mood: blank music: Eisley - Invasion

I hate talking about politics. This is not something I would normally say. I am making an exception.

This morning I logged into Facebook to find that yet another friend had joined the "Petition to REMOVE "Soldiers are not heroes" from Facebook!" group. The group says on their page:

"This group is not against "Freedom of Speech" it is against people using Hate Speech and Defamatory Comments towards Allied Service Members and their families."

Here is a sampling of posts from the wall, a common area where everybody in the group can post.

"All of our young men and willing that serve our country are heroes! They take their lives into harms way so that we can be free to do what we want including freedom of speech. God bless them all."

"Why dont you ask my fellow brothers and sister the 343 Firefighters that died in 911 How they feel. O wait you cant because some [string of racial slurs] flew a plane into the twin towers and killed those brave men and women doing their job saving others."

I want to be very clear on what I am about to say. I don't think there's any way that I will not be misunderstand, but I have to say this anyway. Try not to misinterpret what I say too much.

Soldiers are not heroes.

By definition, in fact, they are not. A hero is "one of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities". It is disturbing to see an entire group of people who are venerated as heroes simply because they put on a uniform, arm themselves, and defend a country. It edges dangerously close to a militaristic attitude that says what soldiers do is not a necessary evil. That being a soldier goes beyond one's duty to one's country and is instead something to be celebrated, something to admire.

It's not.

Not pictured: a hero

Soldiers are a necessary evil. Their main job is fighting, whether that be defensive or offensive. In combat, the better one side does, the worse the other does. The more you wish for the safety of one side, the more you wish for the death of the other. The more you wish for American husbands, fathers, sons, daughters, mothers to come home, the more you are wishing for Iraqi husbands, fathers, sons, daughters and mothers not to. When we celebrate the jobs of those who do the killing instead of simply saying "Get them the hell out." we are endorsing war, endorsing the killing. Some people consider the lives of Americans more important than lives of Iraqis. I am not one of those people.

Soldiers kill. They rape. They kill civilians. They torture and abuse people. And many get away with it.

This is not to say that soldiers can't be heroes. PFC Joseph Dwyer was a hero. Carlton W. Barrett was a hero. Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt was a hero. Like any large group of people, they have their good apples and their bad.

As Larry from Surviving a Dark Time said:

"Soldiers are not heroes. They can be heroes, they can act heroically, they can do heroic things - but the act of putting on a uniform and agreeing to put your conscience in a lockbox for the next so many years does not make your life more important than others, it does not make your opinions and insights more worthy of respect than others, it does not exempt you from moral judgment. It does not make you a hero." I leave you with this quote from The War Prayer, by Mark Twain.

If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon your neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain on your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse on some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

Let us not fall prey to hero worship.

Exit, stage left. Sparks