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03/19/10
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May 31,
2005 "If you ever bother with the casualty reports from Iraq and Afghanistan please note that those being killed and wounded aren't the West Pointers and Air Force Academy grads. Instead, it is the urban Hispanics and blacks, and rural hillbillies, who joined the Army or Marines in order to obtain money for college or to get out of their dead end neighborhoods. Stupid? Yeah, when viewed from a comfortable middle-class perspective. See, they have alternatives the hillbillies, blacks, and the Hispanics don't. People like us know that life is mainly a rigged game where the elites, (political, social and economic) win on every roll of the dice. But we play the game anyhow because it is the only game in town. ... We adapt and we deal. The rugged individualist blames himself. He becomes depressed, an alcoholic, gets in debt up to his eyeballs buying 'cool' stuff he doesn't need, or blows his brains out with a $2500 imported shotgun he put on his Visa card. He played the rigged game too, but never knew it." (05/26/05)
Mr. Massoud, we don't need this kind of throw-away line (in an article on a generally completely different topic, no less) to convince anyone that the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is wrong, and in fact, we (as a nation, a political movement, or just a philosophy) don't need this kind of propaganda at all. If you can't tell the truth, if you have to make up things to make your point, your point is not worth listening to. And it will chase away many people who would otherwise listen to reasoned, accurate, yes, even impassioned arguments. When I read the part of your article quoted by Mr. Knapp, I asked myself, "Is this true?" Then I reached around and grabbed the two Army Times that were nearest to hand: they happened to be the issues of April 11th, 2005 and April 25th, 2005. I don't know whether these are "average weeks" for the butchery in the Mideast or not. But let's see what we find, Mr. Massoud. In the 11th issue, there are the bottom of page 9, there is the butcher's bill for the week of March 25-31. You see, we care, and this was doubly troubling because the son of a friend and former NCO of mine is still listed as captured (Spec. Keith M. Maupin, 21, captured in Iraq). In Iraq there were 6 killed and 126 wounded; in Afghanistan there were 4 killed and 2 wounded in action. Of the nine listed (presumably the 10th was not listed because family had not yet been notified at presstime), one was an officer and one a senior NCO (E-8); the others were enlisted from sergeant on down (one was a Marine, the rest were all Army). In the 25th issue, this time at the bottom of page 7, the butcher's bill was a lot longer: eight in Iraq and fifteen in Afghanistan. I didn't see any other names I recognized, but of the 23 dead, there was one major, one captain, two warrant officers, and seven senior NCOs, including a Sergeant Major (the highest NCO rank in the Army): 11 of the 23. There were pictures only of fourteen of the total 31 – but of those, only two were black, and one was a black woman, the Sergeant Major who was killed. Looking at the names, only two of the 31 were obviously Hispanic, and one was, I suspect, Russian or Ukrainian. One name might have been a black woman: "Chrystal" is more common as a given name for black women than for white women or men of any race. Not a "Joe Bob" or "Bubba" in the bunch. Now, I don't know if any of the three commissioned officers were West Point grads – that sort of information isn't considered important enough to mention. I know (well, am reasonably sure) that none were Colorado Springs graduates – there are no dead USAF (or USN) personnel listed. No surprise, there – this is a ground war, not an air war. Even those helicopters that get shot down (like the one yesterday) are generally flown by people in green, not in blue. But of the 31 dead listed, 13 were senior enlisted or officers. Funny, because that amounts to over 40% of the dead. Yet senior NCOs and officers only make up about 25-30% of the force, and probably less than that actually on the ground in the two countries. None of those people (not even the SGM, who based on her age and rank had to have been in the service for about 20 years, or more) fit your claims that "it is the urban Hispanics and blacks, and rural hillbillies" who are paying the bill in blood. But like I said, this was a random grab at what I had on hand. You accuse your readers of ignoring casualty lists – but have you recently looked the dead in the face? Since you are ex-military, I hope that you have. Otherwise, go look at the Faces of Valor, where most of the 1800 dead can be seen. You'll see faces that represent America – perhaps wrongly but not trash to be thrown away. Now, you still won't see any USMA or USAFA (or USNA) rings: but they are there as well. Not many, perhaps, but most of the officers in the services aren't ring-knockers either. (I'm certainly not a trade-school graduate myself [that is, an Academy grad] – I'm from a vocational school, but I'll pit an Oredigger commissioned officer against one from Hudson High any time; the cream of the crop don't go to West Point or Annapolis or C Springs.) Speaking of that term, "rural hillbillies", "who joined the Army or Marines in order to obtain money for college or to get out of their dead end neighborhoods" – Mr. Massoud, these words make you out to be a stinking racist. (As if the same crack about "urban Hispanics and blacks" didn't, I might add. But I'm not a city-dweller, so I'll let someone else explain how racist that remark is as regards Hispanics and blacks.) Have you ever been to the rural or frontier areas of this nation: I don't mean flying over them or driving through them on the freeway, but gone to them? Why don't you, some time? Drive out and eat at a small town café way up north in California, or buy a soda at a rural saloon in Texas, or visit a small "consolidated" high school serving three or four towns in western Kansas, or stop for gas and a sandwich at a small convenience store out in the West Virginia countryside. Stop at a trading post on a dirt road on one of our Indian Reservations. And look at the people, and talk to them, and listen to them. You might find it a bit harder to use derogatory terms like "rural hillbilly" when speaking of the intelligent, well-informed, hard-working people that you find there, regardless of the color of their skin, their names, their tribal or clan affiliations (or lack thereof), and their faith (or lack thereof). We don't need people playing socialist-communist class warfare games (like the Left did during ‘Nam) and muddling the real issues. We don't need people who demean most Americans, not for what they believe or do, but based on the color of their skin, the kind of accent they have, their last name (or first), or where they were raised. We don't need people who make things up to make their point – and thereby damage their own argument far more than their opponents would or could. (And prevent valid arguments from being used by more intelligent or less arrogant opponents of the wars.) Now, perhaps, Mr. Massoud, I am being overly sensitive, and if so, you may have every opportunity to challenge and comments on my comments, just like every other reader of The Price of Liberty. But your casual dismissal of the military, and especially those bleeding and dying in Iraq, with such distain, and your use of derogatory terms just hit me wrong. Of course, maybe I am the kind of person you ARE writing about – one of the losers. After all, my four grandparents came from redneck farming stock: from southwest Arkansas, south Texas, and eastern New Mexico. My parents worked in short-term jobs, and I grew up, in a series of little hick towns in the flat dreary sameness of the Great Plains. As I said, I went to a school to learn a trade, and joined the Army from there, and when I left the Army had to buy into a little two-bit firm that barely seems to make me a living out here in the Great Plains. My wife's folks were farmers too. She went to an ag school and then got what used to be called a "patronage" job up in the Great Plains part of the hick state of Montana. We're members of what some would call a "fundamentalist" religion, we home-school our kids and are active in what one national pundit terms the "loosertarian party." No wonder you and your like-minded urban professional friends might not want to listen to me. No, they'd prefer to listen to someone like this guy: He had teachers for parents; one of his grandparents was a college professor and professional artist, another was a key (if not major) player in the oil business in Texas. He grew up playing in symphony orchestras with his relatives, and had already been to DC (from the Denver metro area) three times on political trips before he graduated from high school. He attended a prestigious engineering school, received a commission, and served in Europe and Latin America. His wife was the grandchild of prominent ranchers, civil servants, and business executives; her mother was a geologist and pilot during the WW2 era, and she was a pre-vet major at a major university before going into the civil service, where her work included resource management at various locations in the United States and Europe for the Federal Government. When they left the service, they joined, then started several consulting businesses, which operate from coast to coast. They are involved in politics on the local and state (and sometimes, national) level. Now, you'd listen to this guy, wouldn't you? Not a loser like me, eh? Too bad
they are both the same guy – but then, welcome to the real world.
Next time you write about soldiers dying (whether they are on your side
or not) just before memorial day, maybe you can think of a way to describe
them as other than losers, with the attitude that you scrape better than
them off the bottoms of your shoes. Nathan Barton
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