Joining the military doesn’t make you a hero (Triple Bagger)

Boston Globe ^ | 7 Dec 14 | Stephen Kinzer

[SkyPilot]

Who is a hero? In today’s America, it is someone who chooses a military career, puts on a uniform, and prepares for war. Placing soldiers and veterans on this kind of pedestal is a relatively new phenomenon. Past generations of Americans saw soldiers as ordinary human beings. They were like the rest of us: big and small, smart and dumb, capable of good and bad choices. Now we pretend they are demi-gods.

One reason Americans have come to view soldiers as our only protectors is that we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our way of life. Yet we also felt this way at the height of the Cold War, and we did not fetishize soldiers then the way we do now. Perhaps that was because few were coming home in body bags.

Many were killed during the Vietnam War, though, and that did not move us to worship everyone who put on a uniform. We recognized, as all societies do, that some soldiers are true heroes — but because of their individual acts, not simply because they chose military careers. We are mature enough to know that a banker’s suit does not always reflect honesty and that a cleric’s robe may not cloak a pure soul. Yet we readily believe that the olive-green uniform automatically raises its wearer to saintly status.

At sports stadiums, many games now include a ceremony at which a uniformed “honor guard” marches in formation bearing ceremonial weapons. Then, during a break in the action, a soldier appears on the field or court, waving to the adoring crowd as an announcer recounts service in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the “war on terror.” These rituals feed the fantasy...

[SkyPilot]

Our communities are full of everyday heroes. These are the nurses, schoolteachers, addiction counsellors, community organizers, social workers, coaches, probation officers, and other civilians who struggle to keep Americans from slipping toward despair, sickness, or violence. They guide people away from hopelessness and toward productive lives. Society collapses without these people. Yet we rarely give them the chance to acknowledge the gratitude of cheering multitudes. That honor is reserved for those whose individual merit may be limited to their choice — perhaps motivated by a variety of factors — to put on a uniform.

As one of the comments to this hit piece asks: "Where the heck does the Globe find these people????

The author of this garbage is Stephen Kinzer. Stephen Kinzer is a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. Follow him on Twitter @stephenkinzer.

His basic argument is that veterans are nothing but unemployable metal cases addicted to drugs and are a scourge to this nation. However, he wants Billions more for social spending to looters and takers, and the military gets in the way of that, so he wants take military and their families down even more pegs. It is cold comfort to him (apparently) that Obama has decimated our military.

See the top story on Drudge right now, linked to Military Times. Our military morale is beyond broken.

Here is the offense cartoon the Boston Globe ran at the top of this piece:

And there is liberal hatred and arrogance in a nutshell.

Apparently, we need more "Community Organizers", not military heroes.

[SkyPilot]

Ping.

[jsanders2001]

They are still more if a hero and have more courage than you will ever have douchebag (author)

[Fester Chugabrew]

The left has cheapened and perverted what a hero truly is.

[silverleaf]

“Placing soldiers and veterans on this kind of pedestal is a relatively new phenomenon.”

Oh.
Seriously?
It must suck to be this guy.
No appreciation for monuments, memorials, tributes, remembrances, epic poems, great literature. etc.

[Steely Tom]

“Ignorance Is Strength.”

[bert]

I don’t pretend any such thing

What I know with certainty is that the stench emanating from Boston should be eliminated

[elcid1970]

He misses the days when Vietnam veterans were spit upon & called war criminals & babykillers.

[Crazieman]

Well yeah. The heroes are Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and (I forgot) the gay guy in the NFL.

[SkyPilot]

Congress just voted to cut pay raises for the military, reduce their housing allowances, increase pharmacy co-pays, cut Commissaries by over $100 Million, and keep Sequestration for another 8 years (50% of all cuts have to be "paid for" by the military on top of the hundreds of Billions in cuts the DoD has already taken under Obama).

Have we not given enough to the Takers that Liberals feel justified write hit pieces like this?

[SkyPilot]

“Ignorance Is Strength.”

"FREEDOM IS SLAVERY"

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: One reason Americans have come to view soldiers as our only protectors is that we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our way of life. ::

Wrong, Mr. Kinzer! We have raised bar for our military because your journalist-predecessors, figuratively and literally, spit on the soldiers that returned from SE Asia. They were called “baby-killers”, “monsters” and “mercenaries of death”.

Even your demi-god Jon Cary was hailed by the press as “a hero” for throwing away (someone else’s) war medals.

Deal with the blow-back your previous generation created (@$$-HOLE).

[ifinnegan]

He should support bringing back the draft.

[originalbuckeye]

‘One reason Americans have come to view soldiers as our only protectors is that we have accepted the idea that our country is under permanent threat from fanatics who want to kill us and destroy our way of life’

For the foreseeable future, we are under attack by the fanatics he describes. They behead Americans. No one beheaded Americans during any of the other mentioned threats. This ‘journalist’ sounds like he is nostalgic for the Viet Nam War era, when Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines were denigrated, spit on, etc. So happy for him he doesn’t have to show gratitude to our Military......they will still put themselves in harm’s way to protect his sorry a**.

[Servant of the Cross]

Just remember, Stephen Kinzer is only ...

... parrotting the same thing that Rand's Dad, crazy 'ol Ron Paul, has been saying for decades ... and even said on Veteran's Day this year.

"Making all veterans heroes and endlessly lavishing great praise on them is designed as a distraction from the consequence of a deeply flawed foreign policy. Constantly we hear veterans being thanked for their services, for protecting our liberties and the constitution. Nothing could be further from the truth."

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Do you have an explanation of caption for that last graphic?
Is that an EBT purchase?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Speaking as a retired veteran who remembers when people didn’t give a hoot about people in uniform I will say it’s very refreshing to see how our military people are treated today.

However, I do also cringe at the way the word hero is thrown around today. While I agree that anyone who puts on America’s uniform and agrees to go in harms way to defend our country and way of life is very honorable, I personally reserve hero for a select few.

Perhaps that is because I have met true heros during my military career. I will outline two of them, Ron Christmas retired from the Marine Corps a Lt General. He was the company commander of Hotel company, 2/5 during it’s assault on Hue City in Vietnam. This man took a grenade during that battle and won the Navy Cross for his actions in it (second highest award to the medal of honor). I remember seeing him PT with his troops and motivate them years after that terrible injury. The scar that goes down his face and his shrivelled up leg were no impediments as he urged his troops on by leading them on a run. I met Richard Pittman when I was a young NCO. At the time he was the only Medal of Honor winner still on active duty in the Marine Corps. No one would look at this humble unassuming man and think that he was a real life Rambo, charging into well emplaced enemy positions with an M-60 machine gun and taking them out.

These are just two of the men I have met that I would truly call heros. There are many out there, but I would agree with the author that not everyone that puts on the uniform deserves to be called a hero. I would reserve that honor for a select few.

[kearnyirish2]

They named the government workers and government-subsidized segments of the “Poverty Industry”; they are trying to put a positive spin on the Kenyan Pirate’s disastrous presidency by framing the failure in the context of a dearth of such “workers” (and funding for them).

At this point, “community organizer” is code for unskilled minority dedicated to transferring “white wealth” to non-whites (with no accountability).

[Night Hides Not]

“Arbeit macht frei!”

[PghBaldy]

On Pearl Harbor Day, the Boston Globe prints this?