The Catskill Chronicle

Gadfly by Mort Malkin

With your drums and guns, and guns and drums, Hurroo, Hurroo,

With your drums and guns, and guns and drums,

The enemy nearly slew ye.

Oh my darling dear, ye look so queer,

Johnny I hardly knew ye.

With a stick in me hand, and a tear in me eye,

A doleful damsel I heard cry,

Johnny I hardly knew ye.

They’r rolling out the guns again, Huroo, Hurroo.

They’re rolling out the guns again,

But they never will take my sons again,

No they’ll never take my sons again.

Johnny I’m swearing to ye.

— Irish traditional song

In America we encourage our children to attend church with us on Sundays, and to obey the Ten Commandments. Not just the one that says “Honor thy father and mother,” but also number 6 – “Thou shalt not commit murder.” Apparently the early training is effective, not only for altar boys and girls but for children sitting in the pews with the the rest of the congregation.

When the children go on in their teenage years and reach age 18, they may enlist in the military for a couple of years for reason of getting a college education or a matter of teen age rebellion or … The military, though, does not always abide by the Ten Commandments – the job description there is to kill people.

Going back to when there was a draft – Vietnam, Korea, and WW II – those in the military were more representative of the average population and they, like other human beings, were averse to killing. The SLA Marshall study of troops in WW II showed that the great majority of them did not fire their guns at the enemy. In several interviews, veterans of the Korean war told of orders to go out on patrol and “don’t come back with any bullets in your guns.” They complied by shooting their remaining rounds into their air just before returning. The results of the SLA Marshall study have been disputed on grounds that the troops may have been trying to conserve ammunition. But, the Pentagon believes SLA Marshall was valid and, since 1973, has changed basic training to wipe out that anti-military aversion to killing.

Basic training of the volunteer army nowadays aims to make killing a reflex reaction, leaving not even a nano-second for thinking that the enemy may be a fellow human being. In training on the firing range, it is no longer shooting at bulls-eye targets. Now, human silhouettes pop up and the new recruits are told they must shoot immediately and get a kill each time. Some soldiers report being instructed to yell “Kill” each time they shoot. The psychological conditioning (brain washing) continues with some thirteen different goals such as: a) the capacity to react reflexly” with lethal force, b) living in perpetual suspicion and readiness to respond to danger, c) suppression of any hint of compassion or thoughtfulness, d) skill at manipulation and lying, and e), f), g). h), i), j), k), l), m) — nine similar (anti)social skills.

Sometimes, the training works all too well as in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the Bagram prison in Afghanistan. The Pentagon tries to tell us that such rare exceptions to military discipline won’t be tolerated [even as Donald Rumsfeld calls them fraternity pranks]. But, maybe the military’s way of enforcing military discipline is by looking the other way. Otherwise, how can the unconscionable actions of the helicopter crew in the film leaked by Bradley Manning have been possible? How could “double tap” drone strikes be allowed by the military? In case you haven’t heard, a “double tap” strike targets first responders who go to the aid of victims of an initial first drone strike. How could they call victims of such attacks “bug splat”? Our troops are becoming brutalized and dehumanized.

Their tour (or more likely, multiple tours) of duty will end, alive if they are lucky, and uninjured [less likely], and they must readjust themselves to civilian life. Now, that should be easy enough — most of the combat troops had plenty of experience living among the civilian population of the occupied nation. Once back in the civilian population of the US, they just have to: be less suspicious, be more thoughtful and trusting, show kindness and empathy, and value the truth. Maybe, they need a boot camp to recondition them in the Ten Commandments. A VA psychologist famously said, “If you’re a good soldier, you’ll be a bad civilian.”

In the recent wars in the Middle East in which the troops have undergone enhanced training, they’ve also had better protection of their bodies, translating into more returning alive but with injuries to their limbs. The skills of the occupyees in producing roadside bombs, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and grenade launchers, however, have also improved, and resultant blast injuries to our soldiers’ brains (TBIs) have also increased. Lastly, our presidents and the Pentagon have lied as to why we are defending our shores 10,000 miles away in a country we can hardly locate on the map. This mental conflict has produced emotional injury of soldiers who volunteered to defend the US.

Overall, an inordinate number of soldiers have returned with missing limbs. The suicide rate is at a record-setting high. Homelessness, joblessness, divorce, and addiction to drugs & alcohol are similarly so. The multiple signs and symptoms of PTSD — anxiety, insomnia, flashbacks of dead women and children, nightmares, loss of attention span, memory problems, asocial behavior … — affect over 30% of returning Vets. A VA psychiatrist who has treated many of them has remarked, “Nobody goes to war and comes back the same.”

Returning Veterans do not seem ready for civilian life, and, with one exception, US civil society is not ready for them. That one area is — you guessed it — the criminal justice system. Police Departments, sheriffs offices, and prisons are becoming more militarized — just the place where combat vets can feel right at home. They are especially valued as members of SWAT teams. Of course the vets applying for such employment are not screened or examined very carefully for PTSD or, heavens forefend, TBI.

Gadfly suggests a better way. Since 1945 and the end of WW II, the US has invaded, intervened in militarily, and/or occupied about fifty other countries. Let’s put our efforts and resources into diplomacy and waging Peace, instead. We can start right at home with a Peace Academy or two, a Peace College, and a Cabinet level Department of Peace. The Gadfly Revelry and Research team will offer all the help the government can stand.