Veterans and Heroes

Today is Veterans Day.  It was created as Armistice Day in the aftermath of World War 1 in 1919. The purpose of it according to President Woodrow Wilson was to:

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."

President Wilson’s quote is a natural starting point for this post as he openly refers to those soldiers who were killed in World War 1 as “heroes”.  Not everyone agrees that all veterans are heroes.  This recent article argues against this notion.  I think the author has some good points but definitely makes some statements which are very sensationalist and of dubious truth.

For example when discussing rape in the military, he claims that 38 men are sexually assaulted each day in the military and as a result the military is a “sexual dungeon”.  This would equal over 13,000 rapes against men each year.  Further, he claims one third of all women seeking care in the VA claimed to have experienced some sort of sexual violence while serving.  He doesn't cite any specific study, so naturally I am a bit skeptical of this claim and I do not see any evidence suggesting the military is a “sexual dungeon.”  I also would add that when I was in the Army from 1998-2002, I was not personally aware of sort of rape / sexual assault epidemic.  Obviously, it is just one man’s perspective but I never perceived it to be any sort of problem.

He also cites a few anecdotes about various military personnel laughing about the killing of civilians and generally being insensitive towards the carnage often commonplace in war.  A few anecdotes do not convince me that this is a real problem.  Give his tone, I can say this article has a very strong anti-military bias, one that I personally do not share. 

However, his point that the “troops are heroes” because “they defend our freedom” and “they fight so we don’t have to” is empty rhetoric has a lot of truth to it.  Before we examine this (the point of this post), we need to look at the definition of the word “hero”.  Webster’s online defines a hero as:

a.     mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent     endowed with great strength or ability

b.     an illustrious warrior

c.      a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities

d.     one who shows great courage

From these definitions, it is clear that not every veteran is a hero unless you accept the notion that our troops sole purpose when committed to combat is “defending our freedom”.  If that is the case, then I think all veterans are heroes. 

Unfortunately, very few if any wars have been fought by the United States to defend “our” freedom.  This shouldn't surprise anyone.  War is as von Clausewitz said – “Policy by other means”.  This doesn't mean war is inherently bad, it just means Wars are fought by a government attempting to achieve some objective.  This objective could be “defending the freedom” of its citizens but by no means exclusively.

A brief review of the United States military conflicts since 1900 shows that with the exception of World War 2 and the initial incursion into Afghanistan in 2001, none were fought to ensure the freedom (or safety) of our citizens.  One can argue that during World War 2 while the US was definitely morally superior to our adversaries, our freedom and overall national survival was never really at stake.  The rest of the conflicts had nothing to do with freedom or safety (or its close rhetorical cousin “defending the constitution”) .

The fact the United States fights wars for ulterior motives does not bother me in the slightest.  What does bother me is the fact, our population does not really seem to understand this.  War is very expensive both in monetary and human cost and shouldn't be engaged unless the cost is worth the gain. 

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a disaster of untold proportions.   The casus belli for the conflict was Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  Once it was clear that was a lie, the conflict was about regime change and starting democracy in the Middle East or something silly like that.   It is now 11.5 years since the invasion of Iraq began, hundreds of thousands dead, trillions of dollars spent, and Iraq is still a mess with no end in sight.

That being said, the average soldier / sailor / marine / airman does not really have a say in which conflicts they fight in.  They are expected to do the fighting and the dying when our political leaders tell them to.  There is something heroic about that -  they are doing are a dangerous job that sometimes needs to be done.  Even, if the ulterior motive is not “freedom”, it doesn't make their sacrifice and courage any less. 

In conclusion, I think our veterans and those on active duty are heroes in the sense they do show great courage in doing what can be a thankless and brutal job.  I think we as a society should be more careful when we do go to war as for the most part those of sitting at home aren't doing the killing and the dying.  And a good place to start when making decisions about when to go to war, is to purge this concept “defending freedom” and “defending the constitution” from our collective brains and remember it is all about politics by violent means -  an evil that is necessary from time to time.

Happy Veterans Day to all the people on active duty and those who served in the past -  keep up on the good work and come home safely!