Short Insider Essays About The Military Read online

literature coming from us was scant and even the movies that showed up only reinforced what most Americans thought: crazed Vietnam vets who are whack jobs.

  But, something weird has really happened with the military which we are yet to face. And, this is more significant than attempting to define heroism. Our soldiers today are Facebook/tweeter soldiers. They are aware, media savvy, and they are not going to be like Vietnam vets‑sit back and wait. They are already there, demanding that the government and VA live up to its promises. We can apply any term—heroes is as good as any. Many soldiers are serving multiple tours; families are barely scraping by and the soldier themselves are engaged in a warfare that is lethal: deadly outposts; a strategy that, if workable, in nation building would take years; a populace that is ambivalent, not through lack of desire but unable in taking charge of their own destiny once we’re gone. The present soldier has done every single thing that has been asked of him and more. If that isn’t heroism, I don’t know what is.

  Unintended Consequence

  In the mail in 1972, young Americans were still getting draft notices amidst the knowledge that tens of thousands of Americans had been killed. Anti-war protests were rampant. Draft notices were being publically burned and returning soldiers were treated as part of the problem. The military was at low ebb.I was drafted the day I got married. I was pretty taken aback that the return address was the White House. Jokingly, I was impressed that President Richard Nixon would write to me. I opened it up and I think it said, “Greetings from the President of the United States.” It was a form letter that said my friends and neighbors had selected me to represent them in the Armed Forces and I was hereby ordered to report for active duty. Say What!

  An unintended consequence of discontinuing the draft in 1973 is a somewhat mercenary military and a public with a total lack of investment in our three wars—only 1% of Americans are making any sacrifice in any way for our involvement. Shameful or as my mom would say: scandalous.

  AFGHANISTAN--A DEFINING MOMENT

  There have been many defining moments in Afghanistan. I see us in a bind in Afghanistan and I use to call it Iraqnam. Maybe I need to start calling Afghanistan, Afghanisnam. I was never convinced we were going to get out cleanly‑‑now that we are gone, the Iraqis are still being killed with impunity. I think either one or two things will happen with Iraq: civil war or another Saddam.

  The Republicans play to a hawkish philosophy, as I see it, mainly to appear to take a position opposite to Democrats, whether right or wrong or good or bad. The Democrats, since Vietnam, have been more on the sidelines. Clinton threw a missile or two somewhere. George W. with 9-11 as a backdrop got us into two wars. Obama has actually been as hawkish and in some areas even more. When it comes to war and politics, especially presidential politics, it doesn't seem to matter.

  Unfortunately, Afghanistan is not going to be a political issue. The vast majority of Americans have “no skin” in the game and as long as the wars are not affecting them personally, they simply aren't going to pay any attention. To me, it is a major issue, because unlike politicians, I feel it is Vietnam revisited, just like Iraq. For instance, after the President’s speech on withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Rogers, a Republican from Michigan, said the President was putting withdrawal ahead of security indicating the President is playing politics. Lindsay Graham and John McCain try to out hawk the President who has been led down the primrose pass with ideas like, “Get the job done”, Winning, Support the troops”. Now the President, the generals and the “talking heads” are all painting this rosy picture of Afghanistan, “Can’t give up the great progress” they say, when, in fact, those of us who are out here listening to the news, reading the books, trying to find credible evidence cannot find one single thing about Afghanistan that offers any hope if we stay there a hundred years.

  Where does this rosy view come from? I’ve thought for some time that the generals live in some parallel universe. What they see is not what I see. Afghanistan is a country where loyalty to a village, a clan, a tribe with no sense of a central government, is simply a fact. Even if they had a President who wasn’t corrupt, it wouldn’t be happening. We implemented a war philosophy of counter-insurgency (which I hear we’ve abandoned. I can’t help but think General Paetreus, who put the policy in place, got out while the “getting” out was good).which is short hand for “nation building.” Now, here’s one thing you have to give the President, in a recent speech he said, something like “It is time for nation building in our own country.”

  This is a statement that really got me, “President Obama on Thursday told U.S. troops who have fought in Afghanistan that the U.S. has turned a corner after nearly 10 years of war, and it’s time for their comrades still in that country to start coming home.”

  WHAT CORNER IS HE TALKING ABOUT? Reminds me a bit of Westmoreland telling President Johnson during the Vietnam War, “Send me more troops and we’ll be home for Christmas.” What we didn’t nail down was what Christmas. As it turned out, the Christmas was five or six years later.and thousands of young Americans dead.

  WAS IT WORTH IT? F..kkkkkkk NO!!!!

  In the last few days or so, I’ve listened to three NPR programs which have more or less had to do with troop reduction and politics. One of them was with John Nagl, a retired lieutenant colonel. He has some good ideas like conventional troops out and only Special Ops troops staying, but his plan still involves being in Afghanistan for years. For most of these like Nagl or Petraeus (Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan and now CIA Director--) or Gates, former SECDEF. It is more like having a position and refusing to back down. How often have you heard someone say, (us included) “I made a mistake or changed my mind?” One in ten million.

  The smartest “talking head” I’ve heard laid out exactly what the real scene is (not the things that are so obvious): corruption, drugs, tribe loyalty, the Taliban. Simple fact, if we make it out of Afghanistan with the withdrawal of 33,000, still, our footprint in Afghanistan is going to be gigantic for years to come.

  On “Talk of The Nation” (National Public Radio), Afghanistan vets were asked to call in and give their views. About six or eight called in. Not a one supported staying in Afghanistan and basically having no faith in the Afghans’ ability to take over from us. Plus, a couple of Vietnam vets called in and both related Afghanistan and the futility of it to Vietnam and our sacrifices meaning nothing.

  In all of this, I have never heard a single advocate of returning to the military draft or anything that would move us to some kind of shared sacrifice for all Americans. It ain’t never going to happen. As long as we have a volunteer force that can do the job with all the inherent problems to come, we will muddle along. The volunteer force is a moral issue all its own. By in large, poor kids or at least those with few options are fighting America’s wars. Pretty sad. I only know personally about a half dozen kids who are presently in the military. Every single one of them are youngsters on the margins, mostly from homes that are terribly dysfunctional or kids who have no real options other than joining up. They are good soldiers: that is not an issue. The moral failure to me is simply that most Americans are willing to let other people’s kids fight our wars.

  Afghanistan Is Vietnam

  If you go back and read the commo related to Vietnam during the time of 500,000 plus soldiers in Vietnam, Afghanistan is Vietnam REVISITED. We have those like Senator Lindsay Graham saying something like, “If we pull out now or reduce troops, we are going to lose this war.” BS! How can you lose a war that we have never had a chance of winning? By any rational or sane person’s stretch of the imagination, Afghanistan is a “no win” war. Take any area.

  Karzai, at best is President to only a small sliver of Afghanistan. He won in an election laced with fraud, billions of dollars later, with no real knowledge where much of it went. Certainly, some of the money went to his brother who had ties to a variety of nefarious activities, to include drug trafficking. I think he has now “hit the road.” Dr
ug production is at record levels, accounting for 70% of heroin in the entire world and there is evidence that drugs are financing Taliban operations. There’s no area where winning is even a possibility, shy of ten more years in a war like Vietnam. Sorry AFGHANISTAN!!!!!

  The Battle of Wanat

  I recently read a long article from Vanity Fair called Echoes of a Distant Battlefield (By Mark Bowden) took me three days to read it as it was so dense with facts and description. Great writing. It demonstrated again the “power of grief” which is probably our most potent emotion. The article was about a young Lieutenant killed in an isolated outpost in Afghanistan and a father’s grief which almost succeeded in tarnishing everybody that a sorry war touched. 

  The story is too involved to recount and establishing blame is such a subjective thing. The only other grief so palpable that I’ve read about of late, related to the same sorry war, is Pat Tillman’s family. This outcome is much better than the Tillman one. (To me, the Tillman family never really got their due as it somewhat ended in a congressional embarrassment with them bowing and scraping to the generals and a few