Okay then...
Is there anything worse in this world than someone who would expect others to do what they themselves are unwilling to do?
Is there anything in this world worthy of less respect than a coward?
In my opinion, no. Cowardice comes in many forms. I chose, 18 years ago this past March, to enlist in the Maryland Army National Guard as a Private. It was 1989. The Soviet Union was still a country. They had been forced to leave Afghanistan my mid-1988, and it seemed that they were weakened but by no means as weak as they would become. There was no hot war involving the US at that time, but the Cold War was still very much alive and well.
I chose to join the Guard primarily for money to use for college. As an infantryman, I was trained to fight the nation's wars, not study. I knew that at some point I could be called upon to fight, but let's face it, in 1989 the Guard was seen as a strategic reserve force, not the operational reserve it is today. While possible, the likelihood of mobilization for war then seemed pretty remote.
Within two years of my enlistment, we invaded Panama, Kuwait, and southern Iraq. The Soviet Union, for all intents and purposes, imploded and ceased being a conventional military threat to Western Europe. Hearing that term these days, "Western Europe," brings back memories of when Europe actually was divided between East and West. If you didn't live at that time, it's a hard concept to really relate the full flavor of what it was like. Bottom line, the world changed dramatically and a lot of amazing and important things happened in a very, very short period of time.
But I stayed in. I was offered a shot at Officer Candidate School which I took, and became a commissioned officer in the Maryland Guard in 1994. Still, even with the increase of OPTEMPO for the active component, the Guard was seen as a strategic reserve--break glass and use in case of war; otherwise leave it on the shelf. But we still trained for war. When March 1995 rolled around, had I remained enlisted, I could have ETS'ed (allowed my enlistment to expire and get out) but I didn't. I didn't because I enjoyed being in the Guard and I felt that it was important to be ready to defend our country. It would have been really easy to leave; hell, nothing really was going on that was incredibly violent with regard to the deployment of ground forces. We had peacekeeping missions all over the world, notably in Bosnia, but these weren't "hot" wars. Bosnia had the ability to flare up and get violent, but it never did to any appreciable degree after the Dayton Accords of 1995.
So here comes September 11. Within the first few months after that event, in the Guard you had a pretty clear choice: either stay in and risk getting mobilized and deployed somewhere, or finish your service and move on. Some of my more conservative friends chose the latter course. Whatever. I mean, there just aren't a whole lot of flaming liberals like myself in the military anyway, which is frankly disappointing, but that's another discussion for another day. But with the guys I hung with in the Guard, I was pretty surprised how many thought invading Iraq was the right thing to do. These were educated, company-grade officers.
When my unit was mobilized to go to Andrews AFB in January 2003 to augment the Air Force Security Forces unit there, the men got separated from the boys to a degree. Those who were unable to deploy because of physical problems (but the Guard had carried, anyway) couldn't go with us. Some were more or less put out, or allowed to ETS and not brought back. Some of the officers I knew who were cheerleaders for the administration suddenly realized that they might actually have to back up all the bluster and B.S. I was really surprised when a close friend of mine, who was a supporter of invading Iraq, got excused from the deployment and subsequently resigned his commission. I was pretty stunned. He was a good guy, but this is what he turned out to be when it counted:
I think what he told me was, and I am paraphrasing, that if he got mobilized (on that deployment) he would have to leave law school in the middle of the year, it would set him back with getting internships, he wouldn't be able to pay off his loans because he wouldn't be able to get the job he wanted, etc. Again, for a supporter of the war in the first place I was pretty surprised to hear him put it like that. I was like, damn, he's not even trying to rationalize it, he's just telling it flat out.
Well, he wasn't the only person I knew like that in the Guard. Their numbers started to thin as each new deployment came up. Until December 2004 they were pretty much CONUS, or Continental United States, deployments. in December 2004 we mobilized a rifle company to come to Iraq. Again, another round of should I stay/should I go with some people. Not with me. I still wanted to serve my country, even if it meant deploying in support of a complete fiasco like this one.
So now I'm getting to my main points--what kind of person asks sacrifice of others when he/she is unwilling to make that same sacrifice? And is there anything worse than being a total coward? I can now answer both questions. The kind of person who expects others to be willing to die for his country when, as a young, able-bodied student he stayed in college and declined to serve is a low form of life, indeed. There are many names for people like this--wuss, chicken hawk, punk...choose your favorite. We all know people like this; sometimes we realize it, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we assume that the guy standing next to us with a beer in his hand, talking a good game and dizzy with testosterone, has served in the military. maybe it's his love of guns; maybe it's his interest in military history. Heck, maybe it's because when he talks military stuff to you and he says, "A friend of mine who was in the Special Forces in Vietnam told me..." you want to believe that the person is a patriot; you want to believe he's a warrior.
Well folks, someone I know talks a very, very good game. But that's all he's got--all talk, no game. When his country needed him, this is what he turned out to be:
And that's quite a shame. It's a shame that chicken hawks survived the Vietnam War and 58,000+ patriots were sent to their deaths. In my opinion that is what's happening here in Iraq. The guys from the last war (see above) are feeding these guys into the meat grinder:
The punks from the Vietnam generation are trying to redeem themselves with the blood of the lions, the warriors, of this nation's youth. How does it feel to be half a man? How pitiful is someone so filled with self-loathing that they strain to bask in the reflected glory of those of us who do risk our lives, who will go to war when told to do so, who live the Army Values? What does one really feel, when looking in the mirror, when they realize that this nation needed them and they were too selfish or cowardly or weak to answer the call? If they use that experience to become more judicious in their call for military action (or renounce military action totally), I say they have earned a measure of my respect. If they become old, selfish, embittered, and lonely souls, devoid of self-respect and the respect of others, I say they got what they deserve. I'll drink a beer and smoke a cigar with a pacifist any day of the week because their philosophy is consistent. I turn my back and feel contempt for the ones who act as cheerleaders for this administration who never served in uniform themselves. Their children will be the ones putting the pieces back together. And some of their children are going to die.
OUT
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