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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! July 28, 2005 Hessians on the RampageBy GreyhawkBlackfive looks at another example of the New York Times' developing meme: the military is increasingly distant from mainstream American society. Says Stanford history professor and mainstream American David M Kennedy: Leaving questions of equity aside, it cannot be wise for a democracy to let such an important function grow so far removed from popular participation and accountability.He's right, in a limited way. The American Left is far, far out of touch with the American military. Since the abolition of the draft Leftists don't serve. And when an American Leftist says "mainstream American" they mean themselves - exclusively. They are ignorant of the other, much larger segment of society that does not subscribe to their rigid dogma. (This also is helpful in understanding their confusion over the elected government of the nation.) Of course, the broader topic of Kennedy's rant is this: The United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today's volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits - a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify.Not Nazis, mind you, but that other hated German military force - Hessians. Kennedy also bemoans the "good old days" when Democrats were dragged kicking and screaming by force into the nations military service Some will find it offensive to call today's armed forces a "mercenary army," but our troops are emphatically not the kind of citizen-soldiers that we fielded two generations ago - drawn from all ranks of society without respect to background or privilege or education, and mobilized on such a scale that civilian society's deep and durable consent to the resort to arms was absolutely necessary.To which Blackfive responds: This NY Times op-ed is really another indicator of academia's distance from main-stream American society. Stanford History professor David M. Kennedy writes about our mercenary army. He is as clueless as he is pompous.Read the rest over there - it's uses too strong lanquage for me to quote any more at Mudville. ;) He has Kennedy's email address too, in case any of you Hessians wants to send a shoutout from the mainstream. Update: A response from a former student of Professor Kennedy, and another from a California Guardsman just back from Iraq here. Posted by Greyhawk / July 28, 2005 4:43 PM | Permalink 9 TrackBacksToday's dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny ... It's Stop the ACLU Thursday! Read More It would be absolutely useless and a waste of valuable time to even attempt to explain it all to them, as their minds are closed; sealed shut with the impenetrable cement of ignorance. Read More Could it be because their heyday, their crowning achievement, their day in the sun was during Vietnam? Could it be that they're feeling just wee bit miffed that they're out of power these days? Read More Citizen Smash, along with Greyhawk and Blackf... Read More The NYTimes' David Kennedy likened today's military to Hessians ... Read More It's a no-win situation for the military with liberals. They're either forced to serve their country against their will and how could this happen? Or, they're only in it for monetary gain. Read More david M. Kennedy, a Stanford professor who's nose is so elevated he evidently cannot read a dict... Read More david M. Kennedy, a Stanford professor who's nose is so elevated he evidently cannot read a dict... Read More I never took a class from Professor Kennedy while at Stanford. Perhaps I'll change that if I ever go back. But for now, to keep my essay writing skilz sharp, I thought I'd edit his recent op-ed piece in the... Read More 13 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
'Drawn from all ranks of society without respect to background or privilege or education'
Good to see that at least one history professor was immune to the democrat talking point about GW Bush entering the National Guard due to his families connections.
Gawd - doncha all just get so tired of this incessant stupidity from the MSM? blech
Perhaps Senator Kennedy is reminiscing about the sights of his childhood.
Distant from the mainstream? How about this article:
Military Tops Public Confidence List in New Gallup Poll
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2005 – The American public has more confidence in the military than in any other institution, according to a Gallup poll released this week.
Seventy-four percent of those surveyed in Gallup's 2005 confidence poll said they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the military - more than in a full range of other government, religious, economic, medical, business and news organizations.
The poll, conducted between May 23 and 26, involved telephone interviews with a randomly selected sample of 1,004 people 18 and older, Gallup officials said. Those surveyed expressed strong confidence in the military, with 42 percent expressing "a great deal" of confidence in the military and 32 percent, "quite a lot" of confidence. Eighteen percent said they have "some" confidence, 7 percent, "very little," and 1 percent, "none."
Public confidence in the military jumped following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and has remained consistently high, Gallup officials noted. The 2002 survey reflected a 13 percent increase in confidence in the military over the previous year's poll. The public expressed a 79 percent high-confidence rate in the military in 2002, an 82 percent rate in 2003, and a 75 percent rate in 2004.
This year's 74 percent confidence level exceeded that of all 15 institutions included in the 2005 survey. Police ranked second, with 63 percent of responders expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in them. Organized religion rated third, with 53 percent of responders expressing high confidence, and banks rated a 49 percent high-confidence rate.
Health maintenance organizations bottomed out the list, with just 17 percent of responders expressing high confidence in them. Big business and Congress tied for the second- and third-lowest rankings, with 22 percent of responders expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in them.
The Gallup organization noted that public trust in television news and newspapers reached an all-time low this year, with 28 percent of responders expressing high confidence in them.
Perhaps if the liberal wonks would allow the recruiters fair access to the general population (i.e. campus jobs fairs) the enrollment within the armed forces would look more like a cross-section of America--instead of the dedicated, hardworking, VOLUNTEERS we now have.
>military adventurism...manifest in their day by the career of Napoleon Bonaparte
For a historian this guy knows little about Napoleon and the French Revolution. It was exactly the "every man a soldier" attitude fostered by the Revolution and the mass militarization of French society by the introduction of conscription that made Napoleon's adventurism possible.
And lets not even talk about 1914...
I'm still waiting for the Left to define the compensation we should provide to soldiers that will make them upstanding citizens defending our country and way of life.
Too high and our soldiers are mercenaries.
Too low and our soldiers are economic draftees who really aren't volunteering.
As has been said, it's almost as if the Left is setting up a no-win situation for our soldiers.
Kennedy condensed: We (Liberals) threw a hissy fit and took our ball and went home but you guys found another ball and kept playing. THAT'S NOT FAIR! so I'm gonna call you names.
(I posted this on LT Smash's site, too.)
I am almost certainly revealing my ignorance, since I have never served, but I think Kennedy has a very badly stated point, and it is a point that our Founders made, but their solution is so much better than his. The solution? Every man between the ages of 18 and forty-five must own an infantry rifle, like the M-16 or the M-4 and ammunition which he keeps at home, and he is mustered into the militia for basic/rifle training on a regular basis.
Who would run this training? Honest to God drill sergeants.
People would learn a lot about the military, fast. And some people would unexpectedly discover they liked the military and join up.
In this conflict, local militias would search passengers, guard vulnerable points like power plants, chemical plants and dams, taking the pressure off the National guard and the police officers who are disproportionally being called up.
We might call this the Swiss solution, since they are still doing it.
Please, err, shoot this full of holes. I'd really like to hear some feedback from people who aren't just small-l libertarians.
Yours,
Wince
It's simple. Leftists are now advocating the draft so that once it's in place, they can begin protesting the draft. They really miss the 60's and 70's.
Full disclosure: I had Kennedy as a professor freshman year, in an excellent class called History of Democracy. It was just the sort of sweeping, classics-heavy course you so often hear is disappearing from American academia. He was an engaging lecturer who made the material come alive, and I feel truly privleged to have had a chance to learn from him.
My biases thus laid bear, let me be a Kennedy apologist here for a minute. He gave a greatly enlarged version of this speech (I can recognize paragraphs) to the senior class the day before graduation. Live, he went out of his way to praise members of the armed forces and say he wasn't disparaging their service.
Admitting to taking some liberty with the dictionary definition, Kennedy argued that the modern armed forces are "mercenary" in the sense that the costs of their use fall upon, comparatively speaking, a very small number of Americans. Far from degrading the soldiers themselves as Hessians (he repeated the line "these are not the hated Hessians of George III" twice), he encouraged students in the audience to share in that burden by serving.
Last time I heard this piece, David Kennedy was standing in plain sight, telling me to join the army. I think that message may not have translated well to the shorter Op-Ed, but knowing what I do I think some of the commentary on the piece may be a bit overdone.
You can see my original reaction to the speech at my blog here, posted June 11.
http://tsinister.blogspot.com/2005/06/david-kennedy-on-americas-mercenary.html
OK, so Kennedy's concerned that if we aren't collecting peach pits for gas masks and observing meatless, wheatless, and sweetless days, we have no personal stake in our nation's military affairs. He makes a virtue of necessity, it seems to me.
I guess I can just make out his point that when the populace feels the effects of a war effort, it's a more "democratic" way to wage a war. But as Heinlein said, if you want to build an engine, do you attach a bathtub just because you have one handy? The military is not a social experiment.
Follow up: No video that I can find, but there's a transcript here: http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/kennedy-061505.html
Highlights:
"Now I am emphatically not impugning either the idealism or the patriotism of those who serve today. I happen to believe that the profession of arms is a noble calling."
"I recognize that some, perhaps many, of you may find it offensive to call today's armed forces a "mercenary army," and I repeat that I am in no way impugning the motives or the loyalties of those who are currently serving. But they are surely not the members of the citizen-army that we fielded two generations ago—drawn from all ranks of society, without respect to background or privilege or education, and an army mobilized on such a scale that civilian society's deep and durable consent to the shaping and the use of that force was absolutely necessary."
"Stanford is a first-class institution, and the sheepskin you'll be handed tomorrow is a first-class ticket to the rest of your life. My advice to you is don't take it. I don't mean don't take your diploma—of course you should take it. You've earned it and your parents would be aghast if you didn't take it. But don't take the first- or even the second-class route through life. Go third class. Don't be too comfortable. Don't be a bystander. Get out and make things happen. Get dirty. Put your shoulder to the wheel. Make the world move. And don't make the mistake of thinking that military service is something that can be safely left to the other passengers."
There are still valid criticisms: it's not a good idea to change the structure of the military to achieve social goals, and as some have pointed out, an all-volunteer force can be a check on adventurism (Marginal Revolution makes that point here: http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2005/07/the_volunteer_a.html). But the hysterical "he's a crazy leftist who hates America" criticisms splashed all over the place don't look like they hold water.