Veterans Day
On November 12th, the hotel at which I was staying provided copies of USA Today for the guests. On the Opinion page (page 7A) there was an article by retired Marine Corps Major Scott A. Huesing, author of Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of U. S. Marines in Iraq’s Deadliest City who commanded a battalion in Iraq. The title of the article is “Thank you for your service, or for killings?”
Major Huesing states “Civilians, even the ones who vote for war, have always tried to find a way to separate and isolate themselves from its harsh realities.” He also states, “…this is the reality of the separation between those who’ve served and those who think they are “supporting the troops.” It is also a separation between those, such as me, who were served in non-combat roles and those who killed, were often wounded and bear witness to the death of their fellow combatants.
Prior to entering combat a soldier has to be trained to think of the people they are potentially going to kill as unlike them as possible. Thus, they are “the enemy, terrorists, al Qaeda, or a host of other terms which are as dehumanizing as possible. We also posit terms such as collateral damage, embedded, and a host of others which hide the tasks we are later going to casually refer to as “your service”.
Neither the soldiers nor the civilians want to think of the men and women that are killed or wounded as sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, lovers, aunts, uncles, neighbors, or friends.
Civilians who kill without the sanction of the community are called murders, domestic terrorists, deranged, extremists, or some other terms which again is designed to convince the general population they are uniquely different.
Even terms as post-traumatic stress syndrome which replaced terms such as shell shocked belies what is in many respects a healthy response to the horrific job communities and countries ask of those they thank for their service.
Major Huesing says “We must stand together as a nation at war.” …Every day should be Veterans Day.
I applaud the courage of Major Huesing in reminding us exactly what we demand the service person to do and why we subsequently thank them. I would hope that if we carefully listen we will, on this Veterans Day recommit to giving 100% of our energy to finding non-violent solutions to learning to live together in families, communities, states, work places and nations. Let’s not pretend as if war is pretty, kind, or something to be celebrated. Let’s daily, all year long, weep at the mere thought of asking others to die and kill for us; of asking others to kill parts of themselves as they kill fathers, mothers, neighbors, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, lovers, partners, work mates – other humans. Let’s challenge those who are so sure that the God of their understanding wants them to fight the “just war”; wants them to die and/or kill in the name of a God who behaves like a jealous, easily offended, pubescent teenager.
Thanks, Major Huesing for this poignant, uncomfortable and necessary reminder.
Written November 13, 2018
On November 12th, the hotel at which I was staying provided copies of USA Today for the guests. On the Opinion page (page 7A) there was an article by retired Marine Corps Major Scott A. Huesing, author of Echo in Ramadi: The Firsthand Story of U. S. Marines in Iraq’s Deadliest City who commanded a battalion in Iraq. The title of the article is “Thank you for your service, or for killings?”
Major Huesing states “Civilians, even the ones who vote for war, have always tried to find a way to separate and isolate themselves from its harsh realities.” He also states, “…this is the reality of the separation between those who’ve served and those who think they are “supporting the troops.” It is also a separation between those, such as me, who were served in non-combat roles and those who killed, were often wounded and bear witness to the death of their fellow combatants.
Prior to entering combat a soldier has to be trained to think of the people they are potentially going to kill as unlike them as possible. Thus, they are “the enemy, terrorists, al Qaeda, or a host of other terms which are as dehumanizing as possible. We also posit terms such as collateral damage, embedded, and a host of others which hide the tasks we are later going to casually refer to as “your service”.
Neither the soldiers nor the civilians want to think of the men and women that are killed or wounded as sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, lovers, aunts, uncles, neighbors, or friends.
Civilians who kill without the sanction of the community are called murders, domestic terrorists, deranged, extremists, or some other terms which again is designed to convince the general population they are uniquely different.
Even terms as post-traumatic stress syndrome which replaced terms such as shell shocked belies what is in many respects a healthy response to the horrific job communities and countries ask of those they thank for their service.
Major Huesing says “We must stand together as a nation at war.” …Every day should be Veterans Day.
I applaud the courage of Major Huesing in reminding us exactly what we demand the service person to do and why we subsequently thank them. I would hope that if we carefully listen we will, on this Veterans Day recommit to giving 100% of our energy to finding non-violent solutions to learning to live together in families, communities, states, work places and nations. Let’s not pretend as if war is pretty, kind, or something to be celebrated. Let’s daily, all year long, weep at the mere thought of asking others to die and kill for us; of asking others to kill parts of themselves as they kill fathers, mothers, neighbors, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, lovers, partners, work mates – other humans. Let’s challenge those who are so sure that the God of their understanding wants them to fight the “just war”; wants them to die and/or kill in the name of a God who behaves like a jealous, easily offended, pubescent teenager.
Thanks, Major Huesing for this poignant, uncomfortable and necessary reminder.
Written November 13, 2018
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