Warrior once more; American no more

[Fitz_G]

"That the front-lines were the only place where one could get away from the war..."
-Seigfreid Sassoon, "Memoirs of an Infantry Officer"


By the end of 2005, I will have begun my first trip to my second war. The first challenged my world view and self concept to such a degree that I changed my political identity, world view, and self-concept. However, my loyalty to soldiers never faltered, never waned, and has only grown with time. The second I have yet to experience, though it has already changed me.

I am not shy to criticize this war. For near a decade, I have spoken of the prostitution of our military and the people who serve in it. Yet, this election proved that for all of the pain and anguish I went through in learning and communicating my true feelings, motivations, and the daily parallels I see in mainstream American society, family and friends showed themselves impervious to my story in their support of the very forces that caused such disarray in my life. Their steadfast support of those presently in power and the policies in play, coupled with their unwillingness to connect my tales and lessons to the human consequences of this endeavor, have cemented my decision.

The confrontation of Donald Rumsfeld by the Tennessee National Guard Specialist depicting soldiers forced to pillage through trash dumps for make-shift vehicle armor is part and parcel of a looming national security crisis. By the Secretary's own words, we are unable to produce enough up-armor kits to meet the demands of this war, but up-armor kits are not all we lack. The manufacturing resources are simply not available. The outsourcing of our manufacturing base eliminated our ability mobilize the nation in a WW2 style shift of production to total war.

For the first two years of that second world war, hundreds of thousands of jeeps sat stacked, one on top of the other, waiting for tires. Germany had successfully blockaded our import of rubber and nearly short circuited our greatest advantage--the full mobilization of America's industrial might. Today, with the majority of our manufacturing sector located abroad, the opportunities for the successful blockade of critical resources and supply have multiplied, while our willingness to confront the issue has miniaturized. That increased vulnerability will multiply the need for military intervention to secure those resources.

Somehow, while soldiers sifted through garbage to build their contraptions like extras in a Mad-Max film, "flip-flop" became an honest discussion of these issues for those like my family and friends. Kerry was a man they hated too much to hear, Bush was a man they loved too much to criticize, and I was the oddball too far gone for credibility. It is now painfully clear that for as long as the quartet continues to play, the people of the Titanic are content to charge headlong toward their iceberg.

For now, I elect to walk with brothers again. Willingly. I prefer to be with those of the courage and caliber of that Tennessee Guardsman and to share their plight. I have a responsibility to the soldiers in my charge. They deserve to have someone who will do what he can on their behalf. I will be a voice of reason and humanity amid chaos and apathy. I will do what I can to bring them home with safety and sanity, fully cognizant that I will accomplish very little. If necessary, I will fight. The people here will remain the same and I will return with my life altered once more.

When it is over, I will take my nugget of war savings and seek out my pen pal, whom I met as a result of an earlier war, and I will quit this country. After all, little is more American than crossing vast oceans and traveling great distances in search of a better life.

[bemildred]

1. Good luck. nt

[Fitz_G]

2. Thank you and the same to you

[BlueDog2u]

3. Thank you for the powerful statement. Good luck/eom