On the Misuse or Abuse of Prior Military Service

I am getting more and more outraged by the seemingly generalized acceptance that prior military service (almost always decades ago) makes one immune to sharp criticism about their policies and positions in the here and now.

A few points – great courage is not always accompanied by great wisdom or an absence of selfish ambition, foolishness, egotism, or even evil. People can change over time and be one thing in their youth or in one life situation and quite a different person at a later age and in a different life situation.

I would think that we all know these things in general, but it does not appear to be so; at least with respect to political discourse.

I am referring the famous ‘he served his country’ defense or, more correctly, red herring when someone is attacking the dishonest, self serving or imbecilic policies of John Murtha, John McCain, and even a made for campaigning hero like John Kerry.

The fact that Murtha, McCain and Kerry chose to serve and served honorably (or not in the case of Kerry) in a war of 30 plus years ago seems to me to be absolutely irrelevant in attacking the folly of a particular policy position in a vastly different time, place and set of circumstances. If Murtha, by his proposal, risked betraying the lives of 2000+ young Americans on the eve of a historic victory that could transform an entire reason, the fact that he was a good Marine in Korea does not add merit to his case or even remotely constitute a defense against those who would attack him on the merits of the present situation.

The same is true with McCain. In terms of assessing John McCain’s actions or statements, that he was a naval aviator and POW is not relevant – what is relevant is McCain’s desire for personal fame, the relationship between his ambition and his loyalty to party and principle and his presidential aspirations. His POWness is likewise not relevant to assessing the wisdom of his every surprising policy proposal. Moreover, I do not think the fact that McCain knows first hand that torture is, well, tortuous, adds a great deal to our understanding that it is not a good thing nor is our current law against it (which is clear and specific) is improved by McCain’s dangerously vague but transparently political useful bill. Moreover, I noticed that his brave service as a sailor and his seven years as a POW apparently gave him sufficient time to conclude the 1st amendment for which he was ostensibly fighting, was primarily intended for flag burning, performance artists and obscene art and only secondarily to political speech that might inconvenience him and his incumbent buddies.

All of which is to say that if McCain is a disingenuous ambition schemer (and the military services have plenty of those; who knows I might have been one too, just not as good as McCain) who would sell out the 1st Amendment and current soldiers and intelligence agents so as to position himself for 08, than I do not give a damn if he was a sailor – that is what he was; what is relevant is what he is now. The same with Murtha or any other (obviously as a former soldier, this opens anyone to question my patriotism - but given the general nature of the Left's idea of discourse, I was not under the illusion that I was in any way protected). If their policies endanger the lives of America’s soldiers, compromise the basic constitutional protections of this country, opportunistically seek to betray millions of those who trusted us, those things seem to me to be unpatriotic – lacking a primary loyalty to the best interest of the country, and for those who out of political opportunism would sacrifice Iraq and who are (if not explicitly) encouraging our enemies to kill more soldiers or innocent civilians to provide the justification (or just partisan ammunition) so that they can ride a U.S. defeat to electoral victory – that fits at least one definition of treason –giving aid (subverting the political will to resist them) and comfort (the belief that their continued sacrifice can really achieve victory) to the enemy. It is painfully apparent that the entire macro-strategy of the Democratic leadership is to use Iraq as dishonestly and opportunistically as possible to achieve a political goal of regaining power – I am sure they would prefer to not lose another soldier – just a precipitous retreat would suffice – but to achieve that end – well just listen to their words.

I am not accusing McCain or Murtha of treason, although they no doubt know that they are indirectly in league with those who are, but I am accusing them of being unpatriotic – in the words of ‘America the Beautiful’ ‘they [do not] more than self their country loved’. Were they patriotic when in uniform, I have no reason to believe that they were not. But that was 30 years ago and things and people change – patriotism does not.