IF THE WAR WERE A TV SHOW, IT WOULD BE CANCELLED
Pretty sad commentary. Recently the Pew Research Center conducted a poll where they asked Americans to estimate how many soldiers had died in Iraq after all this time. Only 28% got anywhere close. Only 6% of Americans say they are even following the wars. This is a sad fact and only going to get worse. People don't have any investment: Americans have not been asked in any way to make any sacrifices. And, although my practical mind says that at some point we have to pay the piper; still, sharper minds than me have said that we can continue to fund the war indefinitely as it is a small part of the gross national product/expense. My interest, however, is in the moral and spiritual toll the war has taken and this will only grow.
To say that we are in a disconnect is way beyond the pale. We have an absolute plethora of books and movies written and made from every conceivable viewpoint of the war. Guess what? The movies go unwatched and the books unread. A movie like Rendition with top stars and a compelling story of "what ifs" almost went straight to video. It is a story of innocents going to foreign prisons, one in particular; and the powers that be simply willing to indict a scapegoat. Bureaucrats considering career before lives and surely before honor.
The movie had some of the best lines and scenes that I've seen ever. With Reece Witherspoon, the distraught wife saying to the witch of a bureaucrat, "I only want to find my husband." The witch lying through her teeth: I wish I could help you my dear. And, then a Senator's aide, trying but then realizing that there's nowhere else to go: believe the government or trust his instincts. The government sadly wins through lies.
Rendition, at least, reaches out and gives conscience a chance--Jake Gyllenhaal, a green CIA agent, who is smarter than he looks but gets it. The government says, "we don't torture." He says, I'm looking at torture. Good for him. Atta boy.
Then comes some Iraqi vet who has started his own music label, To The Fallen which has already released three CDs. I am ordering them and encourage all to do the same--a small thing we can do.
MY LAI REVISITED--A LESSON TO RELEARN
Last night, PBS aired a Frontline Program on My Lai. I didn't think I could watch it but did. Terrific program. It made me ashamed and sad. However, having said that, I have to say I understand how soldiers in combat reach a state of insanity. They have seen their buds die with booby traps and shot by snipers, etc.
Those profiled were, in general, emotionally unsophisticated soldiers, led by two men who were equally emotionally unsophisticated. You have Medina, a Mexican American, out to prove himself. Calley, who under most circumstances, would have been rejected as officer material. But, this was Vietnam and the "powers that be" filled the ranks with most anybody they could get. Plus, the men they interviewed were young then, also emotionally unsophisticated but grasped the basic concept that they are taught to follow orders, plain and simply. Some sorry assholes who pontificate about rules of war and lawful orders sit in some air-conditioned conference room at the Pentagon and beat their chests and think about the global world of the domino theory. MFers. They are not out there in the jungle trying to stay alive.
And, add to this a basic belief that the men of Charlie Company were facing a fight with a battalion sized force. They were psyched for it. At least a few of them were. It was a breakdown in leadership, not only at the Company level but up the chain.
The research on conditions were a little faulty. A "free fire zone" had a basic rule--Civilians were moved out if they didn't leave voluntarily. And, before a village was prepped, meaning artillery fired, it was swept by a company of infantry soldiers closest to the village. Often the VC were underground anyway but the rule was that no civilians were in the village. What happened with Charley Company was a case of somebody up the chain messing up. They should not have encountered civilians. It was a sorry thing to make people leave their homes bit it was better than them being killed. And, it worked by in large. A last thing : There were no formal battalions of VC (Viet Cong). The VC were guerillas and were organized loosely and not terribly unlike what we are seeing in Iraq or Afghanistan. We didn't see battalions until the NVA ( North Vietnamese Army) showed up which was about a year after My Lai.
40 some years later, Calley apologized to the Vietnamese and said he was sorry. It may not be much but it is something.
And, to think we are still in two wars is so sad to me. And, Afghanistan is eerily like Vietnam: a quagmire but worst.
A last thing I just thought of: In the program last night: two things struck me,among many. Even though we had the draft, the soldiers appeared the same then as now with the Volunteer Army. Pretty average but far from being a cross section of America; and the program showed all these protests in the states which actually forced an accounting of My Lai. Where are those protests now. What is the difference? God bless us.
SHORT ESSAYS ON OUR PRESENT MILITARY STRATEGY Page 2