http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/02/theyre_warriors_not_victims.asp
This is a very subtle form of the soldier-as-victim trope that is fast becoming an Iraq legacy. For soldiers throughout history—those who have endured physical and emotional sufferings of an essential similar quality, if less clinically expressed—the trials of war were at least partially ameliorated by the salve of personal honor and, if the battle went well, the celebration of a victory. The troops who have served and serve still in Iraq should be singled out not just for the burdens of the fight but because they emerge from it, as Bing West’s book puts it, as the “strongest tribe.”
Great post.
I am intensely interested in how the troops think about this war, and about Obama, but I don’t see their opinions given often enough in the mainstream press, not nearly so often as “regular folks” are. It’s like they’re no longer citizens anymore, and the press are afraid to talk to them in case they have an opinion that will move public opinion. Or worse, once they go to war, they’re no longer “real” citizens—yeah, big surprise the MSM sees them that way, huh?