Posted on 09/23/2005 6:19:53 AM PDT by Valin
God-Fearing Spartans A look at America's "imperial grunts."
"Forget the crap about it ain't being a culture war," says an American sergeant in Zamboanga, trying to explain why he regards the local Muslims as hostile. In "Imperial Grunts," Robert Kaplan surveys the U.S. military presence around the world. He finds brighter spots than this southern Philippine island but never a more succinct statement of the problem: In "Injun country," as the sergeant notes, you can't afford to be nonjudgmental.
It is Mr. Kaplan's conceit that the U.S. now governs the world and, for efficiency, has carved it into six territories or "commands." For good measure, we have a Special Operations Command to perform unconventional tasks anywhere, though they are required much more in the Middle East or South America than in, say, "Northcom," an area comprising the continental U.S., Canada, Alaska, the Caribbean--and the west coast of Greenland.
Mr. Kaplan set out to visit a hotspot in each command. His grand tour occupied him for two years, during which time he developed an abiding fondness for the men who guard the marches of the American imperium. "I was beginning to love these guys," he writes of a special-forces team in Colombia. "They had amassed so much technical knowledge about so many things at such a young age. They could perform minor surgery on the spot. Yet they had such a reduced sense of self compared to everyone I knew in the media and public policy worlds."
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
The Spartans didn't look afraid of Touchdown Jesus in South Bend last week.
Of course, Kaplan seems to mean well. And he (apparently) means no harm in his use of "imperial":
But Mr. Kaplan intends something positive--a way of suggesting that our far-flung troops are the descendants of the cavalry, dragoons and civilian frontiersmen who fought the Indian wars of the 18th and 19th centuries.
That's a huge leap. The western frontier was not an imperial venture either. Unless you're a Marxist.
OH YES WERE IT WAS WE WERE DISENFRANCHISING AND SLAUGHTERING THOSE POOR NOBLE NATIVE AMERICANS JUST WATCH HIDALGO IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME!!!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I need my gin-soaked raisins now.
Interesting comment...
And I question the use of the term "Spartan" as well, at least as a proper noun as this headline has.
Are they really religious fundamentalists for whom homosexuality between men and boys is a normal way of life?
Not so much.
I'm definitely going to get this book. He talks about two things that bear *serious* investigation - the impact of evangelical Christianity and the Balkan deployments. This one's high on my "must read" list.
There is one small problem with this book....putting it down.
I'll probably buy it this weekend. :) Thanks for the heads up.
These terms are only considered "cliches" by leftist intellectuals. It is quite telling that Kaplan feels the need to add that they were spoken seriously.
Kaplan is doing us great harm by throwing around the world "imperial" and focusing on the religious beliefs of particular servicemen. He knows that our enemies seize on this sort of thing, especially when they can quote a prominent American thinker himself calling us an "empire" and saying that our soldiers are essentially "crusaders."
But apparently that doesn't matter much to Kaplan, whose objective here seems to be to ingratiate himself with the New York Times Book Review and the people who run the publishing industry (who all have a highly developed sense of self).
Anyone who (for whatever reasons) doesn't what to shell out the $25.00 for this book, it in excerpted in this months "The Atlantic Monthly".
The author sounds like a liberal going weak kneed in the presence of real men. He admires them in spite of himself and catches a glimmer of the fact that there are more noble goals aimed for by these soldiers and their commanders than the paultry hate America marxism of his own kind.
bump...
BFLR.....
Is this true? I am a pre Vietnam vet USMC 1960 to 1964 and can remember the term 'grunt' referring to a Marine with 0300 type MOS's (basic rifleman). ie Warriors. And I don't recall them being "off putting".
That's the article!
I always take a look at the Atlantic Monthly to see if there's anything worth my time.
rescuing the Vietnam-era Army from drugs, alcohol and alienation.>>
Oh? My friend was in the army from 1981-1985 and tried every drug known to man. It was all over the place at Fr. Bragg.
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