the rix mix

Every day walking to school I passed a remarkable statue in the small park at the corner. Later I learned it was called "Spirit of the American Doughboy," by sculptor E.M. Viquesney, & that there might be as many as 200 of them scattered across America, purchased & erected after World World One. The design was so popular that metal & plaster statuette reproductions were manufactured (the pictured 6" model was restored by Charlie Burdick), including lamp & candle holder versions

Eventually I realized this soldier on top of the granite monument in the park wasn't some happy-go-lucky guy singing "Mademoiselle from Armentières." He has a rifle with bayonet affixed, a hand grenade in his raised right hand (has he pulled the pin?), & in the best preserved statues he's stepping through some nasty barbed wire, a small piece of a deadly no man's land. I wondered if when veterans looked at him, they weren't seeing themselves, but their friends & comrades who died.

There were still doughboy vets in town, proudly showing up for Memorial Day & Veterans Day (Armistice Day) ceremonies in their quaint wide-brimmed campaign hats, but they had been unintentionally pushed into the background by younger WWII vets, who vastly outnumbered them. We had a five-star general as President of the United States, then a younger hero naval officer. Local American Legion & V.F.W. halls were popular social clubs, with busy cash bars & even printed menus & paid cooks in the kitchens. It was an era of veteran visibility & power.

Vietnam changed the climate for vets, as must happen with a controversial war, & soldiers doing their one year stints & coming home individually & alone. The incidents of returning soldiers being spat upon & called "baby killers" are definitely overstated, although certainly they happened. What I mostly saw were apathy & indifference across the spectrum, by those supporting the war as well as those opposing it. Draftees know they are the expendables of war, but during Vietnam our government didn't even bother to pretend they weren't expendable.

Government tries to hide the true costs of war in blood, spirit, & money. Morale drops as the costs become known & yet war drags on. The costs of the Civil War & WWII were evident to everyone by the final years of those wars. Wars are profitable. Vietnam convinced me that wars could be prolonged to make them more profitable, & Iraq reminds that some wars are planned & waged for profit, as bloody business ventures, whatever other rationales are used, legitimate or not. So-called "preemptive" wars are best for this purpose. With a long occupation, rebuilding the occupied nation's infrastructures, & possibly looting its resources.

Now we have a "volunteer" military. Does this make it easier to hide the costs, since no one is drafted into the military against his or her will, & a spirit of shared sacrifice on the home front discouraged? Just avert your eyes & keep shopping. Not over the longer run. Iraq & Afghanistan are creating a generation of kick-ass veterans. Their bond with America is of the heart. But their relationships with the military services are contractual. These vets - if they are not already friends & neighbors from National Guard service - are finding each other & getting organized now. At least we have not made symbols of them for or against policy. They are not the policymakers. We properly see them as dutifully & honorably serving their nation. They will renew the veterans movements, which will also help our aging Vietnam vets. Perhaps they will also help restore a broader, less partisan patriotism to this country.

Labels: growing up, holidays, Iraq