Heroes & Cowards Patriots & Bullies
	Christopher Eric Hitchens 13 April 1949 - 15 December 2011
	16 December 2011 I just read of the death of Christopher Hitchens. A bit ago, concerned that I might be alienating some people, I deleted this page. But a re-reading of Hitchens's comments reminded me that writing honestly is a dangerous business, and the writer who can't accept the consequences of his beliefs cannot call himself a writer. As with Hitchens, a writer is what I am, not what I do. One thing Hitch said put some steel in my spine, which had gone soft alas. In Hitch's own words: "Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses." Thank you, Hitch.
	Václav Havel 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011
	18 December 2011 First Hitch, now Václav. What a loss! It's like watching the collapse of a mighty structure. As with Hitch's admonition to have spine, Václav's comment about the political nature of writing also drives me on: "I think that good writing and good art, and particularly good theatre, are always political—not because writers and directors want to be political but because it is something which is in the substance of theatre." Thank you Václav.
	Heroes & Cowards Patriots & Bullies
	Some Observations About BS "Patriots" and Rôle-Playing "Heroes"
	There is a chasm of difference between patriots and heroes on the one hand, and on the other bellicose, profiteering, flag-waving bullies. And it's no coïncidence that those bullies who scream the loudest for young Americans to be maimed and killed in meaningless wars on foreign soil are the selfsame invertebrates who've dodged the draft or shirked active duty in the military. One of my own heroes, William Tecumseh Sherman, commented, "It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation." Sherman knew what he was talking about, having slogged his way through the bloodiest civil war in history. Every country has loudmouths who eagerly volunteer other people's sons for slaughter, but I can speak only about my own countrymen. And before going deeper into this, perhaps I should get specific about what I mean by "patriotism" and "heroism." Without resorting to the dictionary, I'd say "patriotism" is that clear-eyed love of county which encourages a person to defend his nation's strengths and strive to correct its flaws, and to act unselfishly—even to the extent of sacrifice—for his country's good. "Heroes" are those who risk much—even to the extent of sacrificing their lives—on behalf of those in need or for a worthy cause. And of course the greater the risk, the greater the hero. If you'll agree with these definitions, let's wander down that path a bit and examine our odd American gift for making heroes out of—well—out of people who haven't exactly met the above definitions.
	Is this really the definition of "A Genuine American Hero?"
	One particular person comes immediately to mind, an actor. He's been called "A Genuine American Hero," and he was awarded both the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—both political awards, not medals for valorous conduct. Oddly enough, during the war years of '41 through '45, he found it convenient to ask for a 3-A (family) deferment, which he got, and later to request a 2-A deferment for "support of national health, safety, or interest," which he also got ... two deferments ... thus avoiding the inconvenience of taking risks that genunine genuine heroes naturally assume. My father, the same age as John Wayne—and also with a wife and son—went to war to support the national health, safety, and interest. Here's how events unfolded, creating a hero: In '42 the Nazis are formalizing plans for the Jewish genocide; the Philippines fall to Japanese troops; French police round up 30,000 Parisian Jews for German soldiers to bus to concentration camps (only about 30 of these people will survive); the first surface-to-surface guided missile, designed by the young rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, is launched; my father, Chief Electrician's Mate Hayes, is with the fleet for "Operation Torch," the North Africa landing; and John Wayne earns a great deal of money playing the rôles of military heroes in Reunion in France and Flying Tigers and, at the end of a hard day at the studio, goes home to spend the night with his wife, supporting the national health, safety, and interest in their comfortable home on 5 lush acres in Encino, just over the mountain from Beverly Hills. It is '44, and in Amsterdam Anne Frank and her family are put on the last convoy of trucks to Auschwitz; my father, now Chief Warrant Officer Hayes, is in the US Navy fleet that lands Allied troops at Anzio; in Operation Market Garden—"A Bridge Too Far"—approximately 25,000 allied troops are killed; John Wayne plays the heroic rôle of Lt. Cmdr. Wedge Donovan in The Fighting Seabees, for which he's paid quite well; and on 30 December of '44 Chief Warrant Officer Hayes is killed when his repair ship is hit by a Japanese suicide plane in Leyte Gulf. Hayes's widow and 8-year-old son are devastated, while John Wayne sleeps comfortably with his wife at their luxurious 5-acre estate, supporting the national health, safety, and interest. In '45 fewer than 3,000 survivors are found when Auschwitz is liberated (from 1939 to 1945 one third of the Jews living in the world—6 million human beings of all ages and social conditions—will have died in German slave-labor and extermination camps); of the 6 million Poles who are killed by Nazis and Russians, 3 million are Jewish, the other 3 million ethnic Poles; the grisly month-long struggle for Iwo Jima comes to an end; Wernher von Braun at the end of the war is beavering away on a Vergeltungswaffe ("Retaliationwar") rocket that will go from Germany to New York; the widow and son of Chief Warrant Officer Hayes struggle with the emotional devastation of wartime loss; and John Wayne earns a great deal of money playing the rôle of military men in They Were Expendable and Back to Bataan, recovering from each hard day of supporting the national health, safety, and interest at his lavish 5-acre Encino estate with his wife. It is now 1949 and Mr. Wayne, perhaps better late than never, plays the heroic rôle of Sgt. John M. Stryker in Sands of Iwo Jima. (Please recall where he was four years earlier, during the real Battle of Iwo.) Later, during the Korean war, American troops are being ground up on Heartbreak Ridge; there will be 33,700 battle deaths to Americans in Korea; there will be 131 Congressional Medals of Honor awarded to Korean War veterans; and John Wayne plays the heroic rôles of Major Kirby and Lt Cmdr. Gifford in Flying Leathernecks and Operation Pacific respectively, earning more money than American generals are earning in Korea. (As a true American patriot Mr. Wayne is also instrumental in having director Carl Foreman blacklisted from working in Hollywood after the release of Foreman's western High Noon, which Mr. Wayne deems "un-American." Hello?) Following the Korean War, John Wayne plays the rôle of war heroes in Blood Alley, The Wings of Eagles, and Jet Pilot. Coïncidentally, the Daughters of the American Revolution give Wernher von Braun an "Americanism" medal at about the same time. Later still, Mr. Wayne—the draft evader of WWII—is a strong proponent of the Viet Nam War. He supports the national health, safety, and interest by advocating that the sons of others be drafted and sent there to kill and be killed—except, by the way, his own draft-age son, who doesn't serve. During the conflict—at 11 years, the longest war in US history—3- to 4-million Vietnamese will be killed, along with 1.5- to 2-million Laotians and Cambodians, and 58,159 US soldiers. In this period John Wayne ironically plays the rôle of a military hero in The Longest Day (during which Day Mr. Wayne was seen playing the rôle of a military hero in Fighting Seabees, as you'll recall). He also plays the rôle of military tough guys in the films In Harm's Way and The Green Berets. However, Mr. Wayne no longer returns to his luxurious home in Encino after a hard day's acting. By '66 Mr. Wayne has earned so much money playing the rôle of military hero that he purchases a luxurious home in Newport Beach (7 bathrooms!), where he docks a large luxury yacht, the Pilar, named after his wife. And whether in Encino or Newport Beach—or on his yacht—Mr. Wayne is seen by many Americans as the quintessential American hero and a true patriot. I sometimes wonder if my definition of "hero" is badly out of sync with that of my fellow Americans. You?
	"I Support Our Troops" or BS Patriots
	Now, after reviewing my definitions of "hero" and "patriot" at the beginning of this little essay, please follow me as I get to the heart of the matter. Though I'm patriotic, I don't pretend to be a hero. I was in the Naval Reserve for 8 years, and quite by chance fell in the notch between the Korean and Viet Nam wars. And as a registered Republican I'm certainly not a Republican basher: I regard Jane Fonda's shameful behavior during the Viet Nam War vile and traitorous, and I'd go so far as to suspect that Bill Clinton's trip to Moscow and his America-bashing in London were nearly as reprehensible as Fonda's activities. On the other hand, I'm not a draft dodger nor an evader of active duty who advocates sending other people's kids to die in useless wars. Next time you're in a parking lot and see a vehicle with an "I Support Our Troops" bumper sticker, you might wish to ask the driver, "In what way, exactly, are you Supporting Our Troops?" On the other hand you might not. I've met a number of such BS Patriots who have never served in the military; who are unwilling to join up and go fight in Iraq or Afghanistan; who neither knit socks for the troops nor volunteer to become a pen-pal to some lonely grunt in Faluja; who have no idea where the local USO might be, much less a clue as to how to go there to cheer up the boys; and who haven't once considered visiting the wounded at a military or veterans' hospital. "Patriotism" reduced to this shameful level is little more than satire, something Sinclair Lewis, Kingsley Amis, or Evelyn Waugh might have used as fodder for a really nasty little novel. Slapping a sticker on a bumper hardly qualifies as sacrifice. It's not even in a league with inconvenience. BS Patriots are better than war profiteers who assume the mantle of patriotism, though not by much in my book.
	No Experience Needed
	Imagine if you will a Yale student whose grades are so dismal that he flunks out. After transferring to a home-state public university whose academic reputation is among the lowest in the country, the student majors in Political Science and somehow earns a BA and an MA. (No mention of his grade-point average, nor comment that he graduates with any particular honors.) He has taken no courses in sales, marketing, accounting, business administration, petroleum geology, civil engineering, or construction. Post college the young man never works for a construction company, oil-services firm, or any other sort of business enterprise large or small. Now further imagine that you're Chair of the Executive Recruiting Committee for a multi-national petroleum logistics and diversified-services corporation with annual revenues in the billions. Would you hire the above-described man to run your company? No? Well, how about this ... the candidate has first-rate connections inside the Beltway, and your company depends heavily on government contracts, particularly from the Dept of Defense? Now would you hire him? Oh? You would? Good for you. Halliburton had government credit guarantees of $100-million in the five years prior to Dick Cheney's appointment as the company's Chief Executive Officer. During Mr. Cheney's 5-year tenure as CEO, Halliburton earnings from US government contracts increased to $1.5-billions, a testament to Cheney's skills as a well-educated non-MBA and his vast experience as a non-businessman. (This is a revenue increase of 1,500%. If this percentile figure is hard to grasp, imagine that you're earning a salary of $50,000 a year, but suddenly get a raise that pays you $750,000 per year. Same thing. Nice, eh?) Mr. Cheney's total worth, estimated to be somewhere between $30- and $100-million, is due principally to his employment at Halliburton. His and his wife's annual income of nearly $9-million comes primarily from Halliburton.
	"Le patriotisme est une espèce de religion; c'est l'oeuf d'où vont éclore les guerres." (Patriotism is a species of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.) Guy de Maupassant
	No one can accuse me of being a fan of Arabic culture, nor could anyone say I'm anything but skeptical about Islam. But neither am I enthusiastic about politicians, bureaucrats and military chiefs who distort intelligence and manufacture outright lies to justify war, especially when that war profits the administration's cronies, helps ruin the American economy, and brings nine years of continuing hell to the common people of Iraq—as well as to the American soldiers who were sent there to fight. There is supposed to be a basic minimum concern for others that defines us as humans, and that concern includes not harming others out of arrogance or greed. Harm? I have a few news photos on my refrigerator door, graphic displays of what life is like day-by-day in Baghdad—and indeed throughout Iraq. I ask you to imagine witnessing scenes like this every time you go to the corner coffee shop or your favorite mall.
	If you feel that this is an honorable result of the politically-engineered myth of "weapons of mass destruction" that were purported to be in Iraq, then perhaps you should click away from this screen and go somewhere that makes you feel comfortable with this kind of horror.
	Arrogance and greed? Mr. Cheney was the Director of Mythology in the campaign of distortions and lies regarding Saddam's purported "weapons of mass destruction," and was a central figure in repressing valid intelligence about Iraq in the runup to war—a war that has cost the American government (for which read "American Taxpayer," ie you) over $3,000,000,000,000 (that's $3-trillion). As for Mr. Cheney's qualifications to work in any capacity at DOD, consider that during the Viet Nam War he applied for and received 5 draft deferments and thus never served in the military. Commenting on this later, he observed, "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." (Which presumes that the boys who were sent to Vietnam had no other priorities but to fight and die in a useless war.) Despite his lack of both spine and military experience, Mr. Cheney became Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush, and as Vice-President under Mr. Bush's son he sent young men to fight and die in a useless, trumped-up war in Iraq. There are many who refer to Mr. Cheney as a "patriot." For myself, I suppose Dick Cheney's about as patriotic as John Wayne was heroic. Perhaps more so, insofar as Mr. Wayne's war profits pale beside Mr. Cheney's. As for the rest of the men in the cabal that engineered the war against Iraq, only Donald "Stuff Happens" Rumsfeld served. But Rumsfeld was a flying instructor—he never saw combat, never had anyone shoot at him. (To display his testosterone, however, he does have a tough mouth.) The other self-styled "Vulcans"—Wolfowitz, Perle, Libby, Bolton, Ledeen, Feith, Abrams, Khalilzad, Quayle, and others—were geldings who proved to be selectively and conveniently deaf to their country's call to arms. Oh, they happily encouraged young men and women to volunteer and fight the rats who'd attacked us on 11 September. And with equal joy they turned these new recruits away from the war against the 11 September rats and marched them to Iraq to fight the Vulcans' personal vendetta, profiting the administration's fat-cat cronies in the process. But ... get shot at? Serve their country's flag? Vulcans? No no. They all had other priorities! And I suppose I should include in this Dishonor Role that disgraceful political hack George Tenet, who talked tough around his famously-chomped cigar while—through his incompetence as DCI—slam-dunking America into a tragic and avoidable war. As well as everyone in Congress who voted to go to war, rather than exercising a healthy skepticism based on reports from Hans Blix ... and from Dr. David Kay, who said of George W. Bush's interpretation of Kay's WMD report, "'Denial' is not just a river in Egypt." If they'd done their homework, members of the House and Senate would have learned about the fictions that Ahmed Chalabi and Douglas Feith were channeling to the Vulcan geldings. Would have heard about the intell gatherers and analysts whose vital information had been spiked by Cheney, Rumsfeld, Libby, Feith, Bolton, and others. About the truly patriotic intell gatherers and analysts whose careers were destroyed when they refused to drink the Koolaid.
	A little joke
	And—George W. Bush? Let me share a little joke with you. I made it up myself. George Bush and Dick Cheney walk into a restaurant inside the Beltway. As they're sitting down a waiter comes over, and Cheney says, "I'll have a steak." "Yes, sir," the waiter says. "And for your vegetable?" "He'll have a steak too."
	Be a Hero
	If you want to be heroic, do something generous for someone in need, but don't mention a word of it to anyone. To me this is the apex of heroism, as opposed to Mr. Wayne's nadir. Be patriotic. Protest corruption, greed, and self-interest in government. Keep America involved with the larger world, but don't let self-serving and profiteering political hacks turn us into the arrogant bully of world affairs. And instead of settling in front of the TV to watch sports next weekend, go visit wounded vets at a VA hospital. Bring them books and magazines and be prepared to shut up and listen to them. Purported friends evaporate when you are sick or, worse, dying, and loneliness is a terrible thing to wish on these truly genuine American heroes. Whatever you do, don't become a Bumper-Sticker Patriot. But do give the Mickey to rôle-playing heroes and similar patriotic frauds.
	© 2012 Roy Hayes