4um: Let Us Salute the Flag

Aaaagh! Enough. I keep reading that I should Honor Our Troops. On airline flights, I am asked to applaud Our Young Men in Uniform. Why, for God’s sake? What have Our Troops done for me except cause me great embarrassment, cost money better spent on anything else, and kill millions of people that I have had no interest in killing? For this I am to thank them?

No, they don’t have noble motives. Men join the military because they need a job, because they want money for college or because they are bored or want to prove their manhood or go to exotic places and get laid. Basic training, jump school, being a tank gunner or doing nocturnal scuba insertions are much more appealing to a young man than selling fan belts at the NAPA outlet.

Patriotism? “Love of country” is an after-market add-on, good for a drink or a pat on the back at the Legion–nothing more than an expression of the pack instinct that makes men in all places and times join in groups to fight other groups. The pack instinct is why tribal warfare is continual among primitive peoples, why war, otherwise inexplicable, remains incessant between modern countries. It is why the gangs of young males in Chicago mirror military hierarchy, with territory to be expanded or defended, with leaders and insignia (e.g. black and gold jackets for the Latin Kings ), with hand signs to signify identify and loyalty. It is why people join screaming mobs in political conventions, why they become wildly emotional over football teams consisting largely of convicted felons who have nothing to do with the city.

The pattern of loyalty inward to one’s pack and hostility outward toward other packs explains the peculiar morality of the military (and of most other people). A Marine colonel will be at home a good neighbor, civic-minded, honest, cut the grass and help old ladies across the street. Come a war and he will mercilessly bomb any city he is told to bomb, and after killing he doesn’t care whom on the ground, he will go to the officers’ club where there will be high-fives and war stories.

We must not notice this, or the other feral dogs will turn on us. If you say that soldiers are morally indistinguishable from Mafia hit-men, you will arouse outrage—but there is no difference. A soldier who has never heard of Vietnam or Iraq goes when ordered to kill Vietnamese and Iraqis, and duly kills them. Guido and Vito, who have never heard of Hyman Blitzschein the store-owner who is behind on his protection payments, break Hyman’s leg when ordered to. What is the difference?

Morality is always a very thin veneer on top of the deeper savagery of the pack. Militaries encourage this savagery. From Joshua onward until very recently, armies regularly put cities to the sword, and generals allowed their troops to sack and rape rewards for good service. For those unfamiliar with such things, “putting cities…” meant killing every living thing within.

A graphic description of torture and murder routine in the Thirty Years War would have most readers retching. Today this sort of thing, when exposed, is held to be in bad taste. Only the United States engages openly in torture (put “Abu Ghraib) In Google images) but others do it.

Of course, much depends on who is doing what to whom. When the Germans bombed London, the English thought it barbaric. Later, when they were bombing German cities, it was a form of heroism. The Rape of Nanjing was hideous, while the frying of Hiroshima was not. Killing everyone in a city of a hundred thousand by hand would be very bad PR, but burning them to death from above is a cause for congratulations.

An effect of the pack instinct is the suppression of cognitive dissonance. If one noticed that a woman, campaigning for sexual abstinence, was pregnant with her seventh child, one might notice the contradiction. Patriots, or the American variety anyway, cannot notice that Our Boys, and Our Girls, are committing the routine atrocities that armies normally commit. Call it cognitive indifference.

American atrocities are always Isolated Incidents. An Isolated Incident is business-as-usual that is detected by the press. Thus torture is best avoided by restricting coverage.

It is de rigueur to speak of our boys fighting to defend America and our way of life, and to speak of their sacrifices. In the Fifties this spirit was exemplified by Superman jumping out of a window, while the voice-over intoned “truth, justice, and the American way,” then thought to be related.

Actually soldiers are more sacrificed than sacrificing. Precisely how killing Afghan goat-herds protects the United States is not clear: careful students of geography have argued that Afghanistan is somewhere else. The evidence does seem to support this.

Today, the motives of wars are usually disguised so as to be palatable. It has been said that the British fought for empire, the French for la gloire de la France, the Russians to steal watches from the wounded, and the Americans for vague moral abstractions. Thus Washington fights to rid Iraq of a cruel dictator, while supporting many others as cruel; fights to instill democracy, as if anyone anywhere cared whether Afghanistan were democratic; and to protect the world from nonexistent WMD.

The dog-pack instinct is most intense in the elite outfits, SEALs and Force Recon and Special Forces, with tightly-bonded small groups—the focus of males—working together. Powerful free-floating hostility characterizes the, and patriotism gives them a cover story for doing what they would want to do anyway.

Loyalty to a small band of warriors is easily transferred to an abstraction such as country or religious faith. Witness the fervor of Muslims today, or the enthusiasm for Christianity of illiterate Crusaders in the eleventh century who knew little of Christianity and certainly didn’t follow its moral precepts. Being swept up in a Cause gives an appearance of meaning to a life otherwise devoid of such. The flags, the hurrahs, the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of hundred of boots, the solidarity—these reinforce the pack instinct, and recruiters and politicians know it.

And so a coal-miner who hates the coal company, hates suits and liberals and the rich and blacks and homosexuals and knows he is being exploited and doesn’t really like anybody at all except local friends, will discover unexpected loyalty when the Japanese bomb Pearl.

It is truly amazing that such repositories of all learning and humanism, never leave this country, rather they stay here within a society, that is without soul.

Air Force Overlooks Disrespectful Display of the American Flag in Favor of Political Correctness

Brian Kolfage - A Wounded Warrior

Brian Kolfage endured a life-changing event that would have sent someone of lesser spirit into a downward spiral. But for this former SF Airman turned Architect life is about looking forward to what you can do, not what you cannot.

Then Senior Airman Kolfage was on his second deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004. On Sept. 11, 2004 he was struck directly by a large artillery round (107mm rocket) which instantly severed his legs completely and his dominant right hand, making him a triple amputee. Despite suffering multiple amputations, 16 surgeries and the looming possibility of death, Airman Kolfage maintained incredible strength and courage throughout his recovery.

The fact that no one with his level of amputation has ever been able to walk independently didn't discourage him. With undiminished spirit, he still saw opportunities and worked with feverish determination through his physical therapy program, gaining strength and balance every day. Incredibly, Brian walked out of Walter Reed 11 months after being injured; this is unheard of.

Till this day he is still the most severely wounded U.S. Airman to survive any war. After leaving the hospital in 2005 he immediately became a Civil Service employee for the Air Force at Davis Monthan Air Force Base where he was the base security manager. In 2010, Brian furthered his service to our nation by accepting an invitation to be on Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s veterans advisory committee. Despite political differences Brian put aside differences and worked tirelessly to help Arizona veterans in need. The Congresswoman invited Brian and his wife to the 2012 State of The Union Address as her special guests when she resigned.

Today, Brian is a 2014 graduate of the University of Arizona’s School of Architecture. With persistence and determination he beat the odds stacked against him and was awarded one of the most prestigious military scholarships, the Pat Tillman Scholar award, additionally he was presented with the Purple Heart medal for his actions in Iraq. Brian is currently serving on Congressman Ron Barber's (D-Ariz) veteran advisory committee. Brian continues to embrace a positive attitude as he makes great strides in life. He and his wife continue to make trips back to Walter Reed Medical Center to visit with newly wounded veterans, their insight and ability to connect with these wounded warriors gives them and their families new hope for the future as they see what Brian has accomplished with only one remaining limb. I noticed something strange as I drove through Davis Monthan Air Force Base, in Tuscon, Arizona last week.

It was an American flag with rainbow stripes instead of the standard red and white stripes flying high on a two story house…on government property.

For those of you with military ties, you’ll understand the stark contrast between military and civilian life, and ultimately know duty comes before self. More specifically, it’s one of the Air Force‘s three core values that is drilled into us in Basic Military Training.

Photo Credit: Brian Kolfage

Everyone is free to express their sexual preferences in the Military in any way they want, but this flag flying on a military base is in violation of Title 4 of the U.S. Code. http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/air-force-overlooks-disrespectful-display-of-the-american-flag-in-favor-of-political-correctness/

Military Investigating Gay Pride Flag

By Todd Starnes

The military said they are investigating a photograph that shows a soldier allegedly raising a gay pride flag at a base in Afghanistan. The image has drawn praise from gay rights advocates and fierce criticism from opponents.

“We are aware of the photo of the gay pride flag being flown by U.S. service members and we are investigating,” a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force told Fox News.

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At this point, the ISAF cannot confirm where the flag was raised, the identity of the soldier, or the authenticity of the photograph.

The photograph first appeared last month on the wall of a Facebook group called, “Wipeout Homophobia on Facebook.”

A woman who identified herself as Nicole Jodice posted the images – along with a message praising her husband for raising the rainbow colored flag.

“Hubbie in Afghanistan raising a gay pride flag,” she wrote with a link back to her home page that contained additional images.

The images have outraged social conservatives like Tony Perkins, a veteran and president of the Family Research Council.

“There, in the dusty desert of war, an Army outpost saluted the colors of the homosexual lobby by flying a rainbow flag in place of Old Glory,” Perkins said. “These displays are an uncomfortable reminder of the open policy that few of the troops support.”

“It appears this flag is just one way the President is taking his hostility toward religious freedom to new heights,” Perkins said.

Perkins was especially upset because last November soldiers at Camp Marmal were ordered to tear down a Christian cross that marked the entrance to a base chapel. The military defended the removal because it was a “distinctly religious symbol.”

He also raised concerns about whether the raising of the flag posed a danger to soldiers in the aftermath of the Koran burning.

“Where is the concern now for angering Afghan Muslims who vehemently oppose homosexuality?” he aside. “The issue is as much an issue of military security as it is of religious morality. What price will we pay because some want to use the military to show their gay pride?”

Queerty.com brushed aside Perkins’ concerns calling him a “professional homophobe.”

“Apparently a rainbow flag is such a provocation that it excuses attacks on our troops, they wrote. “Or it could be a sign of the strength of our diversity and tolerance, principles we’re supposed to treasure.”

However, even some supporters of gays serving openly in the military have reservations about the rainbow flag being flown on a military base.

“Unless there was authorization from an appropriate source to raise this flag over the base, and such authorization was not in violation of military codes of conduct, I see this as an unacceptable flouting of the rules,” one reader wrote to Instinct Magazine. “This isn’t homophobic. It is, in fact, egalitarian.” http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/military-investigating-gay-pride-flag.html

U.S. Constitution - Article IV, Section 4: NO BORDERS + NO LAWS = NO COUNTRY

Except of course against those that really have them, particularly those that are the most volatile (Israel), then of course we sit on our hands and do nothing.

You've really done it now, Ada -- provided one of the best, most truly important pieces of this year so far. Not because it's funny and witty, which it is, but because of what it says about human nature and how people never really escape the stone age no matter what.

"The pattern of loyalty inward to one’s pack and hostility outward toward other packs explains the peculiar morality of the military (and of most other people)" --an epic summary, sweeping yet true!!!!

He is really telling it, wow -- am reading as I write. This is going to cost him friends! He's even zinging the "our boys" and "our girls" thing -- thought I was the only one that pointed out that sickening little irony?

Being aracial, he's got it exactly backwards in his "Hyman Blitzschein the store-owner" figure, but who can argue with a grand-slam like this. (Organized crime is Jue.)

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Many years ago I nearly emigrated there. The problem was that yankees were not allowed to own houses.

It was state law at that time. If I recall yankees could lease them for 100 years or some such.

San Miguel de Allende is a highly-rated expat mecca. The government doesn't even check people's papers, 'tis said.