WELCOME TO "NO SYMPATHY NIGHT"
In my opinion, you won't find a more succinct summation of public opinion dynamics in war than Humphrey Bogart's immortal line from Casablanca: "Yesterday they were just Nazis, today they're the honored dead." Wait till someone dies - preferably on TV, so we can be entertained, educated or inspired by it - and nothing can be spoken about the dearly departed except effusive praise.
Unfortunately, I think Bogart's statement was incomplete. After a few weeks pass, the dead become "just Nazis" again. And at this point it becomes possible to talk about the actual truth.
Which brings me to Pat Tillman. Remember Pat? In a military-propaganda story so good that it couldn't have been scripted, Tillman walked away from a $3,600,000 NFL contract to join the Army Rangers. You can imagine the size of the erection this caused among the war hawks. And imagine how it grew in size when good ol' American boy Pat - the man who threw away fame and fortune to valiantly serve his land - got shot and killed by one of his own men in Afghanistan.
Now we didn't merely have a man giving up a comfortable life to serve in the Army.....we had a man who died doing it. Propaganda jackpot! Imagine the yellow ribbons emblazoned with his #40. Imagine the god-awful pastiche of nonsensical patriotic images that could now include him (to the left of the eagle, between the smoking Twin Towers). Imagine all the things that could be dedicated to him. Imagine all the moments of silence and video montages that can be played in his honor.
The only obstacle was to make sure no one ever asked why.
Thanks to the way we raise young men, coupled with the fact that the white men aged 40-75 who dominate society are predominantly either veterans of the last meaningful war in the 1940s or embittered Vietnam vets, ensures that Tillman would be hero-worshipped. And he was. Raise your sons on a steady diet of air shows, gun play, Boy Scouts, WWII videos, and war movies, and of course someone like Tillman will get beatified. Because, really, what is more meaningful than giving up one's life to serve the country?
Well, lots of things. Hundreds of things. And that never gets mentioned. Ever. Because, you see, the moment that we admit this as a society we will lose the ability to funnel indoctrinated young men and women into military service. If we ever question dying in combat as one's ultimate goal in life, suddenly people won't be so keen on....dying in combat. We justify the deaths of the world's Pat Tillmans by talking about what a noble service they provided, how they protected us. Again, that can't be challenged, because then the people who have to do the dying start to hesitate.
Pat Tillman made his decision and accepted the consequences. One of two things must be true: either he was not intelligent enough to understand that this conflict had nothing to do with protecting us as a nation, or he simply liked the idea of being GI Joe (or maybe just the idea of killing) so much that he signed up to live out his puerile gun-love fantasy. In either of these cases, I have no sympathy for him.
Pat Tillman was an honors student in college. There are about a thousand things he could have done rather than waste his life. Gone to medical school. Started a charity. Taken his $3,600,000 and given it away. Become a nurse. Join the peace corps. Build houses for the homeless. Walked the street as a cop. Do missionary work. No, Pat Tillman did not choose any of these noble goals, he chose the one that would give him the most glory. I see nothing altruistic about that.
There is something seriously wrong with a society in which any part of the population is so in thrall with militaria. Before long, "Wings of the Luftwaffe" blends into History Channel videos from the Gulf War blends into gun shows blends into parades blends into salutes and flag worship and finally blends into reality. The "ultimate sacrifice" ideology is fueled mostly by people whose lives lack meaning or aren't smart enough to deduce any of the hundreds of noble things one can do in this life.
After a long day of mopping floors or sitting on the phone trying to sell enough insurance to get a promotion to Assistant Regional Sales Manager (need that raise so you can get the new Hi-Def TV and isn't it time for a couple new cars too?), they realize that the one and only thing they can ever do that anyone will remember or speak well of is die in combat. They will comfort themselves by placing on a pedestal the one thing that just about anyone can do: join the Army and get shot.
I'm not anti-military in the slightest. If anything, I have tremendous sympathy for the people in it. Because it's our social welfare system, albeit a remarkably dangerous one. Come from a poor area? Join the Army....you don't have any other opportunities. Are you a fuck up headed for an early death? Join the Marines...they'll "straighten you out" or at least make your death socially acceptable. From a small town? The Navy's your only way out. Working class kid needs money for college? ROTC will help!
Like draftees, most people in this military probably have much less enthusiasm for it than society would like to think. In reality, they're just unfortunate people to whom this society offered no other opportunity. Because you are poor, you must either work at Hardee's or join the Army and get shot at. Sorry. Find a "Military base town" - El Paso, for example - and see how the Payday Loans and Pawn Shops outnumber everything else in the city 10 to 1. Yes, we in America still leave it to the government to provide for the poor, unprivileged, and unmotivated. Only we make them get shot at for their monthly pittance. Neat.
To defend America, most citizens would to just about anything. But we are long past having to pay serious lip service to the idea that the people dying in Iraq are defending America. If your station in life has forced you into the military, I'm sorry. If you're one of America's Pat Tillmans - if you're a bright young person with so much to contribute but could not exercise enough critical thinking skills to avoid the life of shooting little brown people while the nation pats you on the back and tells you what a noble thing you did - then welcome to No Sympathy Night.
Have a nice day.
