The Troops Also Need to Support the American People

[leobold1]

The Troops Also Need to Support the American People - Early Warning

William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security

I've been mulling over an NBC Nightly News report from Iraq last Friday in which a number of soldiers expressed frustration with opposition to war in the United States.

I'm sure the soldiers were expressing a majority opinion common amongst the ranks - that's why it is news - and I'm also sure no one in the military leadership or the administration put the soldiers up to expressing their views, nor steered NBC reporter Richard Engel to the story.

I'm all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to them why it wasn't for them to disapprove of the American people.

Friday's NBC Nightly News included a story from my colleague and friend Richard Engel, who was embedded with an active duty Army infantry battalion from Fort Lewis, Washington.

Engel relayed how "troops here say they are increasingly frustrated by American criticism of the war. Many take it personally, believing it is also criticism of what they've been fighting for."

First up was 21 year old junior enlisted man Tyler Johnson, whom Engel said was frustrated about war skepticism and thinks that critics "should come over and see what it's like firsthand before criticizing."

"You may support or say we support the troops, but, so you're not supporting what they do, what they're here sweating for, what we bleed for, what we die for. It just don't make sense to me," Johnson said.

Next up was Staff Sergeant Manuel Sahagun, who is on his second tour in Iraq. He complained that "one thing I don't like is when people back home say they support the troops, but they don't support the war. If they're going to support us, support us all the way."

Next was Specialist Peter Manna: "If they don't think we're doing a good job, everything that we've done here is all in vain," he said.

These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the President's handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and their respect.

Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration or command order.

Sure, it is the junior enlisted men who go to jail. But even at anti-war protests, the focus is firmly on the White House and the policy. We don't see very many "baby killer" epithets being thrown around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.

So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families, provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?

I can imagine some post-9/11 moment, when the American people say enough already with the wars against terrorism and those in the national security establishment feel these same frustrations. In my little parable, those in leadership positions shake their heads that the people don't get it, that they don't understand that the threat from terrorism, while difficult to defeat, demands commitment and sacrifice and is very real because it is so shadowy, that the very survival of the United States is at stake. Those Hoover's and Nixon's will use these kids in uniform as their soldiers. If I weren't the United States, I'd say the story end with a military coup where those in the know, and those with fire in their bellies, save the nation from the people.

But it is the United States and instead this NBC report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer - force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

The notion of dirty work is that, like laundry, it is something that has to be done but no one else wants to do it. But Iraq is not dirty work: it is not some necessary endeavor; the people just don't believe that anymore.

I'll accept that the soldiers, in order to soldier on, have to believe that they are manning the parapet, and that's where their frustrations come in. I'll accept as well that they are young and naïve and are frustrated with their own lack of progress and the never changing situation in Iraq. Cut off from society and constantly told that everyone supports them, no wonder the debate back home confuses them.

America needs to ponder what it is we really owe those in uniform. I don't believe America needs a draft though I imagine we'd be having a different discussion if we had one.

[ptco911]

This guy is a raving lunatic. He has never had any good to say about the military.


In the case of people like this, we have met the enemy and they are us. The people serving in our military receive fair pay for the dangers, long separations and enemies they face both foreign and in a lot of cases domestic. We have so many that have come home from various operations missing limbs and a lot of their lives. Some will be able to get a life back, other will face a life of constantly trying to receive what should be given them without reservation. The disabled vets of all of our previous conflicts are still fighting for the care we should provide them. What do they owe the country?

The soldiers that miss the birth of a child or the loss of a loved one or other very important aspects of everyday life. What do they own the country?

It is getting to the point that they are facing more threats at home than in Iraq or Afghanistan. What do they owe the country???

[las47032]

Loathsome anti military harangue.

[Manchu34]

This man is full of it!!! I bet he never seen a day wearing the uniform of any of the branches.

It pathetic that he expects the soldiers to echo no less adapt what some Americans are saying. He cries for Freedom of speech, yet wants to deny that to our Service-members.

I know what I would like to do with an idiot like that. But, the cost of the round isn't worth it.

[Joker]

Funny, I was reading down the page and thinking as I neared the end just how much it tied in with the draft thread - that these soldiers complaining of lack of public support were unlikely to be the ones leaking incidents like the water bottle taunt to the public - when there it was at the end, the draft question. In a way, we have had a mini-draft, with a rush of recruits inspired by 911 and tolerated because 'there's a war going on' (sort of), but not quite ready to toe the line, and swallow the BS. I can't help wondering if the soldiers interviewed weren't encouraged to air these grievances to counter that, but we'll never know, I guess.

And yes, some ot the things the writer said were a little near the knuckle. More than that, judging by everyone else's comments. Thought-provoking read, though. My thought, for what it's worth, is that if it could be firmly established that opposition to a war or policy was distinct from criticism of troops, a propaganda weapon would be removed from the government arsenal, ie, 'support our troops in the field' = shut up about government policy. I think that thought will come up a lot on the Democrat road to election.

[las47032]

Check this out!

A Vietnam vet's thoughts in verse form.


WaPo Warriors (a poem)

Want to slam our soldiers, Arkin?

Well here is one to slam.
I got used to Lefty slamming
When I came back from Vietnam.
So you want to put a muzzle
On our brave fighting men?
Well try muzzling me you jerk,
Just tell me where and when.

Your profession needs a lesson
In basic free speech rights,
For those you worms all hide behind,
For those who fight your fights.
Like all your soft and smarmy kind,
You really have no clue,
Who American warriors truly are,
What our warriors truly do.

How many times in your four years
As a chair-borne analyst,
Were you within an ocean's width
Of combat's hard mailed fist?
How many medals did you earn
In those warrens at Fort Meade?
In four years of four-eyed service,
Just what was your bravest deed?

FOX news has combat warriors
To help us understand the score,
While MSM uses clerks like you,
Who have never been to war.
Your resentment of your betters,
Seeps through your bitter writing,
And shows you have no clue or care
Of those who do the fighting.
Like your ivy-cloistered Comrades, your war's between the classes,
Dialectics, speeches, theory, your head's embedded in your masses.

Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

Copied.

[Woodmonkey]

I wonder what he would have said if the troops had expressed frustration to the war and how it's been conducted. Would that then have been acceptable to him?

Sounds like he is saying that the leadership has to muzzle the lowly soldier because the soldier doesn't have the right to express frustration with protesters.

When did things change from the belief that the American people should support military who are putting their lives in danger to protect our freedoms to those military having to ALSO support a segment of the American people who are protesting what they're doing?