Drumbeat of the Metanarrative Keeps Beating

Via Clive Davis comes a name from the past. Frank Schaeffer, former evangelical turned eastern orthodox whose son has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, writes about putting the events of Haditha in perspective:

Even in "good wars" things go horribly wrong. The following quotations from "Naples '44," by the late Norman Lewis (perhaps the greatest English travel writer of the past century), are instructive. Lewis was stationed in Naples following Italy's liberation from the Nazis, and he kept a diary:

"What we saw was ineptitude and cowardice spreading down from the command, and this resulted in chaos . . .

"I saw an ugly sight: a British officer interrogating a civilian, and repeatedly hitting him about the head with the chair; treatment which the [civilian], his face a mask of blood, suffered with stoicism. At the end of the interrogation, which had not been considered successful, the officer called on a private and asked him in a pleasant, conversational sort of manner, 'Would you like to take this man away, and shoot him?' The private's reply was to spit on his hands, and say, 'I don't mind if I do, sir.'

"I received confirmation . . . that American combat units were ordered by their officers to beat to death [those] who attempted to surrender to them. These men seem very naive and childlike, but some of them are beginning to question the ethics of this order.

"We liberated them from the Fascist Monster. And what is the prize? The rebirth of democracy. The glorious prospect of being able one day to choose their rulers from a list of powerful men, most of whose corruptions are generally known and accepted with weary resignation. The days of Mussolini must seem like a lost paradise compared to us."

If Lewis's account were the only surviving document from World War II, we might assume that allied nation-building ended in catastrophe. We would wonder why a morally outraged peace movement didn't stop our troops from carrying out their failed and brutal campaigns.

Sixty years later and caught up in another war, we are confronted by the massacre in Haditha. And we are also caught up in the anguish of another generation of young men and women asked to kill but to keep killing within "civilized" bounds, to take insults, be fired upon by men hiding behind women and children, yet not respond in kind.

To most readers this is an academic question of morality, or I-told-you-so politics. To those of us with loved ones in the military, the allegations of an atrocity committed by U.S. Marines in Haditha are personal.

....Judging by Lewis's diary -- and many other accounts -- the so-called Greatest Generation of World War II was often badly led and worse-behaved, and was certainly less merciful than our present-day soldiers and their leaders. We haven't carpet-bombed Baghdad or nuked Fallujah to spare the lives of our troops. Yet most Americans are glad we forced Italy, Germany and Japan to become democracies, however brutal our means.

The flag-waving boosters of our current war and their critics all seem to forget that war really is hell. Proponents sweep the inconvenient dreadfulness under the carpet (no photographs of coffins, please) while opponents are shocked, just shocked, at the nastiness. All sides seem to forget that there are no good wars, only morally ambiguous conflicts that lead to better or worse outcomes.

In this war, we do not have enough political leaders and opinion-makers receiving soul-searing letters from their children. Their sons and daughters are notably absent from our military. That's too bad.

A personal connection to our wars might discourage the sort of glib hubris that leads the media to trumpet events such as the Haditha killings without putting them in the context of the everyday heroism that is the norm, or in the context of history. And a personal connection to our military by our political leaders would give them a stake in our troops' welfare and what we are asking them to do.

I think Frank oversells the fact that some only need to awaken from their ignorance to support this war. In fact, I am becoming convinced the Left and those on the far Right have thrown in all of their chips in opposing the war. The only legitimacy they are holding onto is hope that this war will end spectacularly bad, shaming the "evil" Bush Administration who only makes decisions, according to John Kerry, for the purposes of "looting the country."

Apparently John Kerry with his authorization to use force to make Iraq comply with U.N. resolutions was a ploy to jump aboard the pirate-ship and grab some booty.

Back to Haditha. This battle that we fight is against an enemy whose moral code makes Ghengis Khan look like the patron saint of compassion. Thankfully these 7th century cretins don't share his battlefield acumen.

For the entire war, this dispicable enemy has hidden behind women and children, planted weapons and shot at our troops and Iraqi civilians from religious shrines, schools, and homes. I'm still waiting for the outrage demanding that if these men be held to the standard of warfare they constantly hold us to.

Large portions of the West have completely lost their moral compass in evaluating and fighting this war. Mostly silent on the beheadings, murders and atrocities that everyday are a part of the insurgents grand plan for retaking Iraq, these people have looked for a blemish free United States to operate with complete effeciency and pure morals. I say mostly silent, as the only time they mention the atrocities committed by the insurgents is for the purpose of turning it into a stick to beat the Bush Administration and the supporters of the war with.

You can tell a lot about people by seeing what they value. My stomach turns with the realization that many in this country, and many in parts of the world that are supposed to stand for personal freedom, would rather see Bush go down then to defeat an enemy who not wants to behead women for not wearing a proper covering.

This double-standard has nothing to do with ignorance, it has to do with purposely driven ideology. Bush must go down, they say, and if we have to lie, spin and spread a false narrative about the war to do so, it is done for the greater good.

Anyway, if after the investigation, they find that these Marines guilty of what they are accused of, they should be severely punished (yes I know that means the death penalty). But, facts on the ground are clear, this is the exception and not the norm for the behavior of our troops throughout this conflict. Yet, the side that indiscriminantly kills and murders with impunity, as ingrained in their ideology and in their very being, is completely ignored.

Frank Schaeffer is right to demonstrate, compare and put our current situation into context with past history. But, for some, I don't think it really matters. Facts are pesky things when you are fighting against for the greater good.