I'm just gonna say it
posted by bitchphd
For mysterious reasons of her own, Sybil was asking on Twitter about this study: how Americans perceive science, blah blah. Her issue was being shocked that only 87% of scientists "believe" in evolution, which, you know, is shocking and all. But mine is, wait a second, THE profession that people most think contributes to society's well-being is... soldier?
Are you fucking shitting me?
Look, I "support the troops" and all. Long-time readers know that Mr. B. was in the military for twelve fucking years, and that he was in ROTC when we started dating. So even though Sybil's immediate response was to accuse me of hating America (because she's jingoistic like that), I am not some cartoon straw-leftist who thinks all soldiers are babykillers.
What I do think, though, is that we have not had a war on American soil since the goddamn Civil War. The closest things since then have been Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and our sending troops into Mexico during their revolution. And yeah, I'm glad the Allies won WWII, and yes, American help was necessary there, so yay us. And yes Pearl Harbor was an act of war. 9/11, not so much, given that "war" = conflict between nation-states, and Al Qaeda isn't a nation-state, but even there I'll grant for the sake of argument that an armed response on our part wasn't unjustified.
But come the fuck on. 9/11 wasn't a threat to "our freedom" or our continued existence as a country. Possibly in the sense that our reaction to it has curtailed our freedoms, what with wire-tapping and indefinite detention and torture and execution orders against American citizens and the like. US soldiers haven't been protecting "our freedom" since . . . well, the Civil War. They've protected Europe's freedom, and good for them. They've protected the freedom of Albanians in Kosovo. They've protected the border between North and South Korea, they tried to protect UN peacekeepers in Somalia, they've protected Israel indirectly.
They've protected U.S. interests--which are not the same as U.S. freedoms--in Grenada and Beirut and Panama and the Phillippines and the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua and China and Russia (way back during the revolution), and we've been all over Latin America. And we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, of course. But none of those countries or wars really threatened our freedom, except by some fucked-up definition where "freedom" means "right to do as we damn well please and get cheap oil while we're at it." None of those actions threatened anything in the Bill of Rights or the U.S. Constitution.
God knows I respect military folks, who by and large I think really do believe that they are serving their country, and that they *are* protecting us. I know that Mr. B. truly believes that his work in the military (and today, for the DoD as a civilian) protects us and helps perpetuate peace (by giving us the knowledge and strategic advantage to deter any possible threat). I'm not 100% there with him on his thinking, but I don't think he's crazy or flat-out wrong, either: geopolitics are some complicated shit, and we're a superpower (like it or not), and this is the Way The World Works.
But it is just false fucking patriotism to think that the military is beyond reproach, or that soldiers are the only things standing between two-cars-and-a-white-picket-fence and Utter Chaos. Or that two-cars-and-a-white-picket-fence are the same as "freedom." Yes, the military protects our position at the top of the global heap, and I for one am goddamn glad that I was lucky enough to be born there. But my comfortable house and my two cats and my car that runs just fine, thank you, and my clothes that I don't have enough room to store, and my grandmother's china, and my trip to Colorado this weekend are not the same as my ability to vote, or to speak my mind, or to lobby my government to do things that I think are important.
I mean, even while I acknowledge that my own relative wealth sure-as-shit gives me more ability and leisure to do those things (money, after all, = speech!), I think even the most cynical lefty will acknowledge that my rights under U.S. law aren't protected by the U.S. military. My ability to exercise those rights depends to some extent on things like my own personal wealth and education and social status, sure, and my own personal wealth and social status depend, obviously, on my husband's secure DoD employment and nice paychecks--but that's idiosyncratic, and my freedoms as an American aren't contingent on it, even if my own personal comforts are.
Moreover, even on the "way of life" front I don't see why the military should get more credit than (say) oil companies, or bankers, or sweatshops. None of which, I think, are popular candidates for sainthood. Nor am I saying they should be. What I'm saying is, be fucking honest: acknowledge that our Way of Life is founded on violence, if it's our Way of Life you want to espouse--and as I said, I'll be the first to admit that I am enormously lucky to have be born at the top of the global/historical food chain. If the price I have to pay for my comfortable life is the moral queasiness of realizing that my material comforts are based on some pretty abhorrent shit, then I can at least skirt up and admit it.
But my freedoms? Not so much. This is where I'm a patriot, and where the false patriotism of "thank a soldier" really galls. I don't, as a matter of fact, believe that things like the right to vote, to travel, to form and express my opinions; to choose my religion (including the possible choice of "no thank you") and my companions; to demonstrate or run for office; to habeas corpus and a trial by jury, to decide who gets to come into my house, to protect myself property and my body--none of those things stem from war (not even from the American Revolution, inasmuch as Brits have them too, y'know). If I were African-American, then yes: my right to some of those things would be the direct outcome of the Civil War, and god bless the Union soldiers who died in droves to get it for me. But in point of fact, I'm not black, and the rights that I have were by and large won in the courts and in street demonstrations. (And even if I were African-American, most of my rights would have been won in courts and demonstrations, given the failures of Reconstruction, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)
So yeah, as an American and a patriot, I would like us to quit with the soldier-worship. Respect them, as one should respect all professions, and respect their devotion to public service, as we damn well ought to respect the devotion to public service of all state employees. And yes, people whose work puts them in danger deserve a hell of a lot of sympathy and support. But until I start seeing "I support our mail carriers" or "thank a garbage collector" bumper stickers on the backs of people's cars, I'm calling bullshit on the notion that a military uniform = a halo.
And anyone who comments along the lines of "thank a soldier for your right to say this" can kiss my ass.
Are you fucking shitting me?
Look, I "support the troops" and all. Long-time readers know that Mr. B. was in the military for twelve fucking years, and that he was in ROTC when we started dating. So even though Sybil's immediate response was to accuse me of hating America (because she's jingoistic like that), I am not some cartoon straw-leftist who thinks all soldiers are babykillers.
What I do think, though, is that we have not had a war on American soil since the goddamn Civil War. The closest things since then have been Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and our sending troops into Mexico during their revolution. And yeah, I'm glad the Allies won WWII, and yes, American help was necessary there, so yay us. And yes Pearl Harbor was an act of war. 9/11, not so much, given that "war" = conflict between nation-states, and Al Qaeda isn't a nation-state, but even there I'll grant for the sake of argument that an armed response on our part wasn't unjustified.
But come the fuck on. 9/11 wasn't a threat to "our freedom" or our continued existence as a country. Possibly in the sense that our reaction to it has curtailed our freedoms, what with wire-tapping and indefinite detention and torture and execution orders against American citizens and the like. US soldiers haven't been protecting "our freedom" since . . . well, the Civil War. They've protected Europe's freedom, and good for them. They've protected the freedom of Albanians in Kosovo. They've protected the border between North and South Korea, they tried to protect UN peacekeepers in Somalia, they've protected Israel indirectly.
They've protected U.S. interests--which are not the same as U.S. freedoms--in Grenada and Beirut and Panama and the Phillippines and the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua and China and Russia (way back during the revolution), and we've been all over Latin America. And we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, of course. But none of those countries or wars really threatened our freedom, except by some fucked-up definition where "freedom" means "right to do as we damn well please and get cheap oil while we're at it." None of those actions threatened anything in the Bill of Rights or the U.S. Constitution.
God knows I respect military folks, who by and large I think really do believe that they are serving their country, and that they *are* protecting us. I know that Mr. B. truly believes that his work in the military (and today, for the DoD as a civilian) protects us and helps perpetuate peace (by giving us the knowledge and strategic advantage to deter any possible threat). I'm not 100% there with him on his thinking, but I don't think he's crazy or flat-out wrong, either: geopolitics are some complicated shit, and we're a superpower (like it or not), and this is the Way The World Works.
But it is just false fucking patriotism to think that the military is beyond reproach, or that soldiers are the only things standing between two-cars-and-a-white-picket-fence and Utter Chaos. Or that two-cars-and-a-white-picket-fence are the same as "freedom." Yes, the military protects our position at the top of the global heap, and I for one am goddamn glad that I was lucky enough to be born there. But my comfortable house and my two cats and my car that runs just fine, thank you, and my clothes that I don't have enough room to store, and my grandmother's china, and my trip to Colorado this weekend are not the same as my ability to vote, or to speak my mind, or to lobby my government to do things that I think are important.
I mean, even while I acknowledge that my own relative wealth sure-as-shit gives me more ability and leisure to do those things (money, after all, = speech!), I think even the most cynical lefty will acknowledge that my rights under U.S. law aren't protected by the U.S. military. My ability to exercise those rights depends to some extent on things like my own personal wealth and education and social status, sure, and my own personal wealth and social status depend, obviously, on my husband's secure DoD employment and nice paychecks--but that's idiosyncratic, and my freedoms as an American aren't contingent on it, even if my own personal comforts are.
Moreover, even on the "way of life" front I don't see why the military should get more credit than (say) oil companies, or bankers, or sweatshops. None of which, I think, are popular candidates for sainthood. Nor am I saying they should be. What I'm saying is, be fucking honest: acknowledge that our Way of Life is founded on violence, if it's our Way of Life you want to espouse--and as I said, I'll be the first to admit that I am enormously lucky to have be born at the top of the global/historical food chain. If the price I have to pay for my comfortable life is the moral queasiness of realizing that my material comforts are based on some pretty abhorrent shit, then I can at least skirt up and admit it.
But my freedoms? Not so much. This is where I'm a patriot, and where the false patriotism of "thank a soldier" really galls. I don't, as a matter of fact, believe that things like the right to vote, to travel, to form and express my opinions; to choose my religion (including the possible choice of "no thank you") and my companions; to demonstrate or run for office; to habeas corpus and a trial by jury, to decide who gets to come into my house, to protect myself property and my body--none of those things stem from war (not even from the American Revolution, inasmuch as Brits have them too, y'know). If I were African-American, then yes: my right to some of those things would be the direct outcome of the Civil War, and god bless the Union soldiers who died in droves to get it for me. But in point of fact, I'm not black, and the rights that I have were by and large won in the courts and in street demonstrations. (And even if I were African-American, most of my rights would have been won in courts and demonstrations, given the failures of Reconstruction, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)
So yeah, as an American and a patriot, I would like us to quit with the soldier-worship. Respect them, as one should respect all professions, and respect their devotion to public service, as we damn well ought to respect the devotion to public service of all state employees. And yes, people whose work puts them in danger deserve a hell of a lot of sympathy and support. But until I start seeing "I support our mail carriers" or "thank a garbage collector" bumper stickers on the backs of people's cars, I'm calling bullshit on the notion that a military uniform = a halo.
And anyone who comments along the lines of "thank a soldier for your right to say this" can kiss my ass.
Labels: real americans, society, women in the military
Posted at 11:51 AM
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