Flashback:
It was May 30, 1868. The war with the most American casualties - that is, the great American Civil War, inspiration for re-enacters and old history buffs alike - had just ended and as victors, the Army of the Republic (that is to say "The North) had proclaimed it a national holiday to remember the Union Boys who'd died. It was Decoration Day, the first Memorial Day.
Though the south claimed celebrations of their fallen Confederate brethren too. Some families commemorated sons who fought for each side. And this began to spread so by the end of the 19th century it had become Memorial Day in honor and memoriam of all American soldiers who had fought and died.
This would go on to include WWI, with its long barbed-wired trenches, soldiers hucking grenades across the expanse hoping to hit the enemy and occasionally getting the old "over the top" order to just fuckin' go for it.
WWI was the most perfect example of what happens when one is a bad winner. In spite of the war being fought by several countries, in fact begun by Austria-Hungary invading Serbia and whatnot, their allie and European powerhouse Germany was the hammer that inflicted the most pain on the France/UK/America forces. America wanted the blame to go around a bit more fairly but the French, angry about their many losses and desirous of getting back the territory of Alsace, and the British, afraid of Germany returning to their former power as witnessed in the Franco-Prussian war, threw most of the punishment at the Germans, both demoralizing the Germans' sovereignty and ruining their economy and bankrolls. Such a scenario's an easy recipe for mass discontent and when people are hungry enough and broke enough they'll do drastic things at the vocalizations of a well-spoken madman - and such began WWII.
World War II, while perhaps avoidable had the allies not been such dicks after WWI, was fought for noble reasons. The main reason here was the Holocaust, which doesn't need to be explained. And then the general tussle necessary to keep the Europeans living comfortably together, like a house of distant relatives who need to blow up at each other once every year just to re-establish boundaries and let off some steam (currently this seems to be happening in a type of economic cold war, and it must be noted that it's now Germany as leader telling the others how they have to run their countries). Of course there was American involvement, fought like a true hero - after taking a sucker punch from the enemy, we turned around and cleaned up the whole fucking mess, takin' out the bullies, the shifty ones, th' haters and dictators. And when we won, goddamn was there a celebration. That began the American Golden Age; with the rest of the civilized world in ruins, a bunch of horny victors impregnating women at a rabid pace like the returning golden boys of yore, and an infrastructural change towards job and production skills for all (including women) as well the crowning achievement of having developed technology to rival anything seen before, USA was A-Ok.
Technology, that's a big key, something to look at here. Technology is born through war. Merrimack and the Monitor, the first iron-clad ship naval battle, a predecessor both to modern ships and submarines, was one of the highlights of the Civil War.
Fighter planes allowed for heavier air battles during WWI, adding a whole new plane for battle.
Nikola Tesla's radar between WWI and WWII changed how we could track incoming enemies, via land, sea, or air.
In WWII you had the last blend of old and new war and as such it's truly to be noted. You had battle lines. Tanks would lead the way in, sometimes with bombs or blitzkriegs before (an evolution of the old cannon artillery leads, which evolved from catapults and longbows opening up volleys) but these would be followed by long lines of soldiers, yelling "Hold the line" and such.
The Russians used the same strategy they'd used during previous incursions, lure the enemy into the Russian winter and let them freeze to death (apparently Hitler, for all his claim of intelligence, had never heard of Napoleon). A true cold war and yet in no way similar to the following Cold War, in which Russia would need to change tactics to meet a changing world.
WWII you had the introduction of U-boats and American submariners. 2 wars being fought in traditional "take a territory, move on to the next territory" movement. And yet able to airlift in large amounts of troops and supplies, men able to jump from the sky with parachutes to slow their descent, better weapons and such.
And of course the Manhattan project, the development of the atomic bomb like an exclamation point at the end of a sentence that was already finished, an American superweapon thanks to the genius of a German ex-pat who moved to America to escape Hitler.
And that was the last well-respected American war.
If it wasn't for MASH who would even remember that Korea even existed? But and yet Korea was the result of WWII spoils (like East Berlin, communist because it was the part of the city awarded to Russia for their heavy losses). America had the south, Russia the north. The North became communist, South became capitalist. China finished a civl war and feeling discontent joined the Russians in support of Communist North Korea and suppressed voting. Thus started the first Asian war over communism, the evil spectre that wasted American time and attention for most of the Golden Years and may have driven Hemingway to suicide. As such this also began the Cold War, which gave us James Bond but took away the ability to buy Cuban cigars legally.
Korea ended with both sides agreeing to disagree and thus we have Kim Jong Eun's closed-wall North Korea and our smart and proud but a bit nervous allies South Korea.
The Cold War was little more than back-alley diplomacy a game of wits and grandstanding between the two most powerful nations in the world, two former allies who were also the only two to have cracked the nuclear code.
But this year Memorial day specials have spoken little about the World Wars. Never does it have anything about Korea. Cold War - ehhh. No this year has been all about the Vietnam war and as such it's truly a turning point in warfare.
War has always been an inspiration for art but the sheer volume of songs (from Country Joe and the Fish's I'M FIXIN' TO DIE to Neil Young's OHIO, though that was indirect - a reaction to murders of protesters at an anti-vietnam rally; almost anything by Bob Dylan was in some way a war protest) to books (of all the war novels I've read, from THE ILIAD to FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS to NAKED AND THE DEAD, it's the novels A RUMOR OF WAR, DISPATCHES, and THE THINGS THEY CARRIED, about the Vietnam war, to which I most felt I could relate) to movies (APOCALYPSE NOW to the better parts of FORREST GUMP) this war especially bred some of the most indelible images of the modern era.
The war was the beginning of the military age in which we currently still reside - a war against insurgents on all sides, fighting without respect to "lines" or territory or classic engagement - ambushes and bushwhacking and, at times, heavy sacrifice of their own people to serve the purpose of their military, instead of the military serving their people. A war where the woman with the baby in the corner could be an enemy just as much as the soldier in the green fatigues.
There was little reason for the war and few people can explain why we were there. Ho Chi Minh said "They will kill many of us; we will kill few of them; and they will tire first." And so it went.
If you haven't been watching Nat Geo and History channel this weekend, I suggest you do - countless real time footage of the war. This being the other big development and something which changed warfare almost as much as any weapons - press coverage.
When you see rebel's brains blown out and 19-year-old boys screaming in soul-wrenching pain as flesh hangs ragged where the kneecap used to be, then you start seeing that perhaps war isn't as beautiful and romantic as we were lead to believe. See a young girl running out with her skin burning from the napalm the Americans dropped on her village hoping to flush out the bad guys at the expense of the civilian villagers they were hiding behind. Watch a hill be fought over, maybe even fight over it yourself and then a week later read that it's been retaken by an enemy who doesn't care about victory of defeat, you can't defeat a virus you don't know how to fight; it'll just keep coming back.
We all know of the Vietnam war. How we had no business getting in the middle of their civil war and how now we can go visit for smiles and cuisine that makes Anthony Bourdain hard.
But also now we are fighting against local insurgents not trying to defend a line or territory but an ideal, fighting to preserve their lifestyle and laughing as we try to roll big lines of men with guns when they can strike without honor or front lines and kill us almost as easily.
In HEARTBREAK RIDGE Clint Eastwood played a Marine Sergeant who's reminded his track record as an American soldier is 0-1-1. No wins, tie with Korea, lost to Vietnam.
The Vietnam war was the first time the people protested the government out of war. And yet, as is normal with people, they also misdirected that frustration to the soldiers, who, in spite of whether or not the cause was the right one, they enlisted to join what had been a long line of proud fighting men - or were drafted, in which case it definitely wasn't their fault - and had just tried to do the best job with what they were given. It was everybody's hero JFK who started the Vietnam War in the first place, hell. As one of the guys in an interview on one of these Vietnam specials said "When you're out there you're not fighting for the flag, not fighting for the MArines, not fighting for the President or even America, really; you're fightin' for that guy fightin' alongside you."
And so that brings us to where we are now. Two "victories" which are questionable because we still haven't been able to say who we're at war with. If Iraq was the enemy, why? How did it serve us? And aren't there a lot worse countries out there if we're claiming simple infringement of civil rights?
Is it the Taliban, the Afghani warlords we trained and equipped to fight the Russians in the waning of the Cold War (that pesky Cold War, there it is again - fucking communism wars are bullshit, I tell you)?
Last I checked it was Al Qaeda who bombed our Trade Towers. But these people aren't fighting for land, not for territory or a larger swath of desert - no, they're fighting for an ideal. For a Moslem Allah who the men at the top have convinced the ones at the bottom hates our Capitalist ways and consumptions. A Moslem Allah who - isn't this interesting - wants AUSTERITY FOR ALL. Perhaps we could get the Germans to help, Angela Merkel lecturing the rest of Europe with calls of austerity. And perhaps some on the right can align themselves with them, the Tea Party preaching government austerity, or something like that. Or Occupy preaching corporate austerity.
No, now I'm just playing word games. These mean different things. Al Qaeda and Taliban hate us like the kid who brings a gun to school hates the jocks who ignored him and the cheerleaders who won't date him because his clothes are second-hand and smell like too much fabric softener. We can try to talk him out of hating us but the damage has already been done, unfortunately. No, he's clearly our enemy now and will be until we kill him. And "he"'s not even a person but a philosophy, easily spread to people who've felt the shit end of the Capitalist stick (look how easy it was to spread hate through the Germans in WWII and they were all literate and relatively well-educated). And as such, it's taken a while but our military has finally adapted to the new face of warfare. And it's even more shocking to all the hawks that the person who brought that about is an intellectual black man from Hawaii.
The killing of Osama Bin Laden was a flawless combo of special forces and CIA, one of the first such operations of this magnitude and done across lines of a company with which we weren't at war. Because this war doesn't have boundaries that exist on a paper map. This country moves with its nomadic citizens and they can live in one cave as easily as the next.
Obama has increased importance on drone strikes, on intelligence forces, on changing tactics from wasteful "shock-an-all" troop deployments to strategically-aimed strikes which kill the snakes head instead of wasting so much damn time attacking the meaty tail. What began with guerilla warfare in Vietnam is now finally being given its time in the sun, the new leaner, meaner, tighter, more precise, more intelligent military. You can't destroy a weed by bombing your garden. You destroy it by strategically plucking it out of the earth.
So as we remember those soldiers who died before, let's look at everything they've contributed.
They've defended our nation so valiantly, from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812, Civil War, and even, to an extent WWII.
They've defended our allies, loyalty being a most important part of creating a better society, in WWI. Made the world a better place in WWII.
They did what they were told to, even when they might not've understood why they were there. They inspired us to greatness, inspired many of our greatest works of art.
They gave us iron ships and nuclear power. Gave women jobs and made black men and white men discover they're all the same when sitting in a foxhole with a bunch of other white or yellow folks tryin' to shoot off your ass.
They advanced what is possible in the worlds of aeronautics and space exploration. Gave us the examples and techniques which would lead to another great evolution in military history, one more directed and, as such, possibly more abetting towards diplomacy and, maybe, eventually, possibly, some dreamy day, war peace?
As you have your last few hours of freedom and prepare for the drudgery of work tomorrow, think of something your brave boys and girls in blue have given you. The fucking sacrifice. On top of everything else, every fallen soldier gave that which is the most expensive for all of us - he gave his life.
Yes, there is an ugly side to it. Horrible wars of conquest (without which many of you couldn't live or even travel comfortably anywhere you want within this huge country) and subjugation. Wars of ego. But for today let's forget those. Look to the good. For better or worse conquest and expansion are part of mankind. And when you look at the big picture, well, we're better than most.
Love or hate the military industrial complex, agree or disagree with all the last few wars, there's something you must be proud of - our soldiers are the best, the strongest, the smartest, and most loyal in all the world. God Bless.
- Ryan
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