Wars before the war now and the wars after

© 2008 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.

The Iraq War is very much in line with the dozen or so other wars in our nation’s history that, for the most part, we have gotten into rather reluctantly. But you would not know that from the highly charged media rhetoric now describing this conflict.

Even though it was just a few years ago, the national memory of the build-up to war has eroded. The notion is now that President Bush was sitting in his Oval Office Barcalounger when he suddenly snapped his fingers and instantly 175,000 military personnel flew to Kuwait and the next day invaded Iraq.

The reality is that the invasion was debated and planned very publicly for almost a year. Every night news pundits pontificated. We endured millions of minutes of “experts” on both sides. One side said it would be over in four days while the other said that tens of thousands of our military would die every year for many years. Neither was correct.

Over that year the United Nations and the Congress signed off on the venture, but everyone now has forgotten that fact. Finally, it was March and the invasion began. How did we do? How are we doing now? Because we are not there ourselves all of our perceptions are formed in the eyes of other people.

An excellent book about the first six weeks of the Iraq War comes from an embedded front-line reporter with the Marine First Recon. It is Evan Wright’s Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War. You realize reading Wright’s book that the Marines he covered were very competent and heroic. But some officers were not.

There is a danger in the book, though, because of the notion that the Iraq War is somehow much different than other American conflicts in years gone by. Wright’s book gives a good look at the Iraq invasion, but you should also read memoirs from other eras for balance.

Two of the finest memoirs giving a front-line view of a war are WWII masterpieces: Goodbye, Darkness: a memoir of the Pacific War, by William Manchester, and, E. B. Sledge’s With The Old Breed: at Peleliu and Okinawa. In both books the front-line Marine quality is overshadowed at times by the incompetence of officers.

My favorite memoir of all time is not an American experience; rather, it is, Some Desperate Glory: The World War I Diary of a British Officer, 1917, by Edwin Campion Vaughan.

All wars have quality soldiers and tragic mistakes

Read the books or not, but realize that the quality of the battlefield soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen has been excellent in all of our wars, while the quality of officers directing them has always at times been suspect. Arguably the best general in the Civil War was Robert E. Lee. But, Pickett’s charge lost the Gettysburg battle and eventually the war. The quality of the combatants was excellent in the Civil War. The officers let them down.

The “Greatest Generation” fought in WWII; however, while some leaders were extraordinary, others were shortsighted and made foolish decisions that cost the lives of many brave soldiers. Example: late in the war in the European Theatre there were intelligence lapses just before the Battle of the Bulge that caused needless American lives to be lost.

Likewise, the planners of the Normandy invasion made critical mistakes about the size of the hedgerows that cost many American lives. In the Pacific conflict, it is the opinion of many historians, in hindsight, that some of the islands we took with incredible losses did not need to be taken. In retrospect though, it was our finest war.

In every war there are tragic mistakes made, but if we had not gone to war against Hitler, this world now would be radically different. The Iraq War has also seen its share of tragedy and needless loss. We will not know if the cause was worth the sacrifice for many years. What is obvious about every war in our nation’s history is that what was thought about it at the moment is never how we see it years later after time to consider the entire conflict.

20 years from now

Today, as you read this, a child is born in your local hospital. That child 20 years from now may join the military and be all that is between you and the danger from our then-enemies. What do we say to get that person to perhaps give their life for ours? If he or she only watches the highly biased media for 20 years there is no way he or she will join the military. It will be family members and community leaders who talk well of the military and paint a compelling picture of duty and honor such that he or she will join.

There will be a war after this one with foreigners wishing to harm us. I hope we treat all military veterans well since they are the greatest military recruiters. Further, we must reward good officers and get rid of the not-so-good ones. The problem is that the politics of being an officer sometimes rewards bad leaders while penalizing the good.

We live free, but freedom has never been free. Someone must sacrifice or we will not be free. Those people are now in Iraq and others like them will be somewhere years from now doing the same job. Thank God for their duty, honor and sacrifice.

Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.