Like most Americans over the age of 30, I can remember where I was and what I was doing on the morning of September 11, 2001. It was a Tuesday morning, and I was getting my son ready for daycare. I turned on the TV after the first plane had hit the first tower and heard new newscaster ay a ‘small plane’ had crashed into the World Trade Center. I looked at the TV and saw the imprint of the first passenger jet that had disappeared into the steel superstructure of one of the twin towers.
“That doesn’t look like a small plane,” I recall thinking. Moments later, I heard the broadcasters yelling about a second plane, and I knew, in that instant, as did millions of others, that what had happened wasn’t an accident, but was a terror attack. I knew as well that it was likely to be Muslims behind it, as it turned out it was. The hijacking of airplanes was an outstanding feature that was developed in the wake of the Palestinian conflict.
That Tuesday morning kicked off the long period that will be known in the future as the Global War on Terror period, or the post 9-11 period, and it was marked by two ground invasions by the US military, one in Afghanistan, and one in Iraq. These two wars produced just over 7000 combat deaths and 35,000 wounded over 20 years, the worst of which were in Iraq in the 2006 to 2008 period. The necessity and outcome of these wars is subject to debate, as is every war the United States has fought since 1945. A common theme since at least as far back as the Vietnam War, however, has been the relentless transformation of the survivors of warfare from returning heroes to ‘wounded warriors’ with a host of pathologies that must be therapeutically attended to. And while I occasionally see ads on TV seeking recruits to join the military, those few ads are outnumbered by the ads I see soliciting money to take care of those who entered the military and were wounded. These ads are sponsored by a variety of organizations with names like ‘The Wounded Warrior Project’ and lately, the ‘Tunnels to Towers Foundation.’
These efforts to help the wounded may be noble, but it is undeniable that they represent a trend. We now portray the men and women who serve in the military as damaged goods who can’t shake the experience and who need costly therapeutic help. According to this narrative, the veterans are either turned into psychopathic monsters by the war or rendered helpless by the experience. The citizen soldier, the kind that picks up a gun, serves the nation, then goes back to work, is gone. The farmer militia man, of Minuteman as they were called in the Revolutionary period, gone. The permanent victim class has replaced the warrior citizen as the post-military service model.
For half a century now, we’ve pathologized our warriors. The list of award-winning films about Vietnam that hold as self-evident the physic wounds of war is a long one: Apocalypse Now, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, Casualties of War, Full Metal Jacket, Born on the 4th of July, and Coming Home. And these are just the movies. There were hundreds of TV episodes and many more books that told the same story of men ruined mentally and wrecked physically by a post-World War 2 fight, none of which was won by the Americans. Take a look at how these movies are marketed.
Palm d’Or winning Apocalypse Now:
Academy Award Best Picture Platoon:
Academy Award Best Picture The Deer Hunter
Academy Award for Best Actor and Actress for Coming Home
Perhaps losing a war for an underserving nation based on ‘white settler colonialism’ is what creates psychic harm and amplifies the impulse to pathologize the survivors. Winners come home heroes, but the losers just come home wounded. Perhaps we should think about winning again, and if there is no victory in sight, stay out or only make wounded on the enemy side with superior air power.
Of course, we pathologize everything now since supreme virtue is assigned to being a victim of something. Given the proliferation of these ads, they must be working, but they shouldn’t’ be. I don’t believe that the money goes to veterans or to any other deserving purpose. The charities are money making ventures. Occasionally, they get busted as such. This is why the Wounded Warrior ads suddenly stopped:
After Public Crisis and Fall from Grace, Wounded Warrior Project Quietly Regains Ground
What happened with the Susan G. Koman Foundation? Is there a cure for breast cancer? Do we need any more ‘awareness’ raising about breast cancer?
How many more Juvenile Diabetes Foundation walks must there be? It’s been over 50 years since it was founded; they aren’t going to find a cure.
Another disappointing report regarding donations to JDRF
How about pet welfare people? Is the SPCA really doing anything for animals?
ASPCA gives 2% of budget to pet shelters while ‘hoarding’ millions: think tank
And don’t even get me started on the emergency need to send food to dying Jews.
Impostor charity scams target Israel donations
It just goes on and on…
I strongly suspect these orgs and many more are tapping into the great ‘compassion’ wave of the present which was a part of the decline in Christianity. New religious systems have evolved in the vacuum left in the Christian wake, and a sort of ‘narcissistic compassion’ or ‘pathological compassion’ has grown in its place. Few charities are charitable, and the ones focused on the warriors are particularly egregious because they turn the masculine virtues of honor and sacrifice into the maudlin calls to provide stuff for people outside of the workforce, marketplace, or even the public sector. Isn’t it the government’s job to provide for its professional warrior class?
If you are a compassionate person, find someone in need and give them the thing they need the most, which is probably going to be your attention. The real biblical virtue is to give in private, so that only you and God knows. All else is vanity, or worse, a scam.
TomRoushOnline 