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How To Make Sense Of Military Service In A Culture That No Longer Understands It
The Federalist ^
| 05/25/2020
| Casey Chalk
Posted on 05/25/2020 8:34:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A couple years ago, I took a red-eye flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to London. Standing in line to board, I suddenly spied one of our nation’s most notorious military leaders, David Petraeus. “King David,” as he was known during his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, curiously walked up to an empty kiosk not far from the gate where we were boarding for London.
Within less than a minute, an attendant appeared and started checking him in, ostensibly for our flight. Special service for the former commander, I thought. “Look,” I exclaimed to those nearest to me in line. “It’s David Petraeus!” Within minutes, everyone was pointing at him, commenting on his presence, and taking pictures of him on their iPhones. “How did you recognize him so quickly?” asked the woman behind me. “Because I’ve briefed him,” I replied, with a smile.
Indeed, during my first and second tours in Afghanistan, I had helped assemble briefings personally directed to him. That might lead readers to wonder why I would be so willing to embarrass a man under whom I had once served. The answer is simple.
While we were working our rear ends off enabling him and his staff to make decisions to further our nation’s strategic objectives and save American lives on the battlefield, he was sleeping with his biographer, U.S. Army reservist Paula Broadwell. Apparently during or after that fling, Broadwell got access to classified documents from Petraeus, or, as we began calling him, “General Betray-us.”
For those of us who worked for him, it felt like a betrayal, not just of U.S. military regulations regarding sexual relations, but of everyone serving in Afghanistan. That the affair didnt come to light until Broadwell started harassing another woman was all the more damning. I suppose King David was an apt nom-de-guerre, and not just because of Petraeus military brilliance.
I thought of that anecdote while reading the chapter on honor in Scott Beauchamp’s recent book Did You Kill Anyone?: Reunderstanding My Military Experience as a Critique of Modern Culture. The series of essays are inspired by Beauchamp’s service in the U.S. Army.
Honor, says Beauchamp, has to do with “the deepest sort of fidelity, or attunement, to a higher and anti-utilitarian moral purpose.” This sense of honor is certainly inculcated in the military, but one finds it plenty of other places: family, faith, and nation. Honor fosters devotion for goods that transcend our individual desires and bind societies together. Yet, as Beauchamp also rightly diagnoses our culture, it’s “most alien to contemporary Western (particularly cosmopolitan) sensitivities.
Beauchamps reflections on the intersection of the military and contemporary culture are most welcome. His thoughts on boredom, ritual, community, hierarchy, smoking, tradition, and honor are both interesting, and to varying degrees, counter-cultural or with a conservative bent.
Yet the subjects are addressed in novel and intelligent ways that should be accessible to a broad audience. I imagine many liberal elites would find themselves persuaded by Beauchamps indictment of technocracy, materialism, consumerism, social atomism, and utilitarianism. This is a testament to the authors ability to swim in common American waters, as well as those that are highly academic.
Unfortunately, some aspects of Did you Kill Anyone? proved annoying. Beauchamps seven essays are overstuffed with quotations. Many are interesting and relevant, but they tend to drown his voice. Indeed, I often found it hard to locate Beauchamps thoughts amid the seemingly hundreds of people he cites in the course of a 130-page book. That was frustrating, especially because every time I succeeded in identifying the authors voice, I was increasingly interested to hear what he had to say.
This gets to my larger frustration with Did you Kill Anyone? Each essay was engaging and thoughtful, but I wasnt sure what held them together. His postscript is short and amorphous. Nothing at the end of his last, seventh chapter connects with the previous six.
Certainly Beauchamp has offered a credible critique of many aspects of modern American culture. Yet there is no unifying coherence and no clear alternative. He writes in his postscript that he has a skepticism towards unfettered capitalism and materialism, a skepticism that I share, although Beauchamp offers little as an alternative.
Beauchamp writes of a longing for values which gesture toward transcendence. Such milquetoast phrasing is inadequate given the threats facing Americans fed up with a global economy that has left them behind and a meritocratic elite who condescendingly sneer at their traditionalist beliefs and cultural practices. We dont need gesturing toward transcendence, whatever that means. We need transcendence itself, which our forefathers found in abundance within the worship, liturgy, and sacred truths of biblical religion.
Beauchamps language, whatever his noble intentions, is reminiscent of Philip Larkins Church Going. In it, the poet recounts stopping at a country church not worth stopping for, but that retains value, if nothing else, because so many dead lie round. America will need a much heartier view of transcendent truth to weather the storms that confront us today and inevitably tomorrow.
Id embarrass Petraeus again, if given the opportunity. His arrogant indifference to his role as a senior officer in the U.S. military coupled with an incomplete apology and his continued enjoyment of lucrative senior positions gained from his military and intelligence experience is a violation of so much that Beauchamp rightly commends in his book.
A lack of ritual, community, and respect for traditional forms of hierarchy, tradition, and honor are all contributing to the unraveling of American society. Im grateful for Beauchamps penetrating analysis of all these subjects. I just wish he had given the reader a more coherent, complete narrative to unite these disparate themes and orient us towards an alternative future focused on human flourishing.
Casey Chalk is a columnist for The American Conservative, Crisis Magazine, and The New Oxford Review. He has a bachelors in history and masters in teaching from the University of Virginia, and masters in theology from Christendom College.
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: military; militaryservice
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To: suthener
Yeah, I find the two posters above you very insulting. Candy-asses gotta hate and be jealous of REAL men.
AB, SMSgt, USAF, Retired
41
posted on
05/25/2020 11:39:47 AM PDT
by
Alas Babylon!
(The prisons do not fill themselves. Get moving, Barr!)
To: Alas Babylon!
Seems people think of the military only what they see in the left-wing news. They don’t see the majority of service members who stand guard even as I type this. I was SPACECOM/NORAD and served in missile warning and defense systems, among other things. Never got a holiday. Worked 24x7. We weren’t heroes, we just served. No one ever attacked the US so we succeeded.
I reserve memorial day to remember those standing guard, but more importantly, to remember those that served in combat and took the incoming rounds. Some died, some lived, but they are all to be remembered as serving us, We the People.
42
posted on
05/25/2020 11:48:40 AM PDT
by
CodeToad
(Arm Up! They Have!)
To: Jim Noble
I don’t disagree. I recall the women around Henry Kissinger.
To: RicocheT
“I agree with post 16 by marktwain. Our military still is and represents duty, honor and country. The young recruits who step up become good soldiers and when they leave show good charactership/skills. The political correct chickencrap movement has hurt the militarys efficiency and makes the personnel operate under irritating conditions.”
Yes. This is what we are seeing in our military:
http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/35047-The-Last-Six-Seconds.html (There is another current thread citing this today, elsewhere on FR.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oKMjTqdTYo
Just two events we have a record of recently.
Some people here need to focus on something other than the political BS for this day, at least.
When my oldest daughter was 9, she wanted to be a Knight. I told her the closest thing to a knight these days is a Marine. And sometimes an Air Force Technical Sergeant. PJ’s are unusual in the Air Force. Most of our combatants are officers flying high performance jets. Not TSgt John Chapman. That Others May Live!
44
posted on
05/25/2020 11:51:48 AM PDT
by
Old Student
(As I watch the balkanization of our nation I realize that Robert A. Heinlein was a prophet.)
To: CodeToad
I was SPACECOM/NORADMe, too!
NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, 1976-79; PAVE Paws, 6th Missile Warning Squadron, Cape Cod AFS, 1979-82; 5th Defence Satellite Communications Station, Woomera, South Australia, 1982-84.
first 8 years in NORAD/ADC/SpaceCom, with a one year stint in SAC when they took over 6MWS for a year after ADC disbanded and before Space Command came on board.
As soon as SAC took over they did an IG visit. I remember shocking a SAC IG team member by answering his question: "Where's your SAC Form 110?"
"What is that?", I said.
"It's your self inspection check list."
I answered with "What's a self inspection check list?"
You could have heard a pin drop. It was like something out of MASH.
Oh, brother, I did learn it after that!
45
posted on
05/25/2020 12:01:26 PM PDT
by
Alas Babylon!
(The prisons do not fill themselves. Get moving, Barr!)
To: stuckincali
Eisenhower had a British WAF staff car driver, didn’t he?
Seems she did more than lug his ass around....
46
posted on
05/25/2020 12:02:34 PM PDT
by
Alas Babylon!
(The prisons do not fill themselves. Get moving, Barr!)
To: Alas Babylon!
2CS, sister site, and 1025th.
47
posted on
05/25/2020 1:25:30 PM PDT
by
CodeToad
(Arm Up! They Have!)
To: Alas Babylon!
48
posted on
05/25/2020 1:25:58 PM PDT
by
CodeToad
(Arm Up! They Have!)
To: CodeToad
49
posted on
05/25/2020 1:58:58 PM PDT
by
Alas Babylon!
(The prisons do not fill themselves. Get moving, Barr!)
To: Alas Babylon!
50
posted on
05/25/2020 2:06:39 PM PDT
by
CodeToad
(Arm Up! They Have!)
To: Alberta's Child
No offense, but when was the last time the U.S. military defended anyones freedom here in the U.S.? That was the whole point of my historical reference there. Maybe I missed the media coverage of the Army protecting barbers in Michigan or the Marines guarding beachgoers in New York who were threatened with arrest by totalitarian thugs.
So, we do away with the U. S. Military and then get invaded by ________ (fill in the blank). Just what are you trying to say here?
51
posted on
05/25/2020 5:41:58 PM PDT
by
higgmeister
( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
To: higgmeister; Alberta's Child
Can't speak for Alberta's Child, however, optimizing the standing army to the point of maintaining technical prowess while shrinking regiments to maintain a domestic defense without the military welfare State in tow along with eradicating the budgetary (And cannon fodder of awful foreign policies) bloat that entices Repub as well as Dem politicians, NeoCons, globalists, and those who desire further the world police meme (Please don't buy the "national interests" canard, that is bad propaganda) going.
As for the rest, exercise the assembly option found in the First Amendment and allow actual militias (Weekend Warriors) that not only scare foreign adversaries, but our "benevolent" government as well.
To: rollo tomasi
I suppose I see that sort of thing as a political problem and not actually a problem with our Military. One of my pet peeves has always been Status of Forces Agreements which were actually welfare programs for the host country. Totally political. Martha McSally, a Lt. Col. told she had to wear a burka and pose as the wife of male personnel when off base. and that was in the SOFA. Shameful to condone such anti American practices.
Regarding Weekend Warriors, my house is just a couple of miles from Dobbins Air Reserve Base which houses the Headquarters of the U. S. Air Force Reserve Command, the Georgia Air National Guard, and the Georgia Army National Guard, so in that respect, we've got your Weekend Warriors here in spades.
It's a little known fact that we also have a "Georgia State Defense Force" is an auxiliary unit of the Georgia Department of Defense, serving in support of the national and state constitutions under direction of the Governor and the Adjutant General of Georgia.
This is seperate from the well known Georgia National Guard.
http://www.gasdf.com/
53
posted on
05/25/2020 6:41:17 PM PDT
by
higgmeister
( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
To: higgmeister
Never served (After Vietnam/Middle-East hypocrisy how could you trust politicians and the top brass) but spent 24 years around the military. Most are just in their branch of choice for the government beanies/the 20 year or plus (More retirement beanies) “Holy Grail”; “doing it” for country is the last thing on their minds.
Also, the corporate culture is a lot more honest after one reaches Major status (Or the equivalent in the Navy) or high enlisted status, the amount of backstabbing and flaunting the peacocks is obscene. Add the feminism and homosexual virtue signaling stuff and you have a full fledged Peter Principle bureaucratic cluster f* that has spent trillions and 17+ years trying to figure out how to beat radicalized farmers that barely grasp what the Bronze Age is all about.
This stuff made me question the whole DOD especially the many times I wrote my wife's OPR (Bullet point hell) to give the her commanding officer. So, you can be the most inbelcilic solider, however, the officer or enlisted over you will make sure the evaluation of the imbecile is "shiny, bright, and filled with positive adjectives" because the commanding officer or enlisted personnel do not oversee failures and need to promote as well.
Waited to after 12 my time to write this because Memorial Day is an important day to recognize all those who have fallen to preserve freedom. The OP's post provides an important commentary to contemplate and a call to change the internal structure/attitude.
To: higgmeister
Sorry, “...corporate culture in the private sector...”
To: rollo tomasi
56
posted on
05/25/2020 10:18:50 PM PDT
by
higgmeister
( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken)
To: Theoria
Do you even know where our military is deployed? Do you have a clues as to what percentage is deployed and what percentage is actually stateside. Have you ever served? You need meds.
57
posted on
05/25/2020 10:19:33 PM PDT
by
OldGoatCPO
(No Caitiff Choir of Angles will sing for me)
To: higgmeister
I hate to break this to you, but this country has been facing an invasion for decades ... and the military was nowhere to be found. From my profile page:
A government that pisses away thousands of lives and trillions of dollars on military campaigns in Islamic sh!t-holes halfway around the world while facilitating an invasion of Third World peasants here at home has no moral claim on any loyalty from its citizens anymore.
58
posted on
05/26/2020 3:16:25 AM PDT
by
Alberta's Child
("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
To: suthener
I was being facetious. My point was that the biggest threats we face to our freedom are right here in the U.S., not in some Third World dump thousands of miles away.
59
posted on
05/26/2020 3:18:10 AM PDT
by
Alberta's Child
("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
To: Magnatron
Yes, because isolation worked so well before. Nature abhors a vacuum, If we do not lead, someone else will.
60
posted on
05/26/2020 3:27:45 AM PDT
by
OIFVeteran
( "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" Daniel Webster)
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