tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1151392762208539379.post3881548716280979979..comments2023-06-23T03:17:34.523-07:00Comments on Burton Hersh: Who Serves IVBurton Hershhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811412812377062372noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1151392762208539379.post-27779645273982309092012-04-12T11:19:41.787-07:002012-04-12T11:19:41.787-07:00Modern war, as advertised on TV by our armed force...Modern war, as advertised on TV by our armed forces, is a testing ground for manly glory and courage, and lately, even, for compassion (nation building), if that doesn't turn the mechanized killing that is modern warfare on its head. And, of course, for womanly courage, as well. <br /><br />What must it have been like to volunteer to fight the Axis Powers in WWII, America's last war that did not involve a business choice?<br /><br />PTSD occurs, yes, from terror and stress (shell shock began, essentially, at Shiloh) but recent sufferers may well be increasing in numbers due to at least two factors you did not mention in your piece, Burton: Vanished battle lines and a "nobility deficit."<br /><br />A soldier cannot return fire upon an IED. The battle lines that survived at least up until the First Iraq War -- tanks, Humvees and troops advancing upon dug-in emplacements with humans that could fire back -- vanished in Bush II's Iraq war, as they have in Afghanistan (and did in Vietnam), as our troops entered cities and villages filled with insurgents indistinguishable from civilians. Any well-trained soldier learns controlled rage in order to be effective. By placing our fighting men and women in these last two conflicts, we have forced them to disperse that rage, through no fault of their own, onto everybody nearby. In order to stay alive, every man, woman and child must reasonably be viewed as a threat. <br /><br />In the Marne, the enemy stood, or was dug in, opposite the infantry soldier. Danger lay dead ahead. Unless flanked, bullets and shells did not come from behind or to the side; at least their direction could generally be relied upon, solely in terms of how a human being perceives the direction of danger. In our recent conflicts, however, threat comes from 360 degrees around the soldier, and from above and below, once he or she leaves the wire, and in cases of land mines and IED's, has no face or uniform. Such vanished battle lines, unfortunately, very much resemble everyday places. Streets. Houses. Fields. No wonder that some returning soldiers have difficulty with everyday places that are completely safe, here at home. Fight or flight is triggered by garbage along the median strip or a car pulling up a little too close behind on the freeway.<br /><br />"Nobility deficit" has nothing to do with the personal nobility of serving men and women, which I think in most cases among our military is quite high, but rather with our national motivations for war, which you mention in your post. Perhaps many soldiers still believe that their work is to follow orders and fight without regard to why, but in this modern age of conflicting media, surely soldiers find an increasing supply of reasons to doubt why they find themselves in rural villages among people who, in the main, deeply despise their presence and incomprehensible Western ways. Regarding battlegrounds such as Afghanistan, which, as soon as we leave will revert to its ancient habits despite our best intentions, we certainly can't blame our returning soldiers, even if they are unscathed physically or psychologically by their experiences there, from asking themselves, "What was that all about?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com