Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

This is Birdie’s new job in his brigade.

Not too bad for a snot-nosed kid. We’ll, I guess he has grown up.

I hadn’t really thought about it in these terms before. Perhaps it is because I wore a uniform for more than twenty years. And maybe it is because I have a son wearing an Army uniform, another wearing a Marine uniform, and yet another wearing a police uniform.

Heroism is a matter of perspective. I remember seeing video all over television when a disgruntled client attacked a lawyer outside a courthouse in California. Dozens of cameramen and reporters were there to film and comment on the scene, but not one rushed to intercede. The assailant had a small caliber pistol, so perhaps they were right in staying out of the way. As a military man, however, my first thought was, “Take that man down and disarm him! Don’t stand there filming! Stop the attack!”

To me, doing such a thing isn’t in the realm of heroism. It is a matter of duty as a human being.

Our military is made up of people who think in such terms. They are doing something heroic every day, although neither they nor I recognize it as anything other than doing their duty. To expect the same of a civilian–reporter–is simply too much.

Sarah discusses this in terms of having watched Under Orders, Under Fire. I recommend each of you do the same.

According to today’s Comments (5)

James left for Basic Training on 12 May. He posts his first comments on the changes since he went through years ago. I’d be interested to hear what Drill Sergeant Rob has to say about it.

I’m at Fort Rucker for a couple of days. “The Home of Army Aviation.” It’s my first time here. My travel partner and I will visit their engine test cells today and see what we can do to help them improve their testing operation. I’m an old airplane guy, so being around people who deal with aircraft always makes me feel good.

It also gives me the opportunity to visit the Army Aviation Museum. The Army has always flown some interesting fixed-wing aircraft, and we strolled around the outdoor exhibits yesterday. The Caribou and Mohawk are two of my favorites.

Light blogging for a day or two.

Got this in an email from another old guy.

If I could, I’d enlist today and help my country track down those responsible for killing thousands of innocent people in New York City and Washington, DC. But, I’m over 50 now and the Armed Forces say I’m too old to track down terrorists. You can’t be older than 35 to join the military.

They’ve got the whole thing backwards. Instead of sending 18-year-olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn’t be able to join until you?re at least 35.

For starters: Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more that 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.

Young guys haven’t lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. If we can’t kill the enemy we’ll complain them into submission: “My back hurts!” “I’m hungry!” “Where’s the remote control?”

An 18-year-old hasn’t had a legal beer yet and you shouldn’t go to war until you’re at least old enough to legally drink. An average old guy, on the other hand, has consumed 126,000 gallons of beer by the time he’s 35 and a jaunt through the desert heat with a backpack and M-60 would do wonders for the old beer belly.

An 18-year-old doesn’t like to get up before 10 a.m. Old guys get up early anyway (to pee).

If old guys are captured we couldn’t spill the beans because we’d probably forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser.

Boot camp would actually be easier for old guys. We’re used to getting screamed and yelled at and we actually like soft food. We’ve also developed a deep appreciation for guns and rifles. We like them almost better than naps. They could lighten up on the obstacle course however. I’ve been in combat and didn’t see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after training. I can hear the Drill Sergeant now, “Get down and give me…er…one.”

And the running part is kind of a waste of energy. I’ve never seen anyone outrun a bullet. An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He’s still learning to shave, to actually carry on a conversation, to wear pants without the top of the butt crack showing and the boxer shorts sticking out, to learn that a pierced tongue catches food particles, and that a 200-watt speaker in the back seat of a Honda Accord can rupture an eardrum. All great reasons to keep our sons at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off to a possible death. Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten cowards who attacked our hearts on September 11. The last thing the enemy would want to see right now is a couple of million old farts with attitudes

There are many good lines in this article by Bill Bennett from notes in his speech before the Claremont Institute’s President’s Club. I can only say this is the clearest, least accusatory explanation I’ve seen.

Our enemy is horrid, wicked, inhuman. Those are the adjectives for 9/11, and for 5/11. Not “inhumane,” as some of our soldiers acted at Abu Ghraib. Inhuman. The moral equivalence, and the adjectival equivalence, needs to end now.

He spends a great deal of time talking about how the prisoner abuse relates to many other happenings in this war. In one instant he quotes Daniel Patrick Moynihan, one of the best UN Ambassadors we’ve ever had, and a Democratic Senator who was American before he was Democrat:

“Am I ashamed to speak on behalf of a less than perfect country? Find me a better one. Do I suppose there are societies which are free of sin? No, I don’t. Do I think ours is, on balance, incomparably the most hopeful set of human relations the world has? Yes, I do. Have we done obscene things? Yes, we have. How did our people learn about them? They learned about them on television and in the newspapers.”

He also makes very clear how root causes have no link to societal status or environment. Lynndie England is the woman in all the abuse photos. Joe Darby is the soldier who turned in her and the others:

We know little of England, save that she grew up fairly poor and in a trailer park. As if that general report explains anything. It doesn’t. Here’s what we know, now, of Specialist Joe Darby: “Darby lived in a coal town, in a household headed by a disabled stepfather. To make ends meet, he worked the night shift at Wendy’s.” Bad actions, wrong actions, even evil actions, have nothing to do with economics, poverty, wealth, or any other artificial construct any more than good actions do. They have to do with moral fiber. Those who attacked us on 9/11, as much as those who planned and trained them, were upper- and middle-class Arabs. Bin Laden is wealthier than any of us can hope to be. Mohammed Atta drove a Mercedes. Al-Zawahiri is a physician from an upper-class family. Let’s hear no more of root causes; let’s speak, instead, of right and wrong and good and evil.

I’ve seen comments on left-leaning web sites about “These guards probably had never heard of the Geneva Convention.” As if that really meant anything in this case:

What happened at Abu Ghraib was not a matter of poor training or bad supervision. These were humans acting inhumanely. When I hear that they were not properly trained or supervised, I wonder if those who say that have lost their common sense as well.

I agree. But to answer the accusation, Everyone in the military receives training in the rules of the Geneva Convention, and those deploying get additional training. MPs get additional, recurring training. To make that accusation is to claim people in the military are idiots, which may be exactly what the speaker wants to say.

For all the whining we hear on television about how the military was covering things up, remember the military found out, began an investigation, and held the first trial of those involved in five months. How long has the Kobe Bryant case been running? Or Scott Peterson’s trial? Some will say this was fast-tracked after release in the press. Wrong. The dates were set before the first article came out. And the military court system doesn’t waste time. Court-martial panels are made up of people with other jobs to tend to, and they have little sympathy for circus clowns. I’ve sat on them. I’ve been part of military trials where someone’s life is changed drastically because of choices they made. You want the truth. Period. You are dealing with someone’s life, and it is important to exactly understand the circumstances. Find that in a civilian court of law.

Bennet’s article is excellent, and heartily recommended.