The End is Here, Not with a Bang, but with a Whimper [David M]
By Denizens on September 2, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
PARDON me for a few if I slip away from my typical method and indulge in
some introspection.
Galrahn of Information Dissemination has a rather salient point to be
made about the end of combat operations in Iraq, that being, that for
the most part, there has been no generational impact upon the American
people because of Iraq or Afghanistan theatres. Not surprisingly the
meme coined by some Marine in theatre: “America isn’t at War, the
Marine’s are at war, America is at the mall” was then and is now
irrefutable true.
Perhaps this is why for the last several days I have felt as if I’ve
been in a fog of sorts, Americans are still at the mall, and there is no
celebration for our warriors who have risked all for us – 10 Thousand
and more of them giving up their tomorrows for our today’s.
American deaths due to combat are on the rise, and while those deaths
will be immensely powerful events for the families involved, America, as
a country, is still unaffected. Only a small percentage of the American
population has been directly affected by the war, either by their
service, or the service of one of their loved ones. This is not an
America where memorials will spring up in the town square because half
of the male population of the town died in a single battle or conflict,
and this is not an America where an entire generation of men will have
been lost, as occurred in Europe after the Great War. No this is an
America that is for the most part stuck in some egocentric funk.
The current generation of American’s have not been affected by war, in
the way that past generations have and that is both a good and bad thing
to have occurred. Galrahn writes of his daughter and the impact the last
decade of war has had upon her thusly: “The nation has been at war for
over 60% of her life, and the impact of the war on her life doesn't
exist despite the fact that the explosion of technology, access to
information, and variety in new communication capabilities represents
the most influential cultural impact on her generation. Did 9/11 impact
a generation? Absolutely, but the military actions that followed have not.”
I was 11 when the Vietnam War officially ended, and to me it seemed as
if there had been a collective sigh of relief – from both sides of the
aisle - as our warriors began coming home. And yet, like today, there
have been no national ticket tape parades welcoming home our warriors,
and unlike in 1976 there has been no national sense of relief, because
for the most part, war has not affected many Americans. Like Galrahn’s
daughter my son’s have been largely unaffected by war, even though it
has been with us for 80% of my youngest son’s life. Oh yes, war has
touched our bucolic community in the piedmont, by claiming some of our
finest young men, and our little church has sent off four of its own on
Active duty – one bravely enlisting in the Infantry upon his graduation
from high school, and we as a community have been spared the trauma of
generations past. As Galrahn so correctly points out, "Generation Kill"
is a slogan, not an applicable stereotype.
Perhaps you are wondering at this point in the essay if I am advocating
that the trauma and heartache of loss due to war should have been thrust
upon a much larger segment of the society? Allow me to reassure you I am
not. What I am advocating is that perhaps we as a nation should not have
gone to the Mall when President Bush told us to and instead we should
have gone to war as a nation.
When 9/11 occurred Americans were for one brief moment united in their
direction. 9/11 was the proverbial 2x4 to the forehead so many of us
needed to snap ourselves out of the egocentric world we had fallen into.
The 80’s in all its pastel glory and the 90’s with its
techno-advancements and social networking had removed the personal from
the collective. That generation was the first true generation to be born
in this country where there was no want. Everything and anything you
could imagine was there for the taking, provided you could lose yourself
in yourself and let go of the one thing that had guided our country for
so long, our collective soul, our collective experience, our singular
purpose that made us America.
Today far more people have slipped back into that pre-9/11 mentality,
than those whom have slipped out of the focus on the self, and are now
focusing on the needs of America. You cannot argue at any length that
the US Military is filled with the latter and not the former, and for
that we must be eternally grateful, however, the US Military is but a
small fraction of our countries population and that small population
cannot continue to provide for the rest of America.
America must once again step up and throw off the mantel of self and
take upon itself the cloak of destiny.
Yes, the dusty cloak of Manifest Destiny needs to be brought out from
the back of the closet and put on once again. Oh! I can hear the cries
from the politicos now, so take heed, I am not suggesting that we invade
Canada or Mexico on the contrary I am suggesting that no nation has
never prospered when it did not have some sense of a national purpose or
destiny. I am suggesting that we as a nation have no single purpose
anymore, and we need one - desperately.
America has lost its collective soul, its reason to be and become
instead of a great melting pot, a buffet table of beliefs, ethnicities
and cultures. We no longer identify as American’s but instead we are:
African-American, Indian-American, Chinese-American, Japanese-American,
Iranian-American and the list goes on. Our heritage is a great and
wonderful thing, but in today’s society there is no room for anything
other than the Id. In a culture of instant gratification significant
social events such as 9/11 and subsequently Operation Enduring Freedom
and Operation Iraqi Freedom (we can’t even call them theatres in a World
War anymore – but rather operations, as if we at some point we will all
wake up in a recovery room made better by the worlds miracles) there is
no room for a national zeitgeist.
The Greatest Generation was without a doubt united in their purpose,
every industry and community mobilized and gave their blood, sweat and
tears towards a common goal our current generation seems only united in
the purpose of getting more for less, and shifting the cost onto some
future generation. A nation cannot survive on a steady diet of Hollywood
Starlets and their twittering escapades, or the misguided ravings of an
environmental wacko who feels that the only solution is to force a
network to change their programming to save the frogs.
The current direction of the country seems to be one in which the
government can do pretty much anything it wants, as long as the American
people are not inconvenienced or directed away from their breads and
circuses. The American people must once again become engaged in the
dealings and direction of our country. We must unite in a single purpose
and we must no longer allow the government to prosecute its actions
without our input and if need be intervention.
I agree whole heartedly with Galrahn: “[t]he government may be engaged,
but the people are not.” Or more to the original point, the US military
is at war, America is at the mall. We need to get out of the mall shed
ourselves of our egocentric attachments and become engaged in all
matters of our current war.
World War II, for the US was over in less than 5 years; our current
World War has dragged on for nearly a decade. While our personal losses
have been less, the accounting on the gains is still to be determined.
Yes, Iraq has a new government but it is as one said: "[a] government if
you can hold on to it." Afghanistan has a new government but it at times
seems more of the same. However, if we as a nation had put ourselves on
a war footing as we did during WWII, do any of you think that the war
would have continued on for as long as it has? Can you honestly say that
if we had deployed 16 million men and women in both theatres we could
not have forced both AlQaeda and the Taliban out? Think of the effect on
the home front if another 80 million Americans had retooled their
industry to churn out weapons and vehicles. GM could have been churning
out 1000s of Stryker vehicles a day to supply the need in Iraq. Foreign
companies such as BAE could have expanded their production of Bradley
Fighting Vehicles and the ubiquitous up armored hummer could have been
produced in mass quantities by Ford or other manufacturers instead of
starting as hillbilly armor in the maintenance shops of Baghdad.
Manifest Destiny could have saved American lives.
So the end of combat operations is upon us in Iraq, but for most
Americans it is business as usual, there are no Rosy Riveters heading
home, no long-shore men tired after 12 hours of loading cargo ships of
men and material. The Greatest Generation of our generation is but a
small subset and because of that there is no cause to celebrate. Is it
no wonder that even with this momentous occasion upon us I feel a
loathing developing once again in the country? Our news cycles are
dominated by a hurricane named Earl and an environmental wacko named
James, the talking heads continue to scream at each other, and large
segments of the population continue to push the American Soul to the
back burner instead of pulling it to the fore.
A common singular purpose over the last decade could have saved
American, Iraqi and Afghani lives, instead we as a nation decided that
it was safer to let someone else do the heavy lifting, and we went
shopping. There is no simpler way to say it: Manifest Destiny could have
saved American lives.
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3 Comments
By Grimmy on September 3, 2010 8:02 AM
Personnally, and no offense meant, but I get kinda tired of this
particular line.
This war isn't that war. This war we had the advantage of a few decades
of real solid investment and an R&D system that makes our military all
but untouchable in the field.
We so thoroughly outclass every possible enemy at this time that even
with the "peace dividend" incompetence, we can still gear back up
quickly enough to meet any threat any where at any time.
That war we had nearly nothing at the start. We were even outclassed in
various issues of gear and equipment. It all had to be done very nearly
from scratch. We were also fighting a MUCH larger war in that war. 70ish
divisions worth of larger, iirc.
Oh, and take off the rose colored glasses on the "Greatest Generation".
The socialists and soviet lovers were just as powerful then as they are
now. The "good war" didn't become the good war until after Adolfyboy
betrayed poor old beloved Stalin with operation Barbarossa. Prior to
that, there were marches in the streets, sabotage on the docks, walkouts
in various industries, ect and so on, declaring that the wars over there
weren't our prob and demanding that we stay out of it. This, of course,
let a manageable situation get completely out of hand. Where 100s of
1000s might have been enough to pay the blood price, several millions
ended up being required.
After Hitler and Stalin went to fighting, all the sudden, it was a good
war that the US had to get behind... to save Russia!!!
The men and women who fought did their duty as citizens of this country
at war. Same for those who put in the extra effort on the industrial and
research fronts. Glory to them. Earned and given.
There were also draft dodgers aplenty. That's a rather large part of how
San Fran got to be queer capital. San Fran was a primary intake point
for west of the Mississippi. Those that either got 4Fed or played up to
get 4F, couldn't go home out of shame. They stayed and San Fran ain't
been the same since.
The men and women that sign up now? Best of breed for humanity. Even
after decades of degenerate socialist utopianism indoc and narrative
dominance, this country still manages to field the largest, strongest,
best equipped, best led, most fierce warfighting organization in the
history of mankind. And yeah, I'm serious about the best led part too.
Lets see some of them magical mystical heros of ancient legend manage
today's logistics and 4CI.
There's a thing that happened when the fighting was the most brutal,
most intense and most noisy on the TV. The battle of Falujah and Al
Anbar at it's worst. I only know of the USMC part but I think it safe to
assume the same for the US Army.
In the USMC, when things were at their worst and the casualty count was
a daily count in dead and wounded. When it was at its darkest, the
Commandant had to issue a temporary stop order to transferes to the
infantry and also on recruiting specifically for infantry. The worse it
got, the more young men wanted to stand the line and be counted.
We do not lack for the stalwarts to man our shieldwall in this country.
As to the rest of the country being "at the mall"... of course it was.
1st: Short memory or deep memory hole... one of those. Do you recall
after 9/11 just how damaged our economy was? Do you remember that? Our
economic recovery was phenominal. World wide market colapse was the
general prediction of that day. Remember?
2nd: Global socialism. It aint exactly the grand Internationale of
scientific socialsim, but it is insanely parasitic none the less.
Someone had to float all those economic sumps of our allies. That
someone was us.
Of course, now, the parasites are gonna have to learn how to live
without their arms shoulder deep into our pockets... and we're gonna
have to learn to live without the idiotic Europeaneque socialist utopian
bullcrap at home too. But that's a war still on the way.
By BloodSpite on September 3, 2010 8:44 AM
I hate to say it but I agree with Grumpy ;)
The whole ideaolgy behind Pearl harbor was summed up by Japanese Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant
and fill him with a terrible resolve."
Wholelly and truthfully the American people wanted little if anything to
do with World War II. We were extremely isolationist (example the
Neutrality act of 1937)
Rossevelt all but kicked us in to the war, physically. In spring of 1941
we were talking stratgey should we enter the war, but we still refused
to do so. We sent massive amounts of supplies via Lend Lease, but no
troops or units.
Hell, Canada declared war before we did. We built plants, and sent more
supplies but still stopped short of outright work.
It wasn't until Pearl Harbor that we became involved. Their mistake to
be sure.
My own family went to war, not so much out of patriotism, but becase as
my grandfather said its what we Irish do...fight wars. One of the few
things we exceptionally good at and have been for several hundred years.
While I agree there are fewer parades in the streets with this
homecoming, there are also fewer soldiers being buried in foreign lands,
and fewer bodies returning in caskets than before as well. So the impact
while there is not as, shall we say? self evident?
By Argent on September 3, 2010 9:57 AM
I'm really not quite sure how to respond to this one but it's good
you're honest with what you believe.
I'll grant you Americans have not been terribly deeply involved in this
war. I'll grant America seems listless and lacks direction.
However (you knew that was coming surely),
There have been manifest destinies declared since the beginning of time
from many a ruler, kingdom and nation. It has always been a political
tool. Germany had one too, they were looking for lebensraum. It failed.
American success and German failure in this effort had nothing to do
with any manifestation of destiny. It had much more to do with the
driving forces and problems along the way. Now let's brush aside the
good and ill of expansionism and consider the deeper question. What
would *you* declare to be America's Manifest Destiny? For the
expansionism meaning of the past would still appeal to some. What if we
declared to covert all to Christianity which has been done before and
certainly aligns more with the theocratic basis of destiny. What if we
declare, a la Obama, a newer greener future of revitalised economic
growth through solar cells and minimalist living? What if we thought
Manifest Destiny meant we personally were to rule with Lordship and
dominion over all you petty plebs? What if Manifest Destiny should be to
set free all from religious influence?
I'm sure you see my point by now. Americans are very individualist.
Aligning on some Manifest Destiny is hardly going to happen without
there being very real desire for such alignment amongst enough of those
individuals.
Secondly the 'Greatest Generation' stuck in my craw. Not just because
I'm not a member but because I'm tired of hearing things being
attributed to a generation rather than the people who actually do the
deeds. This Greatest Generation is a myth. It had, as have other
generations, fine upstanding people along with all the kind of crooks,
liars and cheats we also find in other generations.
http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2010/09/the_end_is_here.html
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