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Loss and Bitterness

Prof. Andrew J. Bacevich at the Washington Post on the death of his son and his own anti-war stance. 

He moves from bad ideas about the war to conspiracy theories and rejection of the value of the sacrifice of American soldiers, in fact reducing it to a dollar figure. He ends with the unusual statement that he didn’t do enough against this war.  Given that he has been a significant and thoughtful, if wrong, voice against this war who happens to be on the losing end of a political process that thus far has worked as it was designed to, I’m not sure what he means.  Insurrection?  

He is rather bizarrely attacking Kennedy and Kerry, as if they don’t, at this time, share his views.  Maybe because they have failed in their efforts to undermine a wartime presidency so far.  

I don’t know what Bacevich’s son thought about this war, but he enlisted and became an officer after it began.  Rather than honor his son’s choice and its consequences, Bacevich has decided his son was duped by a fraud that is called the United States of America.

It’s a strange position for someone who went to West Point and to Vietnam as a soldier in the 1960s, staying with the Army through the difficult years of the 1970s into the restoration of American self-respect in the 1980s and early 1990s.  He’s adopted the thinking of all who despised him, and those who despise what his son did. 

I had respect for Bacevich’s decision to let his son pursue his own course and the discipline and dignity he exercised in keeping his own views apart from that.  I found it disgusting that one news organization after another found it necessary to make the stories all about the elder Bacevich’s views.  In the case of the Boston Globe and the local public radio affiliate, WBUR, seized on the irony of the father’s views and poked at it repeatedly, to the exclusion of honoring the son’s choices and actions.  Now Bacevich has decided to do it himself. He has decided to assume a heavy mantle of guilt for his son’s death and apparently, to reject the values to which he devoted much of his own life.

The loss of a child is a terrible thing, and in a cause you despise, it must be a very bitter thing indeed.

Joyner at OTB: Debating the War.

Unqualified Offerings: The Scarlet Tide.

Earlier posts:

Beloved Son

Requiem

Boston Herald: Honoring a Nation’s Best.

Another father’s response to unbearable loss.

Topics: Iraq, military

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:22 am on Sunday, May 27, 2007

15 Responses to “Loss and Bitterness”

1. RebeccaH Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 10:14 am

   I am sorry for Prof. Bacevich’s loss. I don’t share his views, but I believe that he honestly believes in what he says, and isn’t just a poseur like so many others in his political camp. I also think he mistakes “the people” for “all the people”. What a bitter, bitter thing it must be to suffer the loss of your child and to think of yourself as a failure.

2. Purple Avenger Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 10:36 am

   I believe that such notions are dead wrong and doomed to fail.

   Once someone has embraced failure as a viable option, more often than not it will become the result because its the easiest path.

   I’m sorry for his loss, but I’ll buy him a one-way ticket to the country of his choice if he thinks he can get a better deal anywhere else on the planet.

   The individual tragedies suck. They suck a lot. But no nation can afford to let them dictate policy. If Eisenhower blanched at how many he KNEW would die on D-Day, all of Europe would be speaking German today.

   Bacevich’s mentality is the mentality complete risk aversion. That always leads to mediocre and/or failing performance when applied to anything.

3. Outside The Beltway | OTB Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 10:47 am

   Debating the War

   Andrew J. Bacevich, a Vietnam veteran and international relations scholar who has publicly opposed the Iraq War for years recently lost his son to that war. In addition to the horrible grief that a father has to deal with the death a son, he has been …

4. dave1021 Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 4:57 pm

   “I’m sorry for his loss, but I’ll buy him a one-way ticket to the country of his choice if he thinks he can get a better deal anywhere else on the planet.”

   I’ll buy you and Jules a ticket to Iraq so you can prove him wrong! Go to:

   http://www.goarmy.com

   Whenever you think you’re man enough, you little chickenhawk pricks.

5. The_Real_JeffS Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 5:36 pm

   Oh, my, the chickenhawk argument comes out again. Yawn.

6. pst314 Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 7:27 pm

   “He moves from bad ideas about the war to conspiracy theories”

   Yes. I read his editorial, and it is astonishing that a professor history and foreign relations could repeat such foolish and paranoid delusions. Or it would be astonishing except that I have met many academics with similarly small minds. It is a terrible tragedy to lose a son, but that is no excuse for telling defamatory lies.

7. El Cid Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

   Such a bitter little man, Davey…if you do live in this country, WHY? Try another, where the deal is, shoot your fucking mouth off, you wind up in a mass grave.

8. Purple Avenger Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 9:00 pm

   I’ll buy you and Jules a ticket to Iraq so you can prove him wrong!

   They don’t reup 49 year old guys with bad knees or I’d be there. BTW I was RA during the Carter years asshole. What were you?

9. TBinSTL Says:
   May 27th, 2007 at 10:13 pm

   Interestingly, it’s not really about his dead son. It’s all about him. How is it that those opposed to the war are not called upon to volunteer for human shield duty if those supporting the war must be in the military?
   If we’re “chickenhawks” does that make him Foghorn Leghorn?

10. Purple Avenger Says:
    May 27th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    I’m still waiting for an answer. I figure volunteering during the term of a president I detested pretty much gives me the moral authority to demand an answer here.

11. The_Real_JeffS Says:
    May 28th, 2007 at 12:13 am

    You won’t get an answer, PA. I figure “dave” is all blow and no go, erupting in faux anger because he (or she, never can tell in this medium) is a person with a small soul and a large ego.

12. MikeH Says:
    May 28th, 2007 at 12:58 am

    Isn’t it amazing that ‘one time dave’ is talking about the lack of manhood of those that he calls on to do what he won’t do. And PA I got out of the Marine Corps at the end of 81. I remember the 25% buyoff that the peanut tried to achieve with the troops.

    For everyone else, during Carters administration, at Camp Pendleton, junior troops, who have always needed food stamps, were forced to live in condemned housing that was outside the base with no military police presence due to lack of funding. Just prior to the election the funding was authorized and a pay raise was authorized. The biggest part of the raise went to the E-5 through E-8 to the tune of 25% of the package. At the time the NCO ranks were being decimated because of his policies. At the same time congress devalued honorable service, to mean a voluntary quit, which denied the people who were getting out benefits for honorable service. First termers were given the benefits as well as those who had a ‘Less Than Honorable’ discharge. Carter sucks as much as ‘Dave’ does. They’re both moral midgets.

13. major john Says:
    May 28th, 2007 at 1:11 am

    Dave, um….you are aware that Jules has already been in Iraq? I would guess not.

    You’ll have to lob the “chickenhawk” crap somewhwere else. The Real Jeff S was supporting OIF and I was in OEF (and SFOR III - see, I served in a “good” Clintonian operation too).

14. saltydog Says:
    May 28th, 2007 at 3:05 am

    Well, I see we’ve picked up another one.

    I’m sorry for the professor, but I deplore his choice to dishonor his son’s memory.

15. Dave Surls Says:
    May 29th, 2007 at 9:06 am

    “I’m sorry for the professor…”

    I’ve read his articles. The guy is a liar and a traitor, and I hope every second of his life is unendurable misery. He richly deserves it.

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