by RON JACOBS
If Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was a deserter, then he’s a hero. Furthermore, he might have been the only sane American in Afghanistan. That war is not only unnecessary, it is wrong. Bergdahl’s recognition of this fact (if that’s what occurred) proves his sanity. Then again, perhaps he just got tired of killing and the threat of being killed. Or maybe the military’s excessively macho culture got to him. If he did just walk away from his post, it’s clear something cataclysmic happened in his psyche. It is not his fault other soldiers may have been killed searching for him. It is the fault of the government and its supporters that sent the soldiers into war in the first place.
Naturally, the right wing could not help themselves when rumors began to appear on the internet of Bergdahl’s possible desertion. After all, not only does the requisite hatred of Obama and the possibility he did something other rightwingers might like come into play, there is also the need to maintain the martial myth US culture insists on. Deserters must be punished. After all, if soldiers feel like they can walk away from a war for whatever reason at all, then how can a military be maintained? How can an Empire fight its wars except by overpaying mercenaries whose allegiance to anything but money and loot is questionable? Ever since Vietnam there is a lingering fear in every military officer and those civilians that support the institution of enlisted men and women who ignore orders, don’t fight and generally tell their higher-ups to fuck off.
Back in 1974, NBC television showed a film made from the book The Execution of Private Slovik by William Bradford Huie. The film and book were based on the true story of a hapless draftee who was executed on New Year’s Eve 1944 for desertion. The man who ordered the execution was General Dwight Eisenhower. When Huie tried to get the book published, Eisenhower attempted to quash publication. In 1960 Frank Sinatra tried to get a film version of the book made. He hired the blacklisted Albert Maltz to be the screenwriter. After being accused of being a communist sympathizer and asked to delay the film by John F. Kennedy, Sinatra backed down. Finally, the film was made with Martin Sheen playing the role of Eddie Slovik. In a side note, Kurt Vonnegut mentions Slovik in his antiwar novel Slaughterhouse Five.
According to Huie, Slovik realized rather quickly that he was not made to fight. He asked his commanding officer for a reassignment and was refused because the military needed fodder with rifles in their hand. After being refused, Slovik walked away from his unit, heading to a camp in the rear. It was there that he handed an Army cook a note which read, in part, “I, Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik, 36896415, confess to the desertion of the United States Army. At the time of my desertion we were in Albuff [Elbeuf] in France…. They were shelling the town and we were told to dig in for the night. The following morning they were shelling us again. I was so scared, nerves and trembling, that at the time the other replacements moved out, I couldn’t move. I stayed there in my fox hole till it was quiet and I was able to move. I then walked into town. Not seeing any of our troops, so I stayed over night at a French hospital. …. They turned me loose. I told my commanding officer my story. I said that if I had to go out there again I’d run away. He said there was nothing he could do for me so I ran away again AND I’LL RUN AWAY AGAIN IF I HAVE TO GO OUT THERE.”
Complete story at - Deserters are Heroes » CounterPunch:
If Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was a deserter, then he’s a hero. Furthermore, he might have been the only sane American in Afghanistan. That war is not only unnecessary, it is wrong. Bergdahl’s recognition of this fact (if that’s what occurred) proves his sanity. Then again, perhaps he just got tired of killing and the threat of being killed. Or maybe the military’s excessively macho culture got to him. If he did just walk away from his post, it’s clear something cataclysmic happened in his psyche. It is not his fault other soldiers may have been killed searching for him. It is the fault of the government and its supporters that sent the soldiers into war in the first place.
Naturally, the right wing could not help themselves when rumors began to appear on the internet of Bergdahl’s possible desertion. After all, not only does the requisite hatred of Obama and the possibility he did something other rightwingers might like come into play, there is also the need to maintain the martial myth US culture insists on. Deserters must be punished. After all, if soldiers feel like they can walk away from a war for whatever reason at all, then how can a military be maintained? How can an Empire fight its wars except by overpaying mercenaries whose allegiance to anything but money and loot is questionable? Ever since Vietnam there is a lingering fear in every military officer and those civilians that support the institution of enlisted men and women who ignore orders, don’t fight and generally tell their higher-ups to fuck off.
Back in 1974, NBC television showed a film made from the book The Execution of Private Slovik by William Bradford Huie. The film and book were based on the true story of a hapless draftee who was executed on New Year’s Eve 1944 for desertion. The man who ordered the execution was General Dwight Eisenhower. When Huie tried to get the book published, Eisenhower attempted to quash publication. In 1960 Frank Sinatra tried to get a film version of the book made. He hired the blacklisted Albert Maltz to be the screenwriter. After being accused of being a communist sympathizer and asked to delay the film by John F. Kennedy, Sinatra backed down. Finally, the film was made with Martin Sheen playing the role of Eddie Slovik. In a side note, Kurt Vonnegut mentions Slovik in his antiwar novel Slaughterhouse Five.
According to Huie, Slovik realized rather quickly that he was not made to fight. He asked his commanding officer for a reassignment and was refused because the military needed fodder with rifles in their hand. After being refused, Slovik walked away from his unit, heading to a camp in the rear. It was there that he handed an Army cook a note which read, in part, “I, Pvt. Eddie D. Slovik, 36896415, confess to the desertion of the United States Army. At the time of my desertion we were in Albuff [Elbeuf] in France…. They were shelling the town and we were told to dig in for the night. The following morning they were shelling us again. I was so scared, nerves and trembling, that at the time the other replacements moved out, I couldn’t move. I stayed there in my fox hole till it was quiet and I was able to move. I then walked into town. Not seeing any of our troops, so I stayed over night at a French hospital. …. They turned me loose. I told my commanding officer my story. I said that if I had to go out there again I’d run away. He said there was nothing he could do for me so I ran away again AND I’LL RUN AWAY AGAIN IF I HAVE TO GO OUT THERE.”
Complete story at - Deserters are Heroes » CounterPunch:
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments subject to moderation.