Wolves Among Us

"You know, boss," I once said to my boss, "we have over 200 people in this organization. Any type of person you can imagine, good or bad, any character flaw you've ever heard of, in this unit I can guarantee you there's one of each."

I've been around a while, I know. And this isn't unique to the military. Cut a random slice of the population, and you'll find the same. Hey, none of us are perfect - we are all of us flawed mortals. Some more so than others; some can't get to work on time two days in a row. Some abuse their children or wives. Some bounce checks, some steal CDs from the Exchange even though it's payday. Some go for all the above and more.

Some people are prone to that sort of behavior but somehow avoid it. Until they meet someone else who has already started down that path and whose example provides just the right amount of temptation to push them over the edge. This invariably happens to more than a few young people who leave the protection of their parent's home and join the military - just as it does to more than a few who leave their parents home and go to college - or band camp, or elsewhere.

And let's face it - war ain't band camp. Some are attracted to military life purely for the opportunity to participate in sanctioned violence. Some years back I had a good friend who was a volunteer fireman - I believe he was the first person to tell me that arsonists - or perhaps pyromaniacs would be the better term - often find employment as firefighters. The vast majority of fireman, however, have other motivations for what they do. They are, in fact, the exact opposite of that sort.

And that's true of America's warriors as well. Perhaps the best explanation for this comes from LTC (RET) Dave Grossman's On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs:

"Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.

"Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf."

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.

There are degrees of "bad behavior" - in war and elsewhere. On the lower end - but sliding ever upwards - might be actions like those described by Scott Beauchamp; verbal abuse of people (anyone out there not guilty of this one?), physical abuse of objects, animals, and human remains. Somewhere further along you'll find infliction of pain on fellow man for one's own pleasure. A bit beyond that, rape and murder. Combinations and degrees of all the above blur the scale, as does motivation and premeditation.

Scott Beauchamp:

Yeah man,” I continued. “I love chicks that have been intimate—with IEDs. It really turns me on—melted skin, missing limbs, plastic noses...

...He slowed the Bradley down to lure the first kill in, and, as the diesel engine grew quieter, the dog walked close enough for him to jerk the machine hard to the right and snag its leg under the tracks. The leg caught, and he dragged the dog for a little while, until it disengaged and lay twitching in the road. A roar of laughter broke out over the radio. ...

...One private, infamous as a joker and troublemaker, found the top part of a human skull, which was almost perfectly preserved. It even had chunks of hair, which were stiff and matted down with dirt. He squealed as he placed it on his head like a crown. It was a perfect fit. As he marched around with the skull on his head, people dropped shovels and sandbags, folding in half with laughter. No one thought to tell him to stop. No one was disgusted. Me included.

Not long into their stay, two of the soldiers appeared at the base one day with animal carcasses. They'd found a dead goat and a dead cat somewhere and started slicing them up. Someone took a photo of a soldier pretending to have sex with the goat's head. "Then they cut off the cat's head and shoved it on the top of a soda bottle," England says.

For several weeks, the decaying animal heads provided entertainment for the soldiers. "Someone put sunglasses on them, and put the rifle next to the heads and took a picture. Some soldiers put a cigarette in the cat's mouth," she says. The soldiers stashed the severed heads in their rooms.

"It was funny," England says. "So funny."

That comparison story, by the way, is one told by Lynndie England of her fellow soldiers' actions immediately prior to their arrival at Abu Ghraib. They were certainly on there way there, you might say.

So if many who join the military are sheep, believe me when I say that many are also sheepdogs - and some few are wolves. But it's a society of sheepdogs - believe it or not, it is so. Start out a sheep and stick around for a while and you'll become one - or at least more like one. But lest you revert, keep this in mind:

Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep.

Is Scott Beauchamp a wolf? Hardly - he strikes me as a sheep who's trying to live up to his misunderstanding of expectations. He's confused the behavior of the sheepdog with that of the wolf. Back to LTC Grossman's description of the sheepdog: "He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence."

But...

The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.

And in the strange world we live in, who are his strongest supporters? They are those who share his confusion:

The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.

Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa."

Until the wolf shows up.