Civilians
Lex is right. This is quite a hearfelt essay.
With posts like Cassandra’s above, and the Pat Dollard video, and the LTC White speech, and LTC Grossman’s “sheepdogs” essay, I see a theme of separation. These writers, to include the family members here, aren’t like civilians. Others–actors, medical professionals, journalists–mimic the feeling of that term when they use the term as a synonym for “outside our group”, but those professions also know they’ve borrowed the term from military folks.
I guess the feeling of being apart, of being misunderstood, of seeing something the others don’t, and feeling dutybound to act where others don’t, is a symptom of being Tommy Atkins.
4 Responses to “Civilians”
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August 27th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Your post ties it up pretty well Chap.
I guess civilians either:
A- see as as pawns or extremely stupid people who serve. IE we couldn’t get real jobs or we were blinded by patriotism… you know.
B- see us as “experts”, like they would an expert in a civil trial. A hired gun willing to validate either side of an argument.
I’ll figure or truly be one…..
Now as to my rough tratment of Barry. He is obviously due his own opinion but when I saw the Bush’s brain thing I saw red (his intent). Not because I am a Bush Acolyte or a lockstep republican, but because he is the CINC who has had to make some hard decisions after barely winning two elections… Barry is just sniping because hwe like many others, are frustrated and want some resolution.
All I can say is offer something as an alternative (cut n’run isn’t) or get the frick outta the way and quit whining…”Men Working”… This ain’t a court of law or a dam debating club issue. This is war, a new kind of war, and stupid divisions just embolden our enemies.
B2
August 27th, 2006 at 10:54 am
oops:
re – “I’ll figure or truly be one…..”
Meant to say re civilians: “I’ll never figure ‘em out or truly be one”
B2
August 27th, 2006 at 11:57 am
Bob, I’m not a spokesman for all civilians, just myself – but I don’t see military people as either idiots or experts by virtue of the fact that they’re in the military. I have both friends and family members who are actively serving now, and who have served in the past; I admire them for their commitment to serving our country.
I would (and do) absolutely defer to people who have served in the military, especially in a leadership capacity, on matters that touch on that expertise. However, I think I’m just as equipped to opine about foreign policy and politics as any other citizen, regardless of veteran status.
I can see how you might perceive my comments as “sniping” or piling on, but as a lifelong Republican and libertarian-conservative, I am deeply and genuinely concerned about the direction that Bush has taken the party and the country in, on a number of fronts, and not just in foreign policy or the military execution of same. If you read my blog (there’s two years of it out there now) you will see that this has been a consistent position that I’ve held for as long as I’ve been writing publically about it (and frankly, longer than that, but there’s no paper trail to prove it.)
I agree with you one hundred percent that this is a new kind of war, against a stateless enemy (and, crucially, not a Westphalian nation-state); one of the principal problems and issues I have with *some* of the things we are currently doing is that, in Iraq, we seem to be fighting the kind of war we know how to fight instead of the kind of “new war” we ought to be figuring out how to fight. The “attacking a nation-state” part of Iraq went brilliantly; the jury is still out on the “fighting a counterinsurgency” part, but it doesn’t look good for the Home Team.
The transnational terrorist enemy has reconfigured itself two or three times *at least* since 9/11/2001, indicating to me that at least some of our strategies have been successful; I do not feel that our current activity in Iraq can be counted among the successes, yet, and fear that it may never be.
I recognize that we are fighting the “new war” with varying degrees of success all over the world, e.g. in the Philippines, where Special Operations units are working with local military and police forces to track down and kill Islamic radicals. We have several years of hard data now on What Works and What Doesn’t, and I’d like to see a hell of a lot more emphasis in terms of time and resources spent on What Works.
- bc
P.S. I didn’t feel roughly treated, by the way; I can pretty much take care of myself, and I wouldn’t put my opinions out there if I didn’t expect them to be criticized.
September 1st, 2006 at 12:31 pm
Raising Baby Soldiers
The increasing separation from civilians and lack of true support many of our warfighters are beginning to feel led me back to this poignant poem by Rudyard Kipling. Written over 120 years ago, it’s beginning to ring painfully true in too many circle…