|
-- Guest
Lecture --
Bill Hunt, Mike Kelley, Tom "Jake" Jacobs
A Chat On Mandatory National Service
[Saturday
Afternoon, June 3rd, 2000]
Tom
"Jake" Jacobs, responded next, which sent both
Mike and Bill and Tom into a chat mode. Tom is a former
Vietnam Vet, USMC 3rd Recon. Years later, after leaving
the Marines, he joined the Army National Guard, of all
things, and his unit was activated (surprise) for
service in Bosnia. He returned in May of this year,
after 8 months of bag time.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The
village was called Sultanavici, just west and south of
Zvornic, near the Drina River which separates Bosnia
from the Former Yugoslavian Republic (FRY) which some
call Serbia.
The
villager was trying to rebuild his house and return to
the valley where he was born and raised. However, about
once an hour, six days a week, eight hours a day, a
truck full of Zvornic garbage would roll down the dirt
road that winds through the valley and dump its load
near his house. Occasionally one of the trucks would be
a FRY military vehicle illegally on the west side of the
river. The day before, one purposefully backed into his
house before rolling back to FRY country. The valley is
covered with smoldering garbage.
There
was a running battle in the valley in 1995 when
Srebrenica to the south fell. Earlier that day the
villager showed us two mass graves and a skeleton in the
woods near his house. We wrote down the information to
report the sites while we listened to him, surrounded by
flies and stench and acrid smoke.
"See
that house up there," he said through an
interpreter. "The white one on the ridge? They
killed approximately 600 people there. Just rounded them
up and killed them. Women and children too".
The
flies buzzed and the garbage burned. "First they
came and took our weapons," the villager said.
"They told us we would be safe and we believed
them. Why not? Both my brother and I served in that
army. It was our army. How could we not trust
them?"
The
villager's voice and gestures had the quality of
confession. He wasn't complaining as much as venting. He
just needed to tell somebody. "After they took our
weapons," he said, "they began to round us up,
separating the men from the women and children. Then the
killing began.
Men in
the same uniform I wore. We fought them. We had a few
hunting rifles. My brother and myself and others."
He pointed up the valley in the direction of Tuzla.
"Who could escape, did", he said. "Many
died." He looked at me, then he looked at his
house, then he looked at the garage.
Could it
happen in the United States? Until that morning in
Sultanavici I would have said "no." Never in
the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. But it
did happen in Bosnia, when a large portion of the
country's military turned east while the country's
citizens turned west.
Later
that morning, I was preparing to go with the villager
and the interpreter up the side of the valley to the
site of another mass grave and a spot where I could take
pictures. There was really little danger, yet I was
there to photograph license plates and faces. Someone
could take exception to my behavior. That's why I had
two vehicles full of military police up the valley and
out of sight. I slapped a magazine in my rifle and
chambered a round.
The
sergeant in charge of my body guards said "Don't
let my people see you do that." I could tell he was
displeased but I outranked him and his only reason for
being there was to protect me and the interpreter.
"I don't let my people 'lock and load,'" he
said.
"Well,
if I need it," I told him, "I want it to work
right away." I took off following the villager
knowing my body guards would not get off the first or
second or even third shot should there be trouble. It's
hard to explain, but there was a distinct lack of
aggression in the troops detailed to protect me.
I
had the impression they were conducting a training
exercise and would stop the mission should anything
happen to jeopardize troop safety. I got the
impression that, if the Serb military shot at me, the
body guards would cancel the mission and return to base
to file an unfavorable report. Walking behind the
villager up the side of the valley, I felt like one
lonely VietVet.
Months
later, I was back in the States and speaking to a high
school class about my experiences in Vietnam and Bosnia.
After fielding the inevitable "did you kill
anybody" and "what's it like in combat,"
we got on the subject of duty and service. "We
confuse rights with privileges," I told them.
"We really have few rights, but we are a very
privileged people. In fact, the world envies us our
privileges, not our material goods. In the three former
communist countries I've visited, when the people there
talk about the States, they talk about the freedom to go
anywhere and the opportunity to do almost anything. They
don't talk about the cars and the clothes and the
houses."
Their
faces were sullen. I had broached an uncomfortable
subject. "Do you have the right to vote when you
turn 18?" I asked. They nodded. "Wrong,"
I said. "Voting is a privilege. The way you can
tell it's not a right is because it can be taken away
from you. Commit a felony and you lose your 'right' to
vote. In some states, you can even lose your 'right' to
life if you commit a serious enough crime. They inject
poison in your veins and revoke that 'right.' What you
have as a citizen of this country is privilege and
opportunity and you are the envy of the world."
The
sullen looks did not go away. School would be over for
the day in a few minutes and they were getting restless,
eager to be free.
"What
are you willing to pay for the incredible good fortune
of being born in this country?" I asked. "Do
you owe something to your country for the gifts passed
to you upon your birth, gifts that set you apart from
most of the world and gifts that were purchased with
decades of sacrifice? Should you behave in gratitude?
Should you dedicate a portion of your life to ensure
those gifts are passed to your children and your
children's children?
Or are
they gifts you feel are your rights, gifts that you
deserve and there is no need for a 'thank
you?'"
Well,
they had no answer. However, I suspect I know what that
Sultanavici villager might have to say on the subject.
As for me, I've seen the All-Volunteer Army and, despite
the new jargon, I suspect it's like any peacetime force:
they are fat, are self-involved and train as the mission
rather than for one. The Great Spirit help us if we have
to fight in some country like Bosnia where air
superiority would mean little. We would prevail as we
are the best trained and best equipped in the world.
However, it would be an initial bloodbath as it was in
the beginning of two world wars.
Also, as
the social gap grows between those in uniform and those
not, how possible does it become for our military to
turn east when the country turns west? Could it really
happen here? Could a military composed only of those who
choose to serve choose something other than the will of
the people?
Finally,
does the privilege of being a U.S. citizen, an
accidental act of birth for most of us, demand something
in return? This country did not happen accidentally. Men
died in 1776 for the privilege of determining their own
destiny free from another country's influence, a grand
experiment in citizens determining what government they
should have. Men died in 1861 to preserve the strength
of a united government over the dictates of a state.
Men died
in 1914 and 1941 because there were those who would take
from us those gifts we made for our children. Men died
in 1951 and 1965, right or wrong, believing that a world
power would take those gifts if given the opportunity.
There
are still those in the world who would take what we
have. We are stronger than them at present. However, we
are an insulated country, far more concerned with what
the Dow did today than with what world leaders did.
According to current report, over half the adults in our
country are overweight. We think we have a right to
compensation if we spill hot coffee in our lap and are
indignant when standards aren't adjusted to accommodate
those who can't meet them. I keep remembering the words
of William Wallace to the Scottish noblemen in the movie
"Brave Heart":
"You
think your privilege exists to provide you with
possession," he said. "I think your possession
exists to provide the people with freedom and I go to
see that they have it."
We
are free and privileged and altogether unique as a
people on this planet. We are the royalty of the world.
I wonder if we'll reach a state much like the French
royalty at the beginning of their revolution, wondering
why the breadless don't eat cake while the hordes tear
down the walls.
And I
wonder, just like Kelley, if I've been in the sun too
long.
--Jake----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake,
Your
experience with the high school kids is amazing. I could
almost feel their silence.
--Bill------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill,
It's
frustrating. I got the distinct impression they had not
the slightest idea what I was talking about. The notion
of service or duty or even gratitude toward past
generations is simply beyond their world.
Sigh.
--Jake----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake,
[From Bill]
Ahh,
yes, but they were listening. And they were learning. To
the young it is all about growing up and getting
respect. And the respect they want the most is from the
old guys who have already been there and back again.
Especially
if those old guys are within their own families. It is
years and years before they learn that the only respect
worth having comes from inside.
I found
your words powerful, and if that is what you were saying
they were dumbfounded.
If
the opposite were true they would have just laughed you
out of the room. One thing's for sure, though. If a
mandatory national service "draft" were put to
a vote, it would never pass. Not with 18 year olds
voting these days. No chance.
I'm
hoping that a few of the DeAnza students kick in on the
subject, but I'm willing to bet a paycheck that they
don't.
--Bill------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill,
[From Jake]
[In
reference to my comment that this would never pass a
popular vote] Yep,
I think you're right. Furthermore, I think there is a
fundamental flaw in thinking that simple mandatory
national service will instill discipline and a sense of
duty and responsibility. When I hear people talk or
write about that, it appears to me they have some mental
image of all kids going through some kind of Marine boot
camp or Heinlein's version of the Mobile Infantry in
"Starship Troopers."
Fact is,
the Marines presently are the only ones who have kept
the faith and, interestingly enough, are the only
service meeting their recruiting goals.
In
today's military, which certainly would be more
demanding than a "national service" outside
the military, there is a whole collection of standards
depending upon who has to meet them.
Not only
would a "national service" have to pass the
voters, the notion of a tough, sacrificial, personal
rite of passage would also have to pass. The fact is, we
already have 12 years of mandatory service for our
children. It's called public school. Look at what that
has become.
--Jake----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake,
[From Mike]
Doesn't
the Selective Service System still exist? Far as I know,
it still does, kids still register (males at any rate)
and all it would need was an awakening.
Granted,
the likelihood of National Service system being created
is exceedingly remote; however, kick-starting the Draft
would be less of a problem (especially since it still
remains aimed strictly at males) and, if we could at
least initially create some form of National service
Corps that is voluntary to start with, there might be a
chance to get the ball rolling.
The
service corps could even be designed as an alternative
to prison for young offenders as well as the altruistic.
As it gains momentum and respect, we move it over to the
mandatory column a decade or so down the road.
Certainly
the logistics of creating such a system are daunting to
say the least, and it would take years of practice until
it was reasonably functional, but my hunch is the long
term benefit would be worth the huge investment at
several levels. Can you imagine what it will take to
mobilize the US if we ever get into a big ruckus like
WWII again? Most of the military training facilities we
once had aren't just closed, they are completely gone.
If we build something like a national service corps and
build/devote facilities to them, they could become the
convenient stepping stone to mobilization should the
need ever arise.
And no,
I don't see kids coming out of this system acting like
Mary Poppins (certainly not the first few generations to
be sure), but at least we break the cycle of gang life
and these kids get a chance to see another side of life
besides watching it on TV. They won't come out singing
the Sound Of Music, but then they probably won't go back
to gang life, either.
Oh and
among the rules in my camp would be some banning
cellular phones, pagers, boom boxes and personal
listening devices of any sort within the troops, period.
Christ, this generation would go into shock (and so will
their parents)!
--Mike----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake
(and Mike), [From Bill]
I can
justify a "draft" for civilian national
service, but my justification would have little to do
with instilling a sense duty, honor, national bonding,
fraternal order, patriotism, discipline, etc., etc. Some
of that would happen, in certain jobs, but by and large
the community service that would actually get done would
be much less worthy of fond memories. My justification
would have to rest on a clear need for the services of
you (and in some cases that need clearly exists). The
notion that the work would be good for the young worker
is too general for me to discuss without getting down
into the details that do not even exist.
I think
the late BT Collins would have agreed. His California
Conservation Corp was a great example of a civilian
group of kids with military type bonding and pride. But
if his corp had been a bunch of conscripts, instead of
volunteers looking for a way out of the get, he would
have been beside himself. He would have been unable to
wash out and send home two-thirds of the kids the moment
they started complaining. He would have been unable to
retain only the toughest and the brightest, so they
could look back on their duty with pride.
On the
other hand, I have always been in favor of a military
draft. An all-volunteer Army is a pathetic idea, even if
it turns out it can fight better than any Army that has
ever existed (which remains in doubt). I want a citizen
Army in my country. So did our founding fathers.
--Bill------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
