Blue Collar Muse

I don’t know what the male counterpart to “Chick Flicks” are called. I just know I’m an afficionado. I like films with explosions, big guns and good guys overcoming impossible odds by mixed martial arts-ing seemingly endless hordes of bad guys into submission. I’m sure I should like more movies like ‘Pride and Prejudice’ but if I had the choice I’d pick ‘The 300′ or ‘Pathfinder’. I’m sure there’s some group for those of us in recovery. Something like Men’s Cinema Anonymous, perhaps - although that conjurs up images too close to ‘In Living Color’s’ ‘Men on Film’ segments for my taste.

I don’t share the opinions of many on the Left and in academia that cinematic violence is bad for us. Without question, some of it is. The violence in ‘Natural Born Killers’, comes to mind. That violence is purposeless and gratuitous. Films like ‘The Shooter’, however, are different. That violence is directed at members of a unique group - the “Some folks just need killin’” club. The point is, like it or not, there are people in the world bent on our destruction. Thus, we need people trained to deal with these sorts of folks in the only effective manner. Winston Churchill said it best, “We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.” The violence these men do isn’t evil or detrimental to our emotional and spiritual health. It is to be admired, supported and we should be grateful to these warriors who fight for us.

There are, however, differences between cinema and reality. The conflict is seldom clean and clear; the enemies are often anonymous and hard to identify and in real life the good guys aren’t always vindicated nor do they always win. When they don’t, their injuries really bleed, their deaths may be slow and painful and their unjust imprisonments can last for decades. There is no director to yell “CUT!” or “That’s a wrap!” and no trailer to retire to where chilled Perrier awaits. Most of us have never experienced the horror that is combat. In the US, the closest we’ve come is 140 years ago in the Civil War. Combat involving Americans over the last 50 years or so has been experienced by men (and some women) who volunteered to leave everything we take for granted in our daily lives to become part of the thin green line separating us from today’s barbarians. Thanks in large part to those rough men - raised to love God and family, flag and country - the ravages of war that even today desecrate so much of our world have been kept away from our homeland.

Considering this, how should we respond to these men who selflessly serve so we may sleep soundly. Our response must first be rooted in gratitude. For many who serve, a simple ‘Thank You’ means more than we who have never served could possibly understand. Beyond that, we must respond to these fine men with the understanding that training him to use deadly force in combat does not make him a killer. We must also respond with fairness when judging his actions knowing combat consists of short, brutal, moments of violence erupting unexpectedly in the midst of what passes for ‘normal’ life in a combat theater. There is not the luxury of choreographing combat scenarios with blanks in the weapons and hi-tech ketchup for blood. Mistakes made by Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal end up on the cutting room floor. Mistakes in real life end up on the floor of a field hospital.

Too often in the Global War on Terror, we have failed in our duty to respond well to the rough men on the front lines. LTC Allen West was put through the wringer in 2003 for successfully acquiring information which thwarted an ambush of US troops. Marine 2nd Lt Ilario Pantano was charged with premeditated murder in the deaths of two Iraqis in 2004. The case against the Haditha Marines accused of murdering unarmed civilians in November, 2005 is starting to fall apart but the charges are still pending. Another Marine was drug through the mud when he killed a wounded insurgent who appeared to be about to attack him and the act was caught on video.

Now, yet another group of Marines are facing the same sort of treatment at the hands of a media, nation and Corps that owe them at least the benefit of the doubt, the assumption of innocence, the same rights and protections made available to the least of the detainees at Club Gitmo. Kit Jarrel at Euphoric Reality posts a letter from Ilario Pantano, who was cleared of the charges against him, which outlines the situation and the case against the currently anonymous Marines.

Ilario writes:

… on March 4, 2007 in the town of Bati Kot, Afghanistan, our Marines became the victims of more than just suicide bombers, they were caught in the teeth of a thoughtfully engineered media ambush that has ensnared them, and by extension the U.S., in the Taliban’s fight to wrest control of Afghanistan from the Karzai government. …

The story, neatly packaged for global media consumption, made the April, 15, 2007 cover of The New York Times with the accusatory headline: “Marines Actions in Afghanistan Called Excessive.” Not the first time they’ve gotten it wrong. …

Even if our enemies have become adept at using the all-to-willing American media as a weapon to weaken our national resolve, how can a rational person simply assume that if innocent life was lost, our men did something wrong during that March 4 incident? Illogically high expectations about pinpoint accuracy and target discrimination in a fire-fight are the fantasy of armchair-academics and videogame players. Men on the ground know that war is sloppy and rough. Combat is not a noun or a place that you are “in,” but rather a verb, a thing that you “do” to other people. Principally, combat is imposing your will on the enemy by violence of action and the ugly truth is that the process kills all kinds of people: good ones, bad ones, and yes, even our own. When our expectations of success and precision are unrealistic it threatens not only our service men, it emboldens our enemy, and it breaks our will to stand and fight. Suggesting that these highly trained and seasoned Marines acted indiscriminately is preposterous for two key reasons: the first is what we know about the threat that they faced; the second is what we know about the caliber of these Marines. …

I know by now many of you have grown weary of this war and long to tune out the barbarism and the political buffoonery that fills the airwaves, but you must not. Some will wring their hands and say, “Let the system run its course.” I can tell you from personal experience that we cannot afford to loose these men or put them through a media circus only to later be exonerated. We cannot wantonly destroy the careers of our most capable war fighters in a fool’s gamble to curry favor with foreign governments or mollify factions within our own. I ask you: where do the volunteers to fill our overtaxed ranks come from when they see the way we treat not just our warriors, but our best warriors?

Over at Euphoric Reality, Kit and Ilario have more information and some practical things you can do to help these rough men. Click through, read the rest of the story and then act on what you have learned.

If the media, the Corps, our nation and the rest of an ungrateful world will not stand with these men, then we must. Because we’re not looking for a few good men … but a few rough ones. Keeping the ones we already have will make it easier to find the rest that we need.

Thinking if we fail in our support mission the troops fail in their combat mission …

Blue Collar Muse

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