{"id":19828,"date":"2010-07-23T08:03:18","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T12:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=19828"},"modified":"2010-07-23T08:26:18","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T12:26:18","slug":"astore-the-troops-arent-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=19828","title":{"rendered":"Astore: The troops aren’t heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben sent us this link yesterday to an opinion piece by William Astore, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel published in the LA Times<\/a>. Astore is tired of our troops being called heroes;<\/p>\n

since the events of 9\/11, there’s been an almost religious veneration of U.S. service members as “Our American Heroes” (as a well-intentioned sign puts it at my local post office). But a snappy uniform \u2014 or even dented body armor \u2014 is not a magical shortcut to hero status.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By making our military a league of heroes, we ensure that the brutalizing aspects and effects of war will be played down. In celebrating isolated heroic feats, we often forget that war is guaranteed to degrade humanity as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, next time you talk to our soldiers, Marines, sailors or airmen, do them (and your country) a small favor. Thank them for their service. Let them know you appreciate them. Just don’t call them heroes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, while I might agree on some tiny aspect that everyone who puts on the uniform is not a hero, I’m wondering what prompted this veteran to write such drivel. To bolster his point, he quotes to Star Wars’ fictional personage Yoda. when the animatronic character says “Wars not make one great.” WTF? That line was written by a Hollywood writer, but because it is spoken by the great Yoda, that makes it somehow wise?<\/p>\n

My main complaint about this fuckwaddery is that it was even written. What could possibly be the motivation of a veteran to give ammunition to the people just waiting for an excuse to hock a lugie in the direction of anyone in military uniform? Do these cum bubbles think before they type?<\/p>\n

In a country where fewer people have any semblance of military service than have 24 straight hours of World of Warcraft play why would we want to waste column inches on telling people we’re no heroes. I’ll grant you that most veterans feel that way…but why put it in print for sheep class?<\/p>\n

Veterans are our own worse enemy. Take Gordon Duff whose latest missive declares that “Not all phonies are phony” under the heading “The Stolen Valor Act has always been a joke<\/a>“. Of course, Gordon has no Purple Heart or Silver Star so why should it bother him if a bunch of phonies are running around wearing one?<\/p>\n

The same goes for Astore – I’m guessing he never did anything during his career to distinguish himself among his peers, so he wants to bring us all down to his lowly existence as a history teacher at the Pennsylvania College of Technology – certainly an heroic profession well above that of a soldier (no, I’m being sarcastic).<\/p>\n

While possibly not heroic, the profession of arms takes a measure of courage and sacrifice. Beats the shit out of me how Astore got through. <\/p>\n

Added:<\/strong> Toothless Dog sends a link<\/a> to previous work by Astore. I’m guessing most of his Air Force career was in the Reserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ben sent us this link yesterday to an opinion piece by William Astore, a retired Air … Astore: The troops aren’t heroes<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}