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The Cost of Our Wars
On Listening to Our Troops
“Support our troops” is an unconditional American mantra. We’re told to celebrate them as warrior-liberators, as heroes, as the finest fighters the world has ever known. They’re to be put on a pedestal or plinth, holding a rifle and a flag, icons to American toughness and goodness.
What we’re not told to do is listen to them.
Today, I’d like to suggest six vows we should make when it comes to those troops:
Vow #1: Let’s start listening to them. And when we do -- when we begin to recognize them in all their frailty and complexity, their vulnerabilities and imperfections -- we’ll realize that they’re as restless and conflicted about our wars as many of us are.
How do I know? I’ve had the privilege of reading hundreds of emails from today’s (and yesterday’s) troops sent to me in response to articles I’ve written for TomDispatch.com. From these I’ve selected a handful of passages to share with you: voices that resonated with me, words that often got me right in the gut.
Consider this passage from an Army national guardsman, a non-commissioned officer who answered his country’s call and deployed to Iraq:
“I am… on my second tour of Iraq. My unit… has been plagued by suicides and psychiatric problems. Our guards-men even prior to deployment come from compromised social and economic environments, leaving them very susceptible [to military recruiters]. Many of our soldiers are almost forced into volunteering for multiple tours due to the lack of economic opportunity and the cold fact that there is no other way to support their families...
“I have seen blatant corruption among the [private] contractors [in Iraq] and even cases of outright human trafficking and forced prostitution among female third country nationals… My hope is that the U.S. can withdraw from this senseless war… This war has bankrupted the U.S. and caused untold suffering among U.S. Forces and women.”
When we praise our troops as volunteers in our “All-Volunteer Military,” how many of us consider that significant numbers of them are not truly volunteers? Rarely do we face the fact that our country has been running a poverty draft, sweeping up the disenfranchised and disadvantaged, with an emphasis on the rural working class, and sending them halfway across the world into harm’s way.
Which leads to my second vow:
Vow #2: Let’s stop consoling ourselves with the myth that all our troops are volunteers -- a myth which leads most Americans to pay remarkably little attention to and take no responsibility for the wars our “volunteers” are fighting.
The second part of this sergeant’s letter calls for yet another vow. It reminds us that war, by its nature, breeds corruption and gives free rein to abuses of all sorts. Indeed, as a historian of past wars, the harsh realities of psychological casualties, of forced prostitution, of rampant corruption should hardly surprise me -- but I confess that they still do. As one officer who specializes in contracting wrote me from Baghdad, he found the amount of war profiteering by private contractors in Iraq “mind-blowing, but nonetheless eye-opening.”
Despite evidence of endemic corruption and rampant war profiteering, why do our eyes remain glazed over, if not stubbornly shut? Is it because our government-military-media complex is always seeking to put the best spin on our wars?
Vow #3: Let’s stop putting a happy face on our wars. Americans should start taking them in for what they truly are in all their waste and inhumanity. Only then might we be moved to put an end to them.
As we glamorize war, or, if not war itself, the “voluntary” decision of young soldiers to fight and possibly to die in them for us, we continue to play down the hardships involved, while refusing to consider the hopelessness of the tasks we’ve assigned them.
A helicopter pilot wrote me recently as he was preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. The odds of successful “nation-building” in that country were not good, he assured me, when you consider past “abject failures” in Haiti and elsewhere. How in the world did such nation-building efforts, denounced as worse than useless by Rush Limbaugh and presidential candidate George W. Bush in 2000, come to be considered right, just, and true -- or even practical?
As this pilot summed up the Sisyphean situation in which he and other American military personnel have been placed: “Somehow this heretofore impossible task [of nation-building in Afghanistan] will now be accomplished by complete novices while people are trying to kill them.”
Just ponder that sentence: All by itself it could serve as an antidote to the Afghan Kool-Aid being drunk in the halls of the Pentagon. Which leads to my next vow:
Vow #4: Don’t send novices on nation-building exercises in places where the natives are hostile and the rebels are trying to kill them.
Again, if you listen closely to our troops, you might be surprised at their views on how and why we fight. Consider the following confession from an Army lieutenant colonel:
“I have been in uniform for almost 30 years -- obviously I love my country. But it is astonishing to see a nation that once was so committed to liberty and truly assisting the world, turn into a narcissistic empire fighting out of insecurity, as opposed to increasing security. (Whatever happened to walk softly and carry a big stick?)”
Here’s a simple truth Americans seem to have lost touch with: greater security doesn’t come from fighting more wars; it comes from fighting fewer of them or none at all.
Vow #5: Some things are worth fighting and dying for, others aren’t. It’s time for us to do a far better job of figuring out the difference.
With respect to how we fight, the email message that hit me the hardest lately came from a recently retired general and former infantry division commander. In his considered words:
“As an old warrior, I keep wondering how it is our leaders keep praising our supposedly superior arms while licking wounds inflicted by [Afghan] village warriors armed with little more than IEDs and small arms. As for the drones, if I were a Jihadi/Taliban, I would think them a coward’s way of doing business -- an obvious sign of cultural weakness. [Because of the end of the draft,] our leaders breathe war and our people care not. We reap what we sow.”
Are we as a nation breathing war more and yet caring less precisely because the killing in our name is now being done by “volunteers” and ever more of it by remote control? And here’s a question: As we praise ourselves for our innovative, comparatively low cost (to us) high-tech weapons like our “Predator” and “Reaper” drones, is our reliance on massive firepower only serving to strengthen the resolve of the enemies we’re fighting? Which leads to my next vow:
Vow #6: Don’t get involved in land wars in the Middle East and Central Asia -- unless you’re willing to reap what you sow.
Whether we realize it or not, the truth is that we’re already reaping what we’ve sown. Leaving aside the “collateral damage” we’ve inflicted on others, our own harvest is measured in the wounded bodies and minds of our troops who still aren’t getting the medical and psychological care that they’ve earned and deserve. And in these budget-cutting times, is it not likely that we’ll soon hear about cuts in benefits even possibly for wounded veterans?
Which leads me to a final vow:
Bonus Vow: Recalling Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, let’s vow to care for those who have borne the battle, and for their families, and strive to achieve a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Finally, a special “thank you” to all the troops and veterans who have written me from the boonies, whether deserts or mountains -- or even the green and peaceful hills of retirement. I hope my vows do you some justice.
Comments
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38 Comments so far
Show AllFrom an old english folk song...
why do you go abroad
fighting for strangers
when you could be safe at home
free from all dangers
Not the use of the word 'for'
The strangers were not the enemy, they were those in power in our own country who decided to make war......
The rich and powerful don't write folk songs or have folk songs written about them that are usually hagiographic. Unless its an Irish song about Napoleon.
Most folk songs tell unwritten histories. We should listen to them more than to talk radio.
So true and Thanks for supporting Folk.
"Support our Troops" is not a mantra, it is a Pentagon slogan put on a bumper sticker. All you have to do is go to any VA hospital or clinic and see what I mean.
You have a urinary tract infection? Well, there is only one urologist in this hospital (Lake City, Florida VA), and we can't get you an appointment for six months.
You say you are rated for PTSD? Well, you can only see a mental health professional one time a month, and he has hundreds of other vets to help (Tallahassee VA Clinic).
You think you should have some sort of Primary Care Physician that can speak English and follow your care over the years? It took me 13 years to get one (Minneapolis VA Hospital).
America does not support its troops, and the Military Industrial Complex (The Defense Industry) cares nothing for them. It is not profitable to care for those maimed in war, as there is always a new crop of young boys and girls to train and use. I went to a Tallahassee Veterans Day Parade and was appalled to see grade school children in ROTC units marching. Can anyone say, "Child Soldiers? Start them young, and indoctrinate them early.
Grade school children in the ROTC? That's a new one on me. Horrid.
' I went to a Tallahassee Veterans Day Parade and was appalled to see grade school children in ROTC units marching.'
You can, if you like and have the time to search the old movies from the 20s and 30s, see the same sort of thing in the former Empire of Japan. Of course the old Boy Scouts - original version founded by Baden-Powel wasn't it? - that saw the same young children focused on the martial arts in the old British Empire. (I'll avoid the Godwin's law by only mentioning Godwin's law...)
When the empire openly starts to bring the children into the military, it's days are numbered. I only hope humanity survives the collapse of the US Empire.
And after a break of a few months coming back to this new login before posting really irritates me.
"coming back to this new login before posting really irritates me."
New login? I thought that the functionality was retained as before. The only change I'm seeing is cosmetic. Did I miss something?
I have to log in each time I leave the site and return the next day. Maybe I've missed some key somewhere. But I hate the new layout.
This article is disappointing. There are a number of assumptions within it which are suspect.
Who is this "we?" You do not speak for me. Be more specific.
If anyone is not listening to the "troops" it is the people who are seen as their superiors.
The belief that the U.S. is "nation-building" is repeatedly promoted in this article. This belief is rubbish.
Wearing a military uniform does not prove that you "love" your country. As a matter of fact, this article shows that many people enter the de-humanizing machine of the military out of desperation, as a last resort.
Why "leave aside" the so-called collateral damage? When a person dismisses the PEOPLE who are killed and maimed as if they are somehow separate from ourselves, you are exhibiting the very thinking which the predatory machine of empire desires to promote.
Why just focus on "land wars in the Middle East and Central Asia"? This interpretation is short-sighted and typical of the limited and limiting kind of thinking which a person finds in the military. The problem is not the people in the middle east and central asia. The problem is the reason the U.S. is there.
Even if you go by "Birdbrain Alley," I think your views are right on, and I couldn't agree more. Thank you for posting them.
Vows #5 and #6 are open to distortions in favor of wars and occupations. The pro-war hacks will always try to spin every war as being worthy of fighting and dying for. The truth is the soldiers and civilians there died for another country's greed or more specifically, greed for the profiteers. Their claiming that war produces jobs is their worst spin. War actually takes away jobs. We're all actually reaping what THEY sowed.
Amen, Bird Brain! Astore's articles always reflect the blind spots you precisely related. He's been so processed by the MIC paradigm that he still believes in necessary fictions based on terminology like "enemy." Instead of realizing that this term has been used to falsely justify aggressive war based exclusively on the elite's wish to lay claim to other people's key resources, he buys into that party-line, too.
And you're so right about his lack of empathy for citizens living in US occupied zones. He's a good advocate for US soldiers... that can be said on his behalf.
I'm with Birdbrain Alley as well. I keep wondering how it is that the US citizens keep allowing their country, in their name, to murder and terrorize innocent women, children, and men?! Have they not a syllable of morality and decency left in their rapidly departing humanity?
"I have been in uniform for almost 30 years -- obviously I love my country. But it is astonishing to see a nation that once was so committed to liberty and truly assisting the world, turn into a narcissistic empire fighting out of insecurity, as opposed to increasing security."
Please tell us, when was that "once"? Was it when the US military fought the "Indian Wars"? Was it when they invaded Mexico? Was it when the US military was constantly invading "Banana Republics"? Is it possible, that like so many others, this guy is finally waking up but still doesn't know the history?
If these guys knew the history, they would not have joined the US military in the first place and the American people would not be "supporting our troops".
Was it when the US assured Hitler that if he invaded Russia we would supply all the oil he needed for his war machine? Was it when we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki over the objections of many US leaders, including General MacArthur? Was it when we killed at least 3 million people in Vietnam? Was it when we helped General Sukarno in his bloody overthrow of President Suharto? Certainly we gave up on freedom and democracy long before the Lt. Colonel joined the military. If you know you are engaged in a moral wrong, you have a duty to leave, not to perpetuate it. I can understand poor people joining out of economic desperation, but for officers to whine about America's declining role in democracy, but to continue in oppression, reminds me of the Nuremberg Trials, not of brave dissent.
Crap, I completely missed that congressional declaration of "war".
I really gotta start paying more attention to the news.
We have met the Evil Empire and they are us.
This site shows a bumper sticker that says it all.
http://www.libertystickers.com/product/policing-the-world/
William Astore points out how the soldiers themselves believe that they have been used by their government for no justifiable reason and that they have paid the price for this through needless deaths and suicides and returning to this country with PTSD. Yet nowhere in the article do either these soldiers or Astore himself even suggest that the way for the soldiers to prevent these injustices would be for them to join the GI resistance. Is Astore that uninformed that he is unaware of the GI movement that took place during the Vietnam war [as shown in the documentary Sir! No Sir!] which had tens if not hundreds of thousands of soldiers committing acts of insurrection and rebellion against the military? Many military personnel ending up deserting from their units.
Robert Fantina in his well written and relevant book Desertion and the American Soldier 1776-2006 quotes former Marine Dan Felushko, who deserted from his unit in 2003, because, as he accurately noted:
"I didn't want 'Died, deluded in Iraq' over my gravestone."
As a former Vietnam veteran I can only hope that those in the military today do not commit the mistake that I made those many years ago and that was to continue to obey the orders that I was given in Vietnam. One can also hope that the soldiers in Afghanistan will reach the same epiphany as Felushko did by realizing that there is no honor in dying for a less than noble cause. These soldiers should also come to the realization that the only reason that they are getting blown up is because the Afghans actually have the temerity to defend their country against the invaders and those invaders are, of course, the United States military.
When I see yellow ribbons and bumper stickers that say support our troops, what it means to me is: support the racket of American hegemonic murder and illegal wars around the world for the MIC and use the soldiers mistaken, bravery and patriotism for deceitful ends. Not much different than waving the German Swastika Flag by the good Germans saying support the Nazi regime. American foreign policy is hated as much as was Hitlers during his regime that was supported by many of the American elite, including the elder Bush. The good Americans are the modern version of the good Germans.
"a nation that once was so committed to liberty and truly assisting the world"
Really? When?
I would not wish to be assisted as your country assisted the Pequots, the Sioux, the Lakotas, the Cherokee, the Filipinos, the Vietnamese, the Haitians, etc.
Wearing a uniform might make a fashion statement, but it does not give anyone the moral right right to kill an unarmed civilian - or to invade and occupy another country. Wars of aggression are a violation of International Law and US treaties.
I am a member of Veterans for Peace and cannot name any US war that was justified. Don't tell me about WW2. I remember Hiroshima....... I also remember Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama.............
Dear friends, do not blame the US troops. You guys gotta realize that the US economy is doomed, US is broke, there are no jobs in the private sector. And the only option for poor depressed sad american young people is the military. Its a viscious circle that forces young americans to join the US Armed Forces so that they can get education, good health, and rise in living standards. Because the other option if they don't join the US armed forces is to live a third world life, eating from food banks, food stamps, depressed and sad
.
True that. Now we gotta fix that but how?
It would seem that even if they do join up, they risk living a third world life if they should be so unfortunate as to be only wounded in the service of their country. That is, if the army can figure out some way of claiming that the wounds are from a 'pre-existing' condition...
MarxistMan would have us believe that we are being too hard on US troops. One wonders if he would feel the same way if there were foreign soldiers stationed in the good 'ol USA where those soldiers would be dropping bombs on innocent American children and grandmothers. One strongly suspects that he would not be quite so forgiving about what those soldiers are doing to his fellow countrymen and women.
Yes, U.S. soldiers are "merely" following orders that they are receiving from their commanding officers. But those orders are not being carried out in a vacuum. They are carried out by living flesh and blood people who can, if they so desire, refuse to obey those orders which end up killing foreigners, either directly or indirectly, for no justifiable reason whatsoever.
Mr. MarxistMan wishes us to feel sorry for the robots who make up the military. My support is for those soldiers who have had the courage to say NO to the illegal and immoral orders that they are given by their superiors. Dr. Lawrence Mosqueda, who teaches at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wa., had pointed out in an article in CounterPunch in February of 2003 that:
"The Uniform Code of Military Justice [UCMJ] 809.ART.90 [20], makes it clear that military personnel need to obey the 'lawful command of his superior officer,' 891.ART.91 [2], the 'lawful order of a warrant officer', 892.ART.92 [1] the 'lawful general order', 892.ART. 92 [2] 'lawful order'. In each case, military personnel have an obligation and a duty to only obey Lawful orders and indeed have an obligation to disobey Unlawful orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the UCMJ. The moral and legal obligation is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation of the Constitution and the UCMJ."
This then begs the question: Are those in the military robots or do they actually have a brain which enables them to think and to challenge and to question? Certainly those who participated in the GI rebellion those many years ago had a brain as well as those soldiers who currently belong to the IVAW [Iraq Veterans Against the War]. Those soldiers who speak out against American imperialism are the ones who should garner our respect and admiration and not those who carry out the orders that they are given which end up perpetuating the U.S. war machine. To recall the closing lines of the poem General, Your Tank Is a Powerful Vehicle which was written by former German playwright Bertolt Brecht:
General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.
That is what the military is most terrified and that is that the soldiers today may finally come to the realization that they can actually think and to distinguish between right and wrong. The soldiers should unleash those chains that bind them to the military's rigid way of thinking. As Sly and the Family Stone noted in their song Stand:
"Don't you know that you are free
Well at least in your mind if you want to be"
Erroll, I see what you mean and points taken but wouldn't you agree that not all soldiers stay "robots"? Manning isn't a robot and there are many like him who get some awareness, maybe not as much awareness as the ones being the stronger protesters but still some awareness that could go a long ways perhaps. Since you are a former vet, I assume that you know the military even better so please feel free to correct me on my assumptions. Thanks and good insights.
Max
As I mentioned in my comment, those soldiers who participated in the GI rebellion during the Vietnam war and those who belong to the IVAW today certainly should not be viewed as being robots given the fact that they had the courage and intelligence to say NO to American imperialism. Those soldiers, in my view, are the ones who should be honored and thanked for their service. The hope is that more soldiers today will undergo an epiphany which will make them realize that they should be speaking out and protesting against the belligerent policies of their government.
Hello all, watch this video of an interview by the sociologist Johan Gatlung predicting the collapse of US imperialism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkBtOPvfB_k
Some analysts say the US - bogged down in wars and pressed by emerging powers - will have to rethink its role in world affairs. Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung, a peace and conflict expert, goes further by predicting the fall of the "US Empire".
"Iraq is not at all turning out the way they hoped, certainly not Afghanistan either. The same will happen in Yemen and Somalia and a number of other countries where they now have undercover operations," he told RT. Moreover, the sociologist believes what is going to happen in those areas - for instance, in Afghanistan - is not even decided in Washington.
.
WE ARE DOOMED, WE ARE F*CKED UP, WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE, the Norwegian scientist Johan Gatlung in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkBtOPvfB_k who is predicting the fall of US Empire, said that Sara Palin has a good chance to win the presidential elections in 2012. What the hell?, what the f*ck !? Move out of USA before the USA Titanic ship sinks us all to the bottom of hell !!
USA is doomed if neocons rise to power again. Remember that Obama is evil, but the problem of neocons Republicans is not that they are evil, their problem is that they are totally psychopaths, and might take the world to the brink of a nuclear armageddoon. They are mentally sick.
The USA is totally doomed, because Americans keep voting for the same political parties that have caused the destruction of USA. That's like praising the rapists that raped you. That mental disorder is called "Self-Defeating Personality Disorder"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-defeating_personality_disorder
THE MAIN TRAITS OF SELF-DEFEATING PERSONALITY DISORDER ARE:
A) A pervasive pattern of self-defeating behavior, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts. The person may often avoid or undermine pleasurable experiences, be drawn to situations or relationships in which he or she will suffer, and prevent others from helping him, as indicated by at least five of the following:
1.chooses people and situations that lead to disappointment, failure, or mistreatment even when better options are clearly available
2.rejects or renders ineffective the attempts of others to help him or her
3.following positive personal events (e.g., new achievement), responds with depression, guilt, or a behavior that produces pain (e.g., an accident)
4.incites angry or rejecting responses from others and then feels hurt, defeated, or humiliated (e.g., makes fun of spouse in public, provoking an angry retort, then feels devastated)
5.rejects opportunities for pleasure, or is reluctant to acknowledge enjoying himself or herself (despite having adequate social skills and the capacity for pleasure)
6.fails to accomplish tasks crucial to his or her personal objectives despite demonstrated ability to do so, e.g., helps fellow students write papers, but is unable to write his or her own
7.is uninterested in or rejects people who consistently treat him or her well, e.g., is unattracted to caring sexual partners
8.engages in excessive self-sacrifice that is unsolicited by the intended recipients of the sacrifice
B) The behaviors in A do not occur exclusively in response to, or in anticipation of, being physically, sexually, or psychologically abused.
C) The behaviors in A do not occur only when the person is depressed.
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David Crosby had the right idea (however it got him and the Byrds kicked off the Ed Sullivan Show).... Simply establish an international agreement that no one under the age of 50 can participate in active warfare. That would immediately eliminate young men coming back home in body bags and perhaps even give our political leaders some second thoughts on promoting unnecessary violence.
Speaking of songs, in the documentary Sir! No Sir! Rita Martinson sings these lyrics to thousands of GIs who were in the audience in places like Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines to see her and other entertainers such as Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland who took part in the FTA skits [which among the soldiers stood for F*** the Army] in the early 1970s:
"I read that you took a stand
And refused to kill in Vietnam"
Why have no popular singers or entertainers sung a similar song today which would substitute the word Afghanistan for Vietnam? It is as if today's generation are extremely hesitant in questioning and challenging and criticizing those who are in power while perhaps being wary, unlike the generation of the1960s, that they would be condemned for not "supporting the troops."
'Why have no popular singers or entertainers sung a similar song today which would substitute the word Afghanistan for Vietnam?'
They might have done so, but their agents would have reminded them of what happened to the Dixie Chicks. Nothing more needed to be said to them. The youth know that if they protest too obviously or about the wrong thing, they'll never get a job. some of them don't care, most are trying to avoid the fate of the nail that sticks out.
We have Michael Franti, but he has a relatively small fan base.
Here is a link to an excellent video version of Turn Turn Turn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ8QcUbHkM4
and a link to Sir No Sir:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4045645915938136883#
lol.
good luck with that.
Train a child as a soldier in their youth and you can order them to kill their own citizens when they are in their teens. And they will do it willingly in a fervor of patriotism.
Perpetual war for perpetual peace.
The American gov't. doesn't want "victory", however that is defined, but continued occupation of foreign territories. "Democracy" means, replacing the corrupt bastard we formerly supported for a new corrupt bastard. Same old same old.