Heroes and Freedom

Driving up the road today I passed a man on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle whose jacket had a large emblem that indicated that he was an Iraq "war" veteran, that he had "defended America's freedom", and that he was a "new American super hero." The fact that he served in American armed forces in Iraq might be indisputable, but the rest of the jacket is just wrong.

These three statements are each fallacious in their own special ways. Let's begin at the top with the "Iraq War Vet" identifier. When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney concocted their plan to invade Iraq, the Congress was coerced into granting permission, but did not declare war. QED. The invasion has been followed by an occupation (and assorted war crimes, but that's another story). It still isn't a war. There is an "Insurgency" that could also be referred to as a Resistance. In either case, there are people fighting to rid their country of an occupying army that invaded without provocation or any direct hostile action.

The second has to do with defending American freedom. American freedom sustained more damage from the Bush/Cheney administration than from any hostile action ever perpetrated against the United States by any foreign power. The ironically-named PATRIOT Act and the attendant implementation of the Department of Homeland Security have resulted in more abuse of Americans' freedom, privacy, and civil liberties than any action Saddam Hussein ever took. If these soldiers want to fight for American Freedom, let them come home and get involved politically and work to undo the damage that has been done. The American Civil Liberties Union has done more to defend American freedom than any 21st Century soldier.

Finally, this business about heroes. There is nothing particularly heroic about invading and occupying a country which posed no threat to the United States. (Even the invasion of Afghanistan is dubious, but that's another post.) The way many American forces have mistreated the people of Iraq and Afghanistan should be punished, not celebrated. Heroism is an interesting, and rare, commodity--especially in an era of remote-control death dealing.

Now that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be claimed without the need for specific incidental citation, the floodgates should open. The HAL 9000 computer in Kubrick and Clarke's 2001 A Space Odyssey was given an unresolvable set of conflicting orders, and subsequently committed murder--which it deduced as the best solution. The damaged psyches of the people who are coming back from Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney's great defense industry enrichment scheme will be costing the country billions more in the decades to come. They're not heroes. They're people who needed a job, or who wanted to vent their rage, or both. Too bad for everybody.

The world needs some more heroes. There is room for people who add to the conversation, grow the game, instead of complaining and obstructing. Freedom does need defending, but more from those who see its limitation as a way to perpetuate and expand power than from any suicide bomber.