"What man is a man..."

Staying a true warrior among the chaos...

Published on July 25, 2005 By ShadowWar In War on Terror

The following was written by Staff Sgt. David Green in the current issue of "Scimitar", July 20th Edition. The Scimitar is a weekly publication of the Multi-National Force - Iraq. I read the following and found it to be both motivational and thought provoking. It goes along with all the discussions we have had in the recent weeks about what we should feel, or do about these attacks. Read this and see what you think:

What man is a man that doesn’t make the world better?” This line from Ridley Scott’s new movie “Kingdom of Heaven” struck a deep chord in me. Ignoring the gender-specific language, it poses a profound question. What human is a human that doesn’t make the world better? Do people who commit an evil act sell their soul? Do they cease to be that unique thing that makes them human? The moral of the movie is, of course, yes. The only way to truly achieve heaven is in through moral action. In the movie, the hero never wavers from his moral path, and in the end you are led to believe that he finds heaven in his heart and soul.

So why does any of this deserve space in these pages? Because here in Iraq, military and civilian alike are confronted with choices daily. These choices end in one of two results: either you follow the moral compass of a heroic warrior, or you slip into the utter depravity of inhumanity. Nearly all make the heroic choice, but some do lose themselves and turn in the opposite direction.

But can you really blame someone surrounded daily by violence and war, one who has lost friends, seen children die and women weep, for slowly and unintentionally letting his humanity slip away? Blame would be the wrong word. Do you blame a dead man for being dead? No. But when you watch a man slowly dying and do nothing to save him, have you made the world a better place? What man is a man?

There is a war that rages within each of us every day here. It is a war to do what is right, when the collective anger at those that destroy life and respect nothing wells up inside. You see, I firmly believe that this war can’t be won with bullets alone. This is a war of ideas just as much as one of metal. Our grandparents fought an ideology called fascism by attacking the institutions that created it. Our parents fought communism by attacking the ideas at its core.

Our war is different. It must be fought on the battlefields of the earth and the limitless bounds of the mind. This is the charge of our generation. Fortunately, the generations preceding us prepared us well, but this is not to say we could not still lose.

This is a war for the very thing that makes us what we are. Our enemies use the most inhuman tactics known to man. Beheadings, suicide bombings, hostage taking and the mass murder of innocents are the standard M.O. for these people. They have lost their sense of humanity. In a way, it is easy for them to commit suicide bombings, because they are often devoid of humanity and therefore already dead inside long before their vest detonates. But we must learn a lesson from these people so that we never follow in their example. After all, what man is a man?

Prisoner abuse, sexual assault and murder are but a few of the things for which service members in Iraq have been convicted since the war started over two years ago. They are the exception to the rule, but they happened nonetheless. All of these things were crimes against human beings. Every step of the way leading up to the incident, there was a series of choices to be made, and ultimately they choose wrong. But their actions go beyond wounding individuals and embarrassing the military and their fellow troops. They took a step in the wrong direction, and as a result, scored a victory for the enemy, albeit an ideological one.

Every service has some form of code for honor. These are great first steps, but as the saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water ….” These codes exist for the same reason we wear helmets and vests — they exist to protect us. Whereas the helmet protects our head, the codes of conduct and values statements of each service protect our hearts. They were written by those that had been into the breach and seen the worst that war could make of men, to ensure that soldiers came back from battle intact, both mentally and physically.

But no man is perfect. There are bound to be times when the temptation to punish others for the wrongs in the world reaches out and begs us to commit just one small act of inhumanity as payback to all the suffering and injustice we’ve witnessed. There are times when we want to force those in our charge to atone for fallen comrades by delving ever so slightly into the nether regions of our souls. But these are battles like any other. These moments are just as dangerous as any bullet, for you risk losing your life just as easily as were you to get shot.

Just as you must look out for your brothers and sisters in arms on the physical battlefield, it is an inherent duty to watch out for your fellow soldiers when it appears that events may be teetering on the inhuman. Everyone must be on the lookout every day, because when we give over to the darker side of the human spirit, we don’t just lose the moral battle to the enemy — we join them.

Our enemy wishes to tear down the world that so many worked so hard to build and replace it with one that, by all accounts of those that lived under it, represented a type of hell. We have the will to win, but we must be on guard that we don’t defeat ourselves. What man is a man? What human is a human? Together we can build on the world that was left to us by generations past, but we must all be careful that our work doesn’t give way to evil and our sacrifices go for naught.

Comments

ShadowWar

on Jul 25, 2005

Hey RH, maybe you should volunteer for the Canadian Army and take a tour of Iraq. Maybe that would help you out a bit, in your outlook on life in general. At least some of your countrymen have the "will" to make the world a better place.

Link

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