It’s news because the majority of Americans still think it is. It’s not news to anyone who has spent much time in the military. The secrecy is not to protect the innocent; the military has no comprehension of that. It is to protect the select hides of a large number fully deserving of scathing criticism.
The US military has never been good and decent. I don’t say that because I’m a pacifist with regrets about serving. I have no quarrel with genuine national defense, but our troops have never been used that way. So far, we have only ever defended our offensive actions with other nations. The propaganda to the contrary has drawn a great many decent and innocent fools into something they still regret, provided they are still alive.
I was one of those fools. My first tour of service began in 1979, and was frankly a matter of needing a job and a way out of a very difficult situation. The military had interested me for a long time, so here was my best chance to see it up close. In my ignorance I made a long string of bad choices. I take my lumps, but no one made any effort to help me understand what I was up against, so it’s no surprise my exit in 1982 was not on the best of terms (called “Compassionate” because it made the military look good, when the real reason was they couldn’t use me but refused to fix the problem).
But the second time I went back in there were few delusions. In 1988 I was burdened with a sense of uncompleted mission. I had to do it right simply for myself. Fighting through the bureaucratic memory of my previous departure, I was allowed only one choice: Military Police. This and a handful of other specialties provide a unique opportunity to see the underbelly of the beast. While I did complete my personal mission and felt sure God was pleased, there was nothing about the military service itself which makes me proud. I remain deeply embarrassed about a lot of things.
Most of the accolades and awards were the routine garbage guys could get just for showing up and going through the motions. The only attention I actually earned was for giving my heart to the DARE Program in Europe. I have since learned what a massively stupid and perverted philosophy was behind it, but I honestly managed to make more of it than the program itself entailed. God gets the glory for keeping me sane enough to ignore the bureaucratic limits and do the right thing. I took full advantage of being the first DARE Officer in the area, and in the schools I served. But I still regret the insidious lies I supported in that program, and the context of military corruption only made it worse.
The business of soldiers committing thuggery in Afghanistan and Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter, is simply what soldiers do. It’s built into the military. The very nature of how the system operates is an open invitation to the worst of humanity. I was part of the lower ranks of leadership and the entire philosophy claims high morals, but those morals are twisted beyond recognition. Those morals make Abu Ghraib and the PFC Stoner case the norm; don’t believe lies the contrary.
Not the norm in the sense it’s like that everywhere all the time, but in the sense of well within the limits you reasonably expect. For example, one of the biggest events of my police service in the Netherlands was a major drug bust, which took down a huge chunk of an already poorly manned nuclear missile unit to our north (the place was hardly a secret). This, even though the whole thing was poorly staged and too many had ample warning to dispose of evidence. The average Joe Doper isn’t smart enough to take advantage of that. But we would have never known about the problem had not the big dealer in the barracks come to the attention of the Dutch federal police who were wiretapping the dealer’s supplier over other crimes. The deep plastic facade of military competence hides a stinking corpse which succeeds only where the enemy is equally corrupt.
It works both ways when secrecy and head games are built into the system. Within my own associates at the MP station were a few thugs, but they took advantage of the system and limited their grisly pleasures enough to avoid discipline. That it left them enough room to feel comfortable is what stinks. Simple open honesty is frankly forbidden, because pretense is everything.
When you pretend your nation never commits any fouls, and anything the leaders want is always paradise for everyone involved, you end up sticking your nose into all the world’s business. That means having a million or so troops to intimidate anyone who might object to that skewed vision of paradise. That is a lot of troops, and scooping in a huge portion of the morally unfit is a necessity. Consider the self-evident principle government service seldom attracts good moral people with any sense. They are either fools who remain fools, or they decide to adopt the lies and bash their conscience into silence. The few others simply leave as soon as possible. The military is hardly any different. Being a close friend to people working in the highest levels of NATO Military Intelligence and security, I know without a doubt people of conscience can barely stand it.
So let’s get this straight: The government as a whole, and the military in particular, is loaded with some of the worst examples of humanity. Not because I want you to have some simplistic vision of what constitutes human evil, but to realize none of us are more than a step or two away from it. Change a few key individuals here and there, and a whole brigade becomes a living breathing crime wave. Circumstances and context are all it takes for the vast majority of us to become the most hideous and inhumane beasts you can imagine, but we have this cultural psychosis which hides that truth. Your only defense is striving to uncover the awful truth, and then dealing with that truth.
In one of my favorite fiction readings, the hero of the story turns the symbolic sword of truth on himself. It does not kill him, but it hurt more than words could say. This act was necessary as the price for wielding that sword against a far greater evil.
I look back in retrospect, and realize I could have become one of those foul murderers. That still frightens me. It is quite certain I would have eventually committed suicide. I’m not convinced those who have taken the path of suicide during our current military misadventures are the weak ones. Most of the rest simply go along with the evil. God help us; we are doomed.
