Our Citizen Soldiers

Blackfive has something worth your time. "LTC Randolph C. White Jr. delivers the graduation speech for the newest batch of Infantrymen to complete training at Ft. Benning, Georgia, on April 21st, 2006." There's a link to the video, as well as the text of the speech. Ked's trying to read a computer trade journal at the moment, so I read it rather than listening, but even just reading it was inspiring. LTC White is clearly proud of the graduating soldiers (and none too easy on academia and Hollywood.) He lets the soldiers know the importance of their role in our country, and the world:

WHEN POLICY MAKERS FINISH TALKING, WHEN DEBATE HAS CEASED, WHEN NEGOTIATIONS HAVE FAILED AND ORDERS ARE GIVEN ... IT BECOMES THE MISSION OF THE YOUNG MEN BEFORE YOU TO EXECUTE NATIONAL POLICY FOR THE LAST 300-500 METERS TO A GIVEN OBJECTIVE.

THEY ARE THE SUBSTANCE BEHIND ANY POLICY UNDERTAKEN BY THIS COUNTRY DEEMED IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO SEND SOLDIERS INTO HARMS WAY ...ABSOLUTE PROOF POSITIVE THAT THE UNITED STATES MEANS BUSINESS WHEN THEIR BOOTS HIT THE GROUND.

Parts of this speech reminded me of something I just read last night in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. (Yes, it was a book before it was a movie. The book's way better, if you ask me. Not that you did.) In the book, nobody who has not done national military service is actually a citizen. Other people are free to live their lives, and free to choose not to be a soldier, but they are never as valued by society, and they have not earned the right to vote, for which military service is the prerequisite. Heinlein's vision for a society that honors its veterans goes a step or two beyond anything we see here in the good old US of A, wouldn't you say?--especially given the history of the last few decades, from the way protesters greeted returning soldiers from VietNam, to the way the media constantly reports body counts rather than the accomplishments of our soldiers as they build schools and power grids in Iraq and Afghanistan, risk their lives in battle, train Iraqi soldiers to defend their own country, and defend us daily. (LTC White isn't particularly easy on protesters, draft dodgers, and the media in his speech either.) White stresses the key role of American soldiers, and the great responsibility they bear by being the might that serves to "execute national policy." Heinlein makes a similar point in Troopers:

War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him... but to make him do what you want him to do. Not killing... but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how--or why--he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people--'older and wiser heads,' as they say--supply the control. Which is as it should be.

What strikes me about this quote, and parts of the speech by LTC White, is that this is the difference between our soldiers and the terrorists they are fighting around the world. Our soldiers don't kill the enemy (or the enemy's children) just to be killing him, as the terrorists do. They don't take it upon themselves to decide when our nation goes to war, as Hezbollah recently did to Lebanon. Unlike the multiple, competing, contradictory terrorist groups, each plotting what they think will serve their own interests, our soldiers remain subordinate to the decisions of our statesmen and generals. They are the controlled expression of our national will, and they do that job extremely admirably. They deserve our respect for their service and sacrifice. Let us all hope that the "older and wiser heads" supplying the control, our statesmen and generals, strive to be worthy of them.

Some of you may disagree with this post, but I suspect most of you will be saying, "Well, duh. Obviously our soldiers are valuable and noble, and worthy of respect and praise." True. It is obvious, but sometimes ya just gotta state the obvious. There are so many voices out there "supporting our troops" by condemning almost everything they do. I want to add my voice to upping the volume on the other side.