Dear Friends,
Monday is Memorial Day.
I wonder if it has occurred to you that America still isn’t finished with the longest war in its history—The War on Terror that began on September 11, 2001. For nearly twenty years American warriors (and allies) have traversed the globe and engaged in combat with al-Qaeda and its many affiliates—the Taliban, ISIS, Boko Haram in Africa, etc.
I don’t want to debate American foreign policy or whether this has been a good or bad idea. Like most things, it has probably been a mixture of good and bad, success and failure. I will say this: I continue to be amazed and grateful that terrorists have failed to follow up 9/11 with a major attack on U.S. soil. There are many factors involved in that, but I think the major factors are that our intelligence and military communities have been both extremely vigilant and overwhelmingly destructive to the enemy’s ambitions.
I want to reflect on the human dimension. After the decidedly mixed bag of our intervention in Iraq, Americans wearied of war. Putting “boots on the ground” in foreign countries became a major political liability. The days of sending 150,000 personnel, armored divisions, etc., fell out of favor and fashion. To cope with this turn in public sentiment, U.S. military leadership, it seems to me, essentially decided to task a very small group of men to do nearly all its war-fighting. Putting a 12-man U.S. Army Special Operations team into a theater is not considered “boots on the ground,” because these are clandestine operations and, well, we’ve collectively decided that it doesn’t count.
Think about that. The lion’s share of combat operations are performed by Green Berets, Navy SEALs, and Marine Recon operators. I began to notice a few years ago that almost all of our casualties coming out of Afghanistan were “Staff Sergeant” so-and-so or “Sergeant First Class” so-and-so. And the released pictures all showed the same thing: a young man wearing a Green Beret on his head. That means Special Operations. Look: the combined special operations forces is an incredibly minuscule number of men. Just a few thousand elite warriors have been manning our walls and taking direct action to our enemies. And it is my opinion that that is completely unsustainable in the long term, if it’s not already.
These warriors deploy over and over and over and over again. The divorce rates are astronomical. Suicide rates have tripled. It is unlikely that you will meet a special operator who is not suffering from some form of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. I am not criticizing these men. By and large, they are likely the most elite practitioners of their craft of any group of people in any field of human endeavor. They get no public accolades or recognition, unless they are unfortunate enough to get a press release announcing their demise. No, I’m not criticizing; but I am being real.
These are real human beings, and we are placing a weight on them that cannot be long sustained. I don’t know what the political or foreign policy solution is. One thing might be to actually have a clearly defined foreign policy, along with a political leadership capable of explaining it and persuasively selling it to the American people. Absent that, we will continue to run these soldiers into the ground with deployment after deployment. It’s wrong to use these men as mere pieces of equipment—once worn out, toss it away and grab a new one.
I know this is not Veteran’s Day—it’s Memorial Day. We are honoring the fallen on Monday, not the living. But at an intolerable rate our living warriors are becoming statistics not by the weapons of al-Qaeda or ISIS, but through depression and suicide. If you know of a struggling veteran (of any kind, regular military, special operations, man or woman) or law enforcement officer, there is help. The Mighty Oaks Foundation is a Christian non-profit devoted to helping America’s warriors and first-responders to overcome depression and post-traumatic stress, and to become the men and women God created them to be. Their programs are first-rate and truly life-changing. They’re in the business of saving lives and marriages.
They do all of this free of charge to America’s vets, thanks to generous private donations. Check out their page, and perhaps you might contribute, as well.
Have a blessed Memorial Day, and thank God for those who willingly laid down their lives. I’ll let Abraham Lincoln have the last word:
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Miscellany
PBS is streaming a new documentary about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. It’s on the long side, but I found it fascinating on so many levels. I really am awed at what kind of a country this is. A poor black boy born in a shack in the swamps of segregated Georgia among a completely illiterate community with its own barely-English dialect became one of the most significant jurists of our generation (really: his opinions are rigorous and a pleasure to read). This just does not happen in most places in the world.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but there is nothing particularly interesting going on with COVID-19 news. Predictably, the entire thing is now weaponized along political lines. Less predictably, the political lines are not, well, cogent or logical. People demanding to “reopen” are also the most vocal opponents of…masks. One would’ve thought that masks are the very thing that will allow us to open safely, but go figure.
Anyway, reality needs to be recognized: this is not a question of “open” or “shut.” And debates about “killing Grandma” so the stock market can rise, or shifting the goalposts from “bend the curve” to “it’ll be safe to get a haircut when we achieve human immortality” are killing our remaining civic brain cells. Open it up—diversified with local oversight. From what I’ve seen, the little things people and businesses are already doing, from not shaking hands to wiping down surfaces to installing plexiglass in front of cash registers, are the kinds of things that will pay the needed health dividends.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Michael Jordan being in a very small group of athletes who dominated and changed their sport forever. Reader Ron H. informs me that I missed a name:
Bobby Orr forever changed the way hockey is played and is the standard by which all hockey players are judged—both on and off the ice. He’s the only defense man ever to have won the scoring title for a season, and he did it twice. His +/- record is untouchable and will never be beat. And he did it during a time when hockey players had to be really tough.
He came into the league when I was a fatherless 7-year-old Canadian kid. It’s hard to describe how important he was to me (so obviously I’m not biased at all!)
Thanks, Ron, for the inclusion of Mr. Orr. And for the moving reminder that sports are meaningful, especially to 7-year-old boys.
Speaking of Michael Jordan, this video effectively ends any debate over who is the greatest player of all time. It’s not even a debate.
Round about 25 years ago I was an aspiring singer-songwriter, hosting the open mic night at the legendary Casey’s Golden Pheasant in Billings, Montana. A couple of times this incredibly cool cat from Minneapolis named Dan Schwartz came through town on a solo tour. It was just him and his van, and my buddy Casey and I hooked him up with a couch to sleep on, if I remember correctly. Dan was a guitarist like I’d never seen up close—incredibly inspiring. I remember him letting me get onstage to play a few songs on his guitars (not something you generally want to do in dive bars, so I was honored). Anyway, I thought of him recently and looked him up. Sure enough, he’s still out and about, occasionally playing in the beautiful atrium of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport, and he’s taken up something called a “harp guitar.” I’d never heard of it, but, boy, does it sound great. Dan’s still an incredibly cool cat. Check it out: