Military and Honor

Not too long ago I was having a conversation with Martin Murray about Senator Obama (he had not yet won the election) and he said the things he expected the senator to do if elected. Martin is politically very principled and would not give any politician a free pass. Martin does not "hope" President Obama does these things, he expects them to be done. But he finished with "... and end the war in Iraq." Mostly to be sly, I added "With honor. You got to win those Red states." But I thought about it and think that there is more to ensuring that "our brave boys" blah blah for the camera. In general this tendency is worthy only a laugh but there is something essential to guarding, respecting and most important expecting honor from our military.

At one level the military is just a bunch of people with a lot of very very dangerous weapons. Really just one of those small Coats Guard destroyers I've seen in the bay could shut down all naval traffic in and out of the bay, an aircraft carrier could destroy the entire infrastructure of the Bay Area in a matter of days. We don't have many army bases around here that I know about but I imagine a regularly stocked US army base could out-gun all of Oakland without breaking a sweat (think artillery on the other side of the Bay followed by tanks supported by infantry with real machine guns... and all of this is pretty close to WWII technology. I can only imagine that their killing power is much greater now.

Because we have had a stable democracy for so long it is difficult to imagine and easy to dismiss the idea that a part of the military could do this. This is a wonderful circumstance to be in, but just keeping one eye on the state of the world and a decent understanding of history we easily recognize that this is an unusual situation. It is important to acknowledge the reasons that the military, which is so much more powerful that the civilian population consistently submits to the will of the civilian government.

To be sure part of this is self-interest. With the military industrial complex and a strong economy there is little reason to overthrow the government. But I can't help that thinking that many people, if they think of the military at all, believe it is somehow subdued by our Constitution or the mighty will of the people. They watched "V for Vendetta" and imagine the military as impotent without central leadership... which the civilian government controls. This supposed impotence is largely self-imposed. The military trains (brain washes) the ideal of chain of command thoroughly in its members but really a bunch of guys with guns can do what they want.

Which takes us to the idea of civilians (such as Martin and myself) insisting that our soldiers be keep their honor. It would seem strange to what we call common sense that this honor is more valuable than even one human life. That does seem to be the conflict, a bunch of Blue State people wanting the end the war to spare human tragedy, save lives and promote peace and a bunch of Red State people harping about "ending the war with honor." It is easy to imagine how the peace lobby supporters would have trouble understanding this conflict.

How I understand it is that the United States military is a semi-religious institution, it is almost a cult. The regular "soft" civilians are not simply toughened up and taught to shoot strait but there is a great emphasis on the ideals of the military which we will call simply "honor." This is the ideal though perhaps not the fullness of practice. The desired result is a new kind of person.

What kind of person does the military strive to produce? Obedient, selfless, efficient and dangerous. But these traits are not permanent reprogramming but a somewhat willing mask based upon the mythology of honor. This honor can be stripped away by disrespect and shame. That is part of the real argument against burning the flag. So-and-so mentioned that in his boot camp an extraordinary effort was to impose this idea that the flag must always be respected. It is a kind of religious symbol. The disrespect of that symbol does more than hurts the feelings of patriotic citizens; it destroys the power of the symbol. If soldiers have been living obedient, selfless, efficient and dangerous lives "for the flag" find that perhaps the flag isn't such a big deal then it is all the easier to drop the obedient, selfless and efficient lifestyle they impose on themselves but they remain dangerous people.