Conflicted Applause (Re-Post)
It’s hard to believe I wrote this four years ago. So much has changed since then, and yet so little is substantially different. I thought it might be appropriate to re-post this as I sit and stare out at a rainy Veteran’s Day.
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Today I flew home from Denver and had a strange experience in the Atlanta Airport. A group of military personnel were flying out — maybe 40 of them. As they walked through the airport in a group, people started spontaneously applauding. I saw young men slowly turn red and break out grinning in spite of themselves. I saw young women staring intently straight ahead lest they turn to look and catch someone’s eye. They looked sheepish and humble. There was no strut in them, but there was the unmistakable tinge of youthful embarrassment.
I normally walk through the airport quickly and with my head down, but I stopped and watched and clapped my hands along with everyone else.
Well, almost everyone else.
There was a family who did not applaud. They had dark skin. They looked Middle Eastern. The children started to applaud, but the adults quickly stopped them. The adults didn’t look angry or frightened; they looked sad.
I stood there for a moment and thought about what was going on. And I found myself conflicted.
There was a part of me that wanted to clap and shout and go pat those young men and women on the back and say how proud we are of them, and how we’re all praying for them. There was another part of me that wanted to yell, “Don’t go! Stay here with your moms and dads and husbands and wives and kids!”
Of course, I respect these young people and their willingness to put their lives in harm’s way to protect innocence and spread freedom and democracy around the world. I believe we are a safer nation because of our military, and I want to honor that — especially the weekend of Veteran’s Day.
But there’s so much about the whole “military mindset” that I don’t like. I realize I am woefully unqualified to speak on this, and I want to learn to speak more intelligently about this subject. As a starting point, I want it to be known that I have tremendous respect for the military and want to show proper respect, but I also have some major qualms about exactly what it is we’re supporting.
I don’t like the fact that we take young people and program them to stop thinking individually — breaking them down and re-training them to practice group-think. At its worst — in scandals like Tailhook or Abu Ghraib — it takes on a distressing kind of mob-mentality that leads to grotesque violations of human rights. I sometimes wonder if boot camp itself isn’t a violation of human rights.
And I don’t like the fact that these young people are trained to kill. To some extent, they are taught to stop considering the value and dignity of human life and see only targets. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that’s stuck in my head. It’s simplistic and reductionist, but I can’t stop thinking about it. It said something like: “Maybe when Jesus said we should love our enemies he meant we shouldn’t kill them.”
I understand the biblical arguments for the Just War theory. I’ve always considered myself a Just War advocate — in a true Augustinian sense.
I also understand the biblical arguments for Pacifism. I was raised in a church that had strong roots in the pacifist movement. From earliest childhood I was taught how to explain the phrase “conscientious objector”.
I understand the arguments for Pre-emtive War — though I must admit I find very little that is biblical about them.
I don’t mean to start a new thread here to unpack all of this. But I wanted to share with you my feelings that afternoon as I watched those young men and women — so full of youth, so full of promise, so full of hopes and fears and anxiety. I don’t know if they’ll come home or not. I don’t know if they’ll kill anyone or not. I don’t know if their mission will be successful or not. I’m not even sure if this whole thing is necessary or not.
I’m sure there are folks who have thought through those questions. I remain unconvinced of a lot of the answers I hear coming from various sources, so I’ll continue to search out the wisdom of God on this matter.
Until I figure it out, though, that’ll be me in the corner listening to the sound of my own conflicted applause.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I think many of us can relate to this. As I find myself embracing more and more of pacifism, I seek to find a way to respect and honor those who choose to serve in the military. Many accuse me of disrespecting them and their sacrifice. Quite the opposite is true.
Veterans deserve love, support and respect, even by those who might have chosen a different path.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer
November 11th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
From what I understand (as the daughter of a Vietnam war era West Point grad), the rigorous unit training and boot camp is absolutely required to provide soldiers structure, which they have to grab hold of when everything goes to H – in a handbasket. Battlefields, apparently, are a screaming chaos. You need all the structure you can get to make it through. Camp is also designed to: 1) convince you that you can handle crazy stress; convince you that you can do something that seems impossible; 3) create a strong bond with your unit. Many vets talk about doing amazingly heroic things on the battlefield, “for their buddies.” Abstract ideas dont get you through incredible battlefield mania — your buddies do.
Groupthink is always possible in any group. In fact I believe the origin of the word comes from the 50’s and is in reference to washington policy makers. And classic examples of groupthink tend to be civilian.
The recent military scandals I think are more an example of the “bad barrel” analogy, typified by the classic Stanford prison experiment of jailers and prisoners. The Stanford team had to abandon the experiment after only 6 days because the students — at STANFORD — had become too absorbed in their roles, approximately one third of the student “guards” began to exhibit truly sadistic tendencies.
These military incidents, while horrible, are not to my mind indicative of a military mind, per se, but indicative of what happens when you put a group of people in charge over another, in a poorly structured environment. Career military I spoke with after Abu Ghraib were appalled that untrained NG units were given guardianship authority in these circumstances. To them its more than embarrassing — its a grievous violation of their codes – the Honor code for those enlisted military who perpetrated the abuse, and the code of giving “proper” orders, re: the commanding officers who directly ordered abuse or at the very least, didn’t ensure proper direction and oversight.
As someone at a nonprofit, I would also say that those in the military — and those in govt service in general — are always your best volunteers, your most loyal donors, your surprise big supporters. They “get” service and giving back. Military and govt service must also do something very “right” for the human spirit….
I also think about the dean at West Point traveling to LA to confront the producers of 24, and to request that they stop glamorizing torture as an effective means of intelligence gathering — he noted, “The disturbing thing is that although torture may cause Jack Bauer some angst, it is always the patriotic thing to do.” [excellent article about this in the NEW YORKER at http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/02/19/070219fa_fact_mayer
For me it comes down to the following: I believe that we, as a nation, have to provide for our protection. given this, the military should use the best means available to train our all volunteer military, to be able to handle this heavy responsibility, with honor. It’s not for nothing that “honor” is included in virtually every military code.
November 11th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Living two hrs. from Ft. Hood, TX where 13 soldiers were just brutally murdered by an American Doctor….I think of the song “Homesick” by Mercy Me. As long as we remain at war, I must remind myself “this world is not my home”. Which makes my heart homesick as our Nation and World, longs to finally make it home.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:54 am
This post reminds me of questions I’ve pushed to the back of my mind for some time — both because of the difficulty of thinking through them, and because I’m living in East Africa now and don’t read often about the military and casualties and discussions of pacifism and just war. And I definitely am standing in the same corner with you, conflicted applause and all.
But as long as my memory’s been jogged, I might as well try and work through a little of this. It’s probably a drastic oversimplification, but I’ve always seen Jesus as one who gave up his own “personal” rights, but was willing to stand and defend the rights of others. That’s how I’ve read the New Testament — that I should be willing to turn my cheek and not raise a hand to defend myself. But that if someone is being oppressed or taken advantage of, and is unable to defend his/herself, then it becomes my responsibility.
I’m reminded of walking down a back alley late one night in Wuhan, China. Often while I lived there I heard about the intensity with which many men would beat their wives into submission. This one night in particular I witnessed it. Without thinking I stepped in between the two, asked him why he was doing this, and told him he’d better stop. He did stop, with his head hung in shame — not because what he was doing was wrong, but because he was being corrected directly by another individual. I don’t know if what I did was right. It may be that his wife received a harsher beating that very night for embarrassing him. It may be that I should have dealt with this problem differently in a culture with so much emphasis on honor and shame. But what I do know is that I didn’t have to hit or push this guy to get him to stop, but would have if it had been required. I know that action would have been justified by most, but I don’t know if it would have been like Christ.
That night in China wasn’t war, nor was it taking the life of another. But I magnify that night times thousands and I begin to wonder about protecting those who can’t protect themselves on a larger scale — and when do we decide to push or hit. Or do we? Will the beating be more severe next time, because we resisted? Will we be less like Christ, because we fought?
Either way, I should make clear that I greatly appreciate and respect those who defend our country. I know there are numerous sacrifices made, so that the U.S. can be a safer place, and so that people like me can sit around and think about these issues and others, freely. I don’t think posting today has gotten me a great deal closer to having all the answers, but at least I’m now engaged in the discussion. And for the time being, I’ll refrain from clapping and fold those hands in prayer — seems like that will help everyone involved a great deal more.
November 15th, 2009 at 1:05 am
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