Accidental Valor

CAUTION:  What you about to read is considered by the author, me, to be a random act of bloviating.  Continue at your own peril, or run away.

How do you live with plotting the probable nuclear destruction of millions of innocent women and children? For starters you make sure it never has to become a reality. How do you ensure it doesn't? You can bring your best poker face to the table, or ensure the enemy absolutely knows, without doubt, your resolve to mercilessly annihilate them by constantly reminding them you are the biggest and baddest SOB on the planet by your actions.  Teddy Roosevelt’s early 1900’s policy of “speak softly, but a big stick” just doesn't have the psychological impact of showing the world you carry a Dillon M134D Gatling Gun so you can respond with 3000 rounds per minute of patriotic resolve.  Who talks this way?

I didn't use to; I was a conservative hippy wannabe of the late 1960s, early 70s era with all of the, you know... peace, love, dope, roll another one just like the other one, don't Bogart that joint my friend, yadda, yadda, yadda.  That was before I was drafted and decided to join the Air Force.  Want a wakeup call?  Get involved with military intelligence and learn the stuff no one else knows.  Some of the information you learn can change your opinion politically, and morally.  It can tighten your sphincter to the point of redefining the term "pucker factor" for the rest of your life.

The Air Force isn't built to fight on the ground.  As the name would evidence, we take the fight to the air and carpet bomb the ground until it looks like the moon.  When I was in, we also planned out the targets for hundreds of nuclear missiles strikes and joked about being responsible for the lives of millions of innocent women and children.  Post Traumatic Stress is not just found on the battlefield.  PTSD finds you sitting on the couch in your underwear at 2:00 a.m., wondering if the blast from the target you plotted missed the population center; was your plot better than the allowed tolerances?  And there are the pilots which have to deliver this weapon of mass destruction.  PTSD?  Thank God we never had to prove our resolve.  

There is a notion that if our citizens pay for the gathered intelligence information, they deserve to see it.  Knowing what I came to learn, I became part of the school that firmly believes there is information you don't want to know, things you don't want to see, and disavowed Black Ops at work ensuring you enjoy that peaceful night with your family and friends.  You really don't want to know what they do.  Be satisfied and comforted in the knowledge that someone has the courage, the big Inconel 625 cojones, to do it.

There is also a question of whether what these people do is legal, lawful, moral, or even necessary.  Are you alive, speaking English, and free?  If so, thank God; shake the hand of a proud U.S. military vet.  If you don't feel the gratitude, that is the right of opinion they fought, and died, for you to have, but you might want to consider saving face by simply closing your pie hole.  Go shopping with your family feeling relatively safe in the notion that someone has paid, and is paying, for your precious freedoms by accepting a probable sentence in hell from almighty God for the actions they take to ensure you get to eat that Big Mac in peace, but don't whine about the actions of a few good men and women of whom, and what, you have no concept.

"Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post."

-- Colonel Jessup, "A Few Good Men" (1992)

I considered this a strongly acted tirade by Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessup. I think the last time I was riveted to a speech like this was the one given by George C. Scott portraying Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. in Patton. But, is Col. Jessup correct? To a point, I think yes.

The point of the case depicted in the movie, as I see it, rests with excusing the death of a young Marine under the guise of honor, code, and loyalty; words and ideals which Jessup and the defendants clearly ignored in the eyes of The U.S. Military Code of Conduct and, thence, The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).  Even the military has laws to protect us from ourselves and from illegal or unconscionable orders.

The philosophy Jessup espouses of why "those walls have to be guarded by men with guns" is, in my opinion, correct and more to the point.  We need them and, if we want to admit it or not, we want them there.  Hey, better them than you, right?  After all, your taxes pay for their bravery, even if it doesn't pay for the aftermath of service; damage incurred to them mentally and physically for which a,, in all probability, quick patch is applied prior to farming the wounded warrior out to pasture.  But, then, this also should be of no concern, should it, with Obamacare and all.  They carry, and oft times publicly display, these wounds as they do their metals, all rewards for a job well done.  

Whether a soldier sees combat, the mere fact they have signed away their life for the good of the many, or the few, is already an act of accidental valor.  I say "accidental" because most of them don't realize they have already become heroes to many of us, a hero which they will forever be in denial of.  These are our national pride, our children, our sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, our grandparents and great grandparents, our friends.  These are our accidental heroes which display daily, acts of accidental valor.  It might be planned, but more frequently we discover they simply found themselves being in the wrong place at the right time.

These are heroes all, patriots of a grateful nation.  God bless them, and God bless the United States of America. 

Editor's Note 

(re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card) 

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth. After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.

Pastor Tony is founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance and author/editor of the Congregation's official blog site, "The Path."