In the days of World War I and World War II people lived in
a more straightforward America. As a student of history I had occasion to read
many accounts of the “great wars” and it was evident to me that the American
government and the American people acted in concert and with great patriotism
and a pride in basic honesty.
In those days they agreed America was good.
They saw America as an example for the world. And
interestingly, many other peoples in other nations saw America that way, too.
When bad things were happening in far away places America
could, and did, make the difference. And the difference we made was for
something good. And other nations were grateful and admiring of our character.
Because of this sentiment young men raced to the recruiting
offices to be part of the cavalry America was sending to save the day. Bunting
was hung in windows. Families with servicemen were honored and respected.
George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin and other composers were busy
writing patriotic songs such as “Over There,” and “Keep the Home Fires
Burning.”
Over there,
over there,
Send the
word, send the word over there
The drums
rum-tumming everywhere.
So prepare,
say a prayer,
Send the
word, send the word to beware -
We'll be over,
we're coming over,
And we won't come back till it's
over, over there.
And we adopted some patriotic
music from our friends in Britain to stoke the fires of our own nation, such as
the following from Ivor Novello, the British composer:
Keep the
Home Fires Burning,
While your
hearts are yearning.
Though your
lads are far away
They dream
of home.
There's a
silver lining
Through the
dark clouds shining,
Turn the
dark cloud inside out
'Til the boys come home.
And when the boys did come home
they were greeted as they came off the ships, feted in their own hometowns,
honored with parades small and large.
More importantly, they were
celebrated throughout their lives with national holidays and times of
remembrance.
Lets fast forward to today.
The ground under our feet has
steadily shifted.
Many Americans don’t like
America. They are critical openly.
In the intervening years the
nature of war has changed and the instant communications possibilities have
made conducting wars very difficult, never more obvious than when reporters
were imbedded with our service people.
There has been very little
unanimity about our foreign engagements. In fact there have been marches, riots
and the public damning of almost all our involvements in foreign wars, which
are now called actions, or internal revolutions, or by other appellations
designed to pretend they are somehow different from what we used to call a
“war.” We even attempted to put a
good face on some actions by labeling them an “Arab Spring.” We can call our
involvements, interventions and just plain meddling whatever we want but we all
know exactly what they are.
In these more modern incidents the
young men, and young women, have not been racing to enlist so that America
could put on a white hat, mount a white steed and rush to the aide of our
friends. On some occasions, the rushing that was being done was to Canada, to
avoid participation.
With the elimination of the draft
we have changed drastically the type of person who serves in our military.
Instead of a cross section of America we have what we have called a more
“professional” army. To some extent we have lost the patriotic ardor that went
with being part of a noble cause.
And “war” has become a word much
less used. Now we have conflicts. We have missions. We stand more on the
outskirts of skirmishes while providing materiel in the form of planes, guns
and bombs to other people who actually do the fighting.
We have gone from transparency in
world affairs to playing a role much more like the Wizard of Oz hiding behind
the big curtain.
As Americans we are seldom united
the way we were in the past. Our sense of national pride has been torn apart by
internal disputes and political bickering.
When was the last time we came
together as a people, a people who knew in their hearts America was good and
was capable of leading and of vanquishing foes of good?
One could argue the world is a
very different place. And that would be a fair statement.
But does that require a lessening
of appropriate national pride?
Should it encourage us to be less
demanding that good should prevail over bad? Must we pretend to be something we
are not?
We don’t really send armies any
more to fight evil. We send advisors. As I was writing this piece the president
announced he was sending 474 more advisors to the Middle East. Why don’t we
just say we are doing a troop buildup? Because we cannot as we have previously
said we are withdrawing.
This is just a pretense to calm
the people and to suggest we are not engaged. Well, if you take the time to
read beyond the headline you find that the advisors we send often number in the
hundreds and occasionally in the thousands.
And their uniform is not the
Brooks Brothers suit and they are not carrying briefcases. When someone actually captures a
picture of an advisor he is usually in a camouflage uniform and carrying a
pretty impressive rifle.
And when they come home there are
no parades.
And while they are there no one
is writing songs to keep those of us at home wound up and proud.
Not too long ago we were told “al
Qaida is on the run.” We were told
that ISIS was a “JV team” not to concern us. We were told Bashir Assad was a very bad guy just last year.
Last week we were considering partnering with him against ISIS.
Sir Walter Scott could well have
written his famous quote today: 'Oh what a
tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive'?
We are not the once proud nation
of our past. We are not the beacon on the hill to the rest of the world. And as
we have gone down this path of covert operation, infiltration, nation building
(or tearing down) we have less respect for ourselves and much less respect
around the world.
The future is not promising.
It would be hard to regain what
we had in our hearts while fighting in WWI and WWII. True national pride seems
to be slipping away. It can be argued that future disagreements may well be
decided by technology not boots on the ground, If so, the nation with the best
technology, the most advanced computers will rule the world.
Many see this as the natural
progression of history.
I have a strong preference for
the way we used to do it.
Give me an Irving Berlin again:
"While the storm
clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's
free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a
solemn prayer. "
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