Morning’s Must Read
Robert Kaplan at Opinion Journal: “Modern Heroes. Our soldiers like what they do. They want our respect, not pity.” Money quote:
“Has anyone noticed that we now have a volunteer Army? I’m a warrior. It’s my job to fight.”
Kaplan explores the “culture of victimhood” and notes that stories of American bravery get buried under the flood of bogus Koran-flushing claims and non-torture allegations.
Media frenzies are ignited when American troops are either the perpetrators of acts resulting in victimhood, or are victims themselves … This is why the sporadic network and cable news features on heroic soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan comes across as so hokey. After all, the last time such reports were considered “news” was during World War II and the Korean War.
In particular, there is Fox News’s occasional series on war heroes, whose apparent strangeness is a manifestation of the distance the media has traveled away from the nation-state in the intervening decades. Fox’s war coverage is less right-wing than it is simply old-fashioned, antediluvian almost. Fox’s commercial success may be less a factor of its ideological base than of something more primal: a yearning among a large segment of the public for a real national media once again–as opposed to an international one. Nationalism means patriotism, and patriotism requires heroes, not victims.
…
Rather than hated, like during Vietnam, now the troops are “loved.” But the best units don’t want love; they want respect. The dilemma is that the safer the administration keeps us at home, the more disconnected the citizenry is from its own military posted abroad. An army at war and a nation at the mall do not encounter each other except through the refractive medium of news and entertainment.
He’s referencing that Falluja graffiti cited by a reader here the other day: “America isn’t at war. America is at the mall. The Marines are at war.”
That medium is refractive because while the U.S. still has a national military, it no longer has a national media to quite the same extent. The media is increasingly representative of an international society, whose loyalty to a particular territory is more and more diluted …
Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Only more so. Crit at PJM today,
“From the Mouths of News Babes,” re triumph of multiculturalism as reflected in major media’s disdain for their American identity.
The media is but one example of the slow crumbling of the nation-state at the upper layers of the social crust–a process that because it is so gradual, is also deniable by those in the midst of it … Contrary to popular belief, the events of 9/11–which are perceived as an isolated incident–did not fundamentally change our nation. They merely interrupted an ongoing trend toward the decay of nationalism and the devaluation of heroism.
Whole thing here.
Kaplan goes back to Russian-occupied Afghanistan as a war correspondent, when he ran around with the mujahideen who at that time shared our interests. He embedded with Marines in Fallujah. Here are some of his observations from that time.
Smith [the company commander] did not have to order his Marines straight into the direction of the fire; it was a collective impulse–a phenomenon I would see again and again over the coming days. The idea that Marines are trained to break down doors, to seize beachheads and other territory, was an abstraction until I was there to experience it. Running into fire rather than seeking cover from it goes counter to every human survival instinct–trust me … In one flash, as we charged across [the street] amid whistling incoming shots, I realized that they were not like me; they were Marines.
He took down a great exchange between a Marine captain and a local in Fallujah, to the effect, “Go tell them to attack us. So we can kill them.”
Welcome Saloneers, etal! Come on in. Mind your step. Heroes at work. Just thinking about it makes some people tired. Not the tax and fend mullacrats, though. They’re always working. But relax for a minute. Gaze upon the exquisite moronocy. Go ahead, take what you like!
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:28 am on Thursday, October 4, 2007
6 Responses to “Morning’s Must Read”
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October 4th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Has anyone noticed that we now have a volunteer Army?
And it has been thus for a long time; when I took my oath as a commissioned officer in 1979*, there had been no draft picks for several years.
We’ve had an all- volunteer military for a generation, and there are still people out there who view our troops as “victims”, instead of the professionals that they are. I concede that there are troops who consider themselves “victims of the system”, but I see them as people who signed up for the wrong reasons, or didn’t take their commitment seriously (I saw that in the Guard more than once).
The only victimization here are from the fools that seek to tear down the military for their own purpose. Oh, yeah, the system screws up regularly, and the troops pay dearly for it, ranging from sending troops into battle with unarmored vehicles to running out of World Class Chocolate at the ice cream bar. But that happens in any system. The troops would be victims if no one fixed those problems.
But the troops (finally, after the comments from Desert Storm!) got armored vehicles, and the ice cream bar stocked extra chocolate chip cookie dough to make up for the loss. Because the system cares, in its own ponderous, slow moving way.
Unlike, say, the left. Who wants only victims, not warriors.
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*: Insert obligatory comment of that happening way too long here.
October 4th, 2007 at 10:17 am
The Democratic Party is a coalition of victims of one sort or another. Racism, sexism and all the other isms on which it bases its intellectual and emotional appea. Why shouldn’t this analysis also be applied to the military?
October 4th, 2007 at 11:57 am
Lotta truth in that WSJ piece.
Including the observations about an identification with “internationalism” as opposed to nationalism.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
The reason for the Left’s portrayal of our troops as ‘victims’ should be obvious: If they’re seen as victims, then it’s easier for the Left to convince gullible voters to help them ‘rescue’ those ‘victims’ from ‘Chimpy McHitlerburton’s war!’ (cue violins).
Never mind the damage to our nation’s interests, and the sad fate awaiting our abandoned allies (e.g. South Vietnam 1975 and Iraq 1991). That’s not important, right?
The more I see, the more I come to realize: The Democratic party is the party of government of the children, by the children, for the children.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
“Go tell them to attack us. So we can kill them.”
This is why the American military are the most feared military in the world. Our enemies have more respect for our soldiers than our own political elites do.
October 4th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
If these people would rather be considered “citizens of the world,” then I suggest they pack up their kit and move to Brussels, where their fellow “citizens” reside. Frankly, I’ve had my fill of them and their world-view.