Honor Is Just a Word

May 28 & 29, 2007

Yesterday I tried to write a Memorial Day blog. I wanted to reflect a little on the rhetoric of the hero, but I found it a difficult topic to approach. Difficult because the last thing I want to do is to state an opinion that seems to tear down the families and individuals who have lost someone they love. On the other hand war seems to elicit flabby language.. words that are disconnected from reality. In the midst of war it is more important than ever to be clear about what we are saying.. and not hide behind pious phrases.

Memorial Day is obviously an occasion for pious phrases. Our local paper here in Appleton ran an editorial opinion that included the following description of the motives of our soldiers:

Not many people are asked to soberly consider their own mortality at age 18. The decision to join the military hinges on one fundamental question: "Are you willing to die for your country?"

I realize that this sounds nice, but it is divorced from reality. First, it is not as if military recruiters actually force young men and women to "soberly consider their own mortality". Military recruitment posters and ads often appear comical on account of the absence of any mention of Iraq.. and the obvious dangers there.

Second, only someone with an exceedingly simple-minded view of psychology could claim that the decision to join the military "hinges on one fundamental question.." People join the military for many reasons: one person just wants a change in life.. someone else just wants to get the hell out of a small town.. someone else sees it as an opportunity to get an education.. someone else is fascinated by guns. There is no reason to send every individual who joins the military through some kind of hero-making machine..

The editorial opinion continues:

That takes faith, humility and courage, and those are the qualities we celebrate every Memorial Day. Every man and woman who has fallen in combat in the name of our great nation had those attributes.

That is a grand claim. In the past month or so I have seen articles on the abuse of military women in Iraq.. then there was the military survey that revealed lax attitudes toward the mistreatment of civilians.. and a recent article on the general demoralization of many serving in Iraq. The picture I get is that military life in Iraq is filled with human problems.. the ones you would expect from a bunch of young men and women in the midst of a trying situation. To settle a claim to high virtue on everyone who falls in combat is to radically simplify military life. Someday our men and women of the military will reintegrate themselves back into the fabric of our society and one of the real barriers in this process will be this moral simplification.

The editorial opinion ends on another uplifting point:

Then remember our fallen soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who made that decision over the past 231 years so the rest of us wouldn't have to.

I think it is dangerous to equate American conflicts with freedom and the good of the world. Not every conflict in which the United States engaged has been about our freedom. The Mexican-American War of the 19th century was questionable.. and we have had our share of military adventurism. What about the soldiers who fought with Custer at Little Big Horn? These battles claimed plenty of lives.. but were they all heroes? Only in the most general sense that any soldier fighting anywhere is a hero. It is difficult for me to separate the word "hero" from the notion that there is some greater human value to a conflict.. and that implies the need for an individual value judgment on the nature of each war. Heroes fight for causes and not for countries.

The following videos from YouTube gives a better sense of the self image of many soldiers than all the pious phrases of Memorial Day. Note the obvious fascination with weaponry, the cockiness, and the pride of living. It is hard to locate the "hero" in videos like these.

It was reported last week that the US military will be suspending the ability of soldiers to access YouTube. It is hard not to understand this as a way to encourage pious phrases over complexity.