I have read your series with interest and in some cases deep frustration. I am a believer in Punitive Expeditions to punish for some particular act like harboring terrorists. I do not believe in nation building in nations where our culture and values are as incomprehensible to them as theirs are to us. There are few cultures further apart thanAfghanistan and modern America. You must be clear why you arrived and what you expect after departure. Very simple. Our nation and leadership just can’t help themselves in trying to impose change on the unwilling.
In the course of these efforts it is Marines who pay the price for flawed foreign policies and the imposition of our culture or what foreigners perceive our culture to be. I served on active duty as an infantry officer for 26 years retiring in 2000 and my sons were Marines as well serving a combined five tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. We follow orders like my father before me did. That our civilian masters could not care less and that their strategies and policies are bankrupt matters little other than the bitter reflections of survivors.
I believe we were once the most admired nation on earth for our larger values but exchanged those for newer cultural values that are rejected by most of the planet. Their views of us are formed by Hollywood and our unofficial spokesmen in academia, the media and entertainment industry. These cultures reject our excesses.
It was said about Russians that they’d prefer oppression from their own than a fair deal by foreigners. They are not alone.
The soul crushing humiliation for me is not that we fought in Vietnam, Beirut or Afghanistan but the way we departed in each case. Those betrayals and indifference were the insults that trumped our losses.
Thank you for taking the time to open old wounds and write your narrative. I hope it is cathartic and brings you peace. It is the warrior’s lament over the centuries.
We were the willing, sent by the self serving, to do the unnecessary for the ungrateful. Our honor is undiminished.
I appreciate your thoughts and feedback, and I agree: it’s the military’s job to execute and accomplish the mission. We accept that (embrace it, really) and take the risk regardless of what political party is in charge at the time. That said, it is the responsibility of the military’s senior leaders — CJCS, service chiefs, CCDRs — to give their best military advice to POTUS. In this regard, I think they have been borderline derelict in their duties since Vietnam, and everybody has paid the price. We learn early on in our military education that the responsibility of a leader is to stand up for what is right, even if you’re standing alone… I don’t get the impression that any of our senior military leaders have been willing to stand alone in the past 20+ years — and that deserves scrutiny.
I have read your series with interest and in some cases deep frustration. I am a believer in Punitive Expeditions to punish for some particular act like harboring terrorists. I do not believe in nation building in nations where our culture and values are as incomprehensible to them as theirs are to us. There are few cultures further apart thanAfghanistan and modern America. You must be clear why you arrived and what you expect after departure. Very simple. Our nation and leadership just can’t help themselves in trying to impose change on the unwilling.
In the course of these efforts it is Marines who pay the price for flawed foreign policies and the imposition of our culture or what foreigners perceive our culture to be. I served on active duty as an infantry officer for 26 years retiring in 2000 and my sons were Marines as well serving a combined five tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. We follow orders like my father before me did. That our civilian masters could not care less and that their strategies and policies are bankrupt matters little other than the bitter reflections of survivors.
I believe we were once the most admired nation on earth for our larger values but exchanged those for newer cultural values that are rejected by most of the planet. Their views of us are formed by Hollywood and our unofficial spokesmen in academia, the media and entertainment industry. These cultures reject our excesses.
It was said about Russians that they’d prefer oppression from their own than a fair deal by foreigners. They are not alone.
The soul crushing humiliation for me is not that we fought in Vietnam, Beirut or Afghanistan but the way we departed in each case. Those betrayals and indifference were the insults that trumped our losses.
Thank you for taking the time to open old wounds and write your narrative. I hope it is cathartic and brings you peace. It is the warrior’s lament over the centuries.
We were the willing, sent by the self serving, to do the unnecessary for the ungrateful. Our honor is undiminished.
I appreciate your thoughts and feedback, and I agree: it’s the military’s job to execute and accomplish the mission. We accept that (embrace it, really) and take the risk regardless of what political party is in charge at the time. That said, it is the responsibility of the military’s senior leaders — CJCS, service chiefs, CCDRs — to give their best military advice to POTUS. In this regard, I think they have been borderline derelict in their duties since Vietnam, and everybody has paid the price. We learn early on in our military education that the responsibility of a leader is to stand up for what is right, even if you’re standing alone… I don’t get the impression that any of our senior military leaders have been willing to stand alone in the past 20+ years — and that deserves scrutiny.