cooks. Vehicle and airplane mechanics. Computer techs. Weather analysts. Communications, transportation, medical, logistics… For every guy on the front line spitting dirt out of his mouth are dozens – no, hundreds – of support personnel, most of which are completely out of harm’s way. Are they worthy of the same “hero” status as the front-line men?
Yeah? Okay...
What about our personnel that aren’t even in the current ensuing conflict? Those managing the theaters in Asia and Europe, or South America, in any of the over 700 military bases we operate in peaceful foreign countries around the world? Those whose most life-threatening moment in any given day is when they pull out of their driveway into busy traffic at their house off-base? Are they heroes? Should a guy sitting behind a computer in Okinawa be given the same hero treatment as the guy trapped behind a burning car in Fallujah?
Maybe? Still? All right...
What about the soldiers that are stationed here in the United States? Safely living in their homes with their families and their internets and their cable TVs? When they say that they are “Iraq War Veterans”, should they get the same treatment as the guy in a base hospital in the Green Zone, recovering from an IED that pierced his abdomen?
Do you have any idea how easy it would be for someone to take advantage of all this fervor?
The answer? Easy. Way too easy. I personally know a guy who got meningitis while stationed safely behind a desk in Germany which caused cranial swelling that eventually required surgery (you might remember the Lamest Iraq War Vet sketch). He got out of the military on a medical discharge and filed for benefits, even though his medical condition had nothing whatsoever to do with his service, then began contacting charitable groups saying he was a severely disabled Iraq War Vet who needed help (his “severe disability” is recurring headaches that doctors can’t seem to find the cause of – maybe because they’re not real). Last year alone, between his government benefits and the aid he conned from charitable groups, he pocketed over $150,000.
Still a hero?
No. This guy is a douche, and the furthest thing from a “hero” there is.
But, I wonder whose fault it really is. Because there’s no shortage of people falling over themselves to buy into his story. There’s a picture of him in uniform, and that’s all they need.
The best part is that even though he knows he was never pinned behind a flaming car in Fallujah or laid up in a Baghdad hospital, he truly believes that he is deserving of all the benefits and respect that is given to those soldiers who were.
But is it his fault? Or is it the fault of a culture of soldier worship in this country that says that anybody who works in the armed forces is a hero worthy of a lifetime of ball-stroking. A culture that blinds people to reason, enslaves them to reactionary jubilance, that makes people believe that they are bad Americans if they don’t get in line to wipe the ass of someone in uniform.
Some might say, “Sure, not all military service is equal, but what’s the harm in calling all of them heroes?” There’s the harm right there. The ones who aren’t heroes will inevitably believe they are. And they’ll demand benefits.
What about the private contractors who are doing the exact same things the soldiers are doing? If the soldier’s actions make them heroes, shouldn’t a guy working for Blackstone be given the same hero status? Or the guys working at KBR providing the slop for them? People sneer at that idea, but why not? Why give hero status to the guy working back on the mainland repairing airplanes at an Air Force base, but not to the soccer mom building planes at Lockheed Martin?
Why is the press liaison in the military a hero when the press agency hired by the military isn’t?
There are so many different companies providing so many different services in contract with the military, we’ve become a nation that completely revolves around war. Probably a third of the country works one way or another, directly or indirectly, for the military. Are we all heroes?
Are we a nation of heroes when you consider that the United States has been involved in a conflict somewhere in the world continuously for the last 50 years?
Or have we become the next Sparta?
Let me say this unequivocally: I respect completely the service that these men and women perform in all the branches of the armed forces. I have had far too many friends and family sent to the other side of the world, some never to be seen by my eyes again. And I’m proud of them for what they do. And I’m proud to say that I know and love them, but not because they’re some ambiguous “hero figure” to me. I love them for who they are and what they’ve meant in my life. All of them but that douche conman.
Friday, January 19, 2007
