Memorial Day thoughts

This year, it’s popular for veterans to rail against the folks who have never served. For example, Jennie Haskamp, a Marine Corps veteran writes in the pages of the Washington Post that “I’m a veteran, and I hate ‘Happy Memorial Day.’” She does the gratuitous “Memorial Day isn’t for barbecues” thing.  On the other side, Davids Zucchino and Cloud write in the LA Times that “U.S. military and civilians are increasingly divided“.

The LA Times piece is actually written to deepen that divide, of course. If you’re the LA Times, that’s what you do. But, Ms. Haskamp’s WaPo piece isn’t really that much better in the public relations arena.

Here’s the thing. We veterans already know that there is a divide. We came to that conclusion within the first five minutes that we left the service and entered the civilian work force. Some of us realized it when we had to interact with civilians before we left the service when we were recruiters or ROTC instructors. Drill sergeants certainly knew it when they had to turn civilians into soldiers.

When George W. Bush sent the troops off to war in 2001, he told the civilians that their duty was to go shopping. That they did happily, and it was the one sacrifice they were willing to make. Then when the troops came back from their rotations, they complained that they “went to war and America went to the mall”. Well, really, what did you expect? From the LA Times piece;

“I am well-aware that many Americans, especially our elite classes, consider the military a bit like a guard dog,” said Lt. Col. Remi M. Hajjar, a professor of behavioral sciences and leadership at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

“They are very thankful for our protection, but they probably wouldn’t want to have it as a neighbor,” he said. “And they certainly are not going to influence or inspire their own kids to join that pack of Rottweilers to protect America.”

The media is hard at work to try and understand the divide by blaming all of society’s ills on veterans. It took CNN about two minutes to find a connection between the military and that fellow, Darron Dellon Dennis Wint, who was arrested for that horrific murder in the Metro DC area last week. It seems he was a Marine Corps entry level separation after a few weeks. So that explains why he murdered two children, their parents and their housekeeper.

In Salon, Sean McElwee says “The U.S. military is a national security threat” because of it’s massive budget that could be used to “strengthen” the US in other ways. Of course, your idea of strength is probably different than Mr. McElwee’s which is mostly about fighting climate change and poverty. McElwee has never seen real poverty, not like many of the nation’s veterans have seen, and he only yammers about climate change because it’s an article of faith in his liberal journalist religion. Just like blaming the ills of society on the military.

In the LA Times, the Davids go on and on about how rich the troops are, but what they really mean is that the flag officers are rich. The Davids probably couldn’t survive a day in the military, any day, even one that we might consider an “easy day”. They wouldn’t live the life no matter how much it paid. And that’s kind of the point. The Davids and Mr. McElwee can be flip about the military, because there haven’t been any attacks on Americans in this country, well until recently, that have affected them. The proof that we need a strong, well-financed military isn’t blindingly obvious to them because we can’t prove a negative.

I’d remind, the Davids and McElwee, that from 1992 to 2001, 9,810 active duty military members died. At no time during the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan did the total number of annual deaths reach the total of 1980 – 2,392. Of course there were about 600,000 fewer active duty troops during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars than there were in 1980, but still. Just putting on a uniform everyday and training for war can be deadly. That’s what the troops get compensated for, not some notional sense of economic fair play.

For me and for many of this nation’s veterans, everyday is Memorial Day. We’re haunted by our ghosts that won’t let us forget. It’s entirely appropriate that there is one national day that makes civilians think about the sacrifices that are made in their name, whether they see a tangible result of those sacrifices or not.

If they want to wish us and each other “Happy Memorial Day”, well, that’s fine. It is a happy day for everyone in this country because of the sacrifices that were made by better men and women than us.

If the civilians spend one minute thinking about my friends who’ve gone on ahead because it’s Memorial Day, that’s one minute more than they have spent on any other day the rest of the year, so Memorial Day isn’t a total loss. If they really need someone to thank today, they can go thank a Gold Star family.

Category: Who knows