I don't know how many of you (who reads my blog anyway?) have seen this video but I just had the pleasure last night. The best way to hear what people think is Facebook right now, so I left it up there all night and was not disappointed this morning with over ten comments from various people. I don't think a single one of them captured what is so disturbing to me about this video.
For starters, I have to give this girl credit. At least she isn't posting anonymous comments somewhere. She has her position, however crude and uniformed, and puts it out there for everyone to hear. That's something, even if she speaks with "the valor of ignorance."
Two things bother me about this (well, that's not true but I'm focusing on these two). One is how many other people I know share her convictions but lack the integrity to say so. What does "Support the Troops" mean to someone who has never served and has no connection to the military community? They probably think, much like this girl, that a bunch of stupid minorities and farm boys are signing up because they either have no job prospects or are seized by unconquerable bloodlust. In their paternalism, these people believe they need to help these poor people in the military understand what they are doing so they can stop being a part of the war machine. The warped view of military life held by so many of these people simmers below a politically correct layer of BS.
The complement to the first issue is how unlikely this girl is to ever change her mind. People with no exposure to the military are not going to magically start meeting and talking with veterans or active duty servicemembers. And even if they did, the exposure would never last long enough for them to move past the "don't you realize how terrible the military is?" phase to the "hmm, I guess I don't really know much about the military" phase. No, instead they will sit with others who agree with them, convinced of their own superiority, and die thinking the same thing.
So why do we fight for such people? Why am I and all the other veterans the ones expected to be so much more mature and turn the other cheek? Because she's young? We're young. Because she obviously has no experience? She never will. Because it's her right? I also have rights of self-expression. Because we should tolerate diversity of opinion? She doesn't have an opinion - she has a belief. A belief is a conviction held without evidence, and that is precisely what this rant represents.
Right now 3/7 is back in Sangin. I hope the next time one of their 19 year-old LCpls rotates back to FOB Jackson he doesn't go online and find something like this video. We all deserve better. America deserves better.
For starters, I have to give this girl credit. At least she isn't posting anonymous comments somewhere. She has her position, however crude and uniformed, and puts it out there for everyone to hear. That's something, even if she speaks with "the valor of ignorance."
Two things bother me about this (well, that's not true but I'm focusing on these two). One is how many other people I know share her convictions but lack the integrity to say so. What does "Support the Troops" mean to someone who has never served and has no connection to the military community? They probably think, much like this girl, that a bunch of stupid minorities and farm boys are signing up because they either have no job prospects or are seized by unconquerable bloodlust. In their paternalism, these people believe they need to help these poor people in the military understand what they are doing so they can stop being a part of the war machine. The warped view of military life held by so many of these people simmers below a politically correct layer of BS.
The complement to the first issue is how unlikely this girl is to ever change her mind. People with no exposure to the military are not going to magically start meeting and talking with veterans or active duty servicemembers. And even if they did, the exposure would never last long enough for them to move past the "don't you realize how terrible the military is?" phase to the "hmm, I guess I don't really know much about the military" phase. No, instead they will sit with others who agree with them, convinced of their own superiority, and die thinking the same thing.
So why do we fight for such people? Why am I and all the other veterans the ones expected to be so much more mature and turn the other cheek? Because she's young? We're young. Because she obviously has no experience? She never will. Because it's her right? I also have rights of self-expression. Because we should tolerate diversity of opinion? She doesn't have an opinion - she has a belief. A belief is a conviction held without evidence, and that is precisely what this rant represents.
Right now 3/7 is back in Sangin. I hope the next time one of their 19 year-old LCpls rotates back to FOB Jackson he doesn't go online and find something like this video. We all deserve better. America deserves better.
That's a shameful video. You shouldn't waste your emotions on such an ad hom .
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, people with brains write posts like this:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/22/1038886/-IGTNT:-The-guy-youd-want-in-a-foxhole
I wouldn't purport to make generalizations about why an individual joins the military, but I would say that each has their own motivations and it's impossible and probably fruitless to attack the military-industrial complex by way of its servicemen and women. A more constructive discussion might center around how such brave service is utilized by the government doing the employing.
-J