Leaves of the Palm: The Service Obligation of Old: An Afterthought

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Service Obligation of Old: An Afterthought

(Elvis's Jungle Room, Graceland, Memphis, 2004)

I was just thinking about how attitudes toward military service have changed in my lifetime. In 1957, when he was drafted, Elvis Presley knew that he had to go. The country was still in that World War II mindset, and Elvis's fans would have turned against him as a "draft dodger." But In 1967, when the former Cassius Clay refused induction, he became even more of a folk hero than he already was.
Personally, I have no problem with the stance that Clay took. Our Vietnam commitment was wrongheaded, and Clay--now Muhammed Ali--resisted the draft openly and with a willingness to accept the consequences. I am merely holding him up as an example of how radically the mood of the country had changed in ten short years.
And now, we extol everyone who serves, in any capacity whatsoever, as a "hero," Go figure! --EFP

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Reflections on the Current War and on the All-Volunteer Force

Maybe I am indeed what a university administrator once termed me, an avis rara. I am a former enlisted Marine, a Vietnam veteran, and a retired Marine officer who believes we did indeed start "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time" in invading Iraq. An America that starts wars, that keeps political prisoners, and that tortures people (and waterboarding is indeed torture) is not the America I grew up in. It would seem that we as a nation have learned none of the lessons of Vietnam, and that pains me--so much so that I've been moved to try to share my thoughts and opinions on how we are going wrong in a series of op-ed pieces.
I've also has some success recently in placing commentaries on the war and the All-Volunteer Force with National Public Radio's All Things Considered. I intend to include the introductions and the web site links to those pieces. Please feel free to e-mail me and let me know if you find my writing insightful or perhaps inciteful.

My NPR Commentaries

[Click on the links to listen.]

Spending Your Christmas in a War Zone
by Ed Palm
[3 min 29 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6632117
All Things Considered, December 15, 2006 · Commentator Ed Palm spent two Christmases in Vietnam during the war. During the first, he got to go to the Bob Hope USO show. But despite the good cheer, Palm says he left sadder than he arrived.
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Knowing Haditha Could Happen; Wishing It Didn't
by Ed Palm
[3 min 47 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5614040
All Things Considered, August 3, 2006 · The Associated Press has reported that an initial U.S. military investigation supports allegations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November. The Haditha case is one of a string of cases in which U.S. troops are accused of deliberately killing civilians in Iraq.
Commentator Ed Palm is a retired U.S. Marine major. He says that he would like to think that Marines were not capable of this kind of killing. At the same time, he knows from first-hand experience how it might happen.
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Vietnam Vet Sees Changing Receptions to Service
by Ed Palm
[2 min 33 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5455027
All Things Considered, June 6, 2006 · Commentator Ed Palm, a veteran of the Vietnam War, says that for many years, Vietnam veterans were sent the message that they should not talk about their experiences. But that has changed. He says that since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, all service members are lionized as heroes, regardless of whether they did anything heroic.
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Problems with an All-Volunteer Force
by Ed Palm
[3 min 16 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5157068
All Things Considered, January 13, 2006 · Commentator Ed Palm is a retired Marine officer who lives in the Seattle area. He's also a Vietnam veteran. Palm sees a disturbing new trend in the all-volunteer force.
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Draft Left Fighting of Wars to Younger Soldiers
by Ed Palm
[3 min 58 sec] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5066475
All Things Considered, December 22, 2005 · Commentator Ed Palm says when he fought in Vietnam, most of the men he served with were 19 or 20 years old. It seems to him that more of the troops in Iraq are older. He says this is one advantage of the Vietnam-era draft: It kept the business of fighting wars to the younger men.
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Women Warriors: Shouldn't We Talk About This?

Friday, January 18, 2008
Seattle Times
By Edward F. Palm
Guest Columnist
Special to The Times

In one of the most affecting scenes in Homer's "Iliad," a condescending Hector, knowing he is about to face the indomitable Achilles in single combat, in essence, tells his distraught wife Andromache not to worry her pretty little head because "War shall be the business of men."

The scene is affecting for its dramatic irony. We the readers know, as Andromache would have known, and as I believe Homer knew, that war has never been and never will be just the "business of men." Women have always supplied the sons and husbands and lovers who fight and die — and in Homer's day and beyond, of course, women were typically counted among the spoils of war.

I am reminded of this passage every time I hear that another woman warrior has been seriously wounded or killed in Iraq. The irony is that women are still barred by law from serving in direct combat roles, but the distinction long ago became meaningless with so many women assigned to direct combat-support roles in an unconventional war with no front line.

Personally, as a Vietnam veteran of a certain age, I don't have a problem with women serving in combat. I look at this development in the same way that former New York Mayor Ed Koch viewed allowing women to join the Fire Department. In his book, as long as a woman could carry a 180-pound mayor down a ladder, Koch observed, she was qualified. If a woman can hack the training and wants to do it, then so be it.

What surprises me is that we, as a culture, have evolved to this point with so little discussion or debate.

I remember, for instance, all the controversy when women were first admitted to the service academies in 1976. One pundit on the conservative side predicted that the American people would react with shock and outrage when the first servicewomen come home in body bags or missing limbs.
That pundit was wrong. From Jessica Lynch onward, a lot of women have come back seriously wounded and maimed, others have been killed, and there has been nary a ripple of protest based on gender from the American public.

Clearly, the question of whether women can or should serve in combat has been overtaken by events. The fact is, women are doing the job and doing it well. We might as well amend the law to reflect the current reality.

But the unanswered question, it seems to me, is why the American public has been so accepting of this development. Are we now acknowledging that women can and should be allowed to do it, or are we merely willing to relegate military service to whoever will do it, regardless of gender?
The Army's current recruiting difficulties suggest the latter.

Either way, one thing is certain: War is no longer the business of men. Or, to fall back on a retrograde advertising slogan of some years ago: "You've come a long way, baby."

The problem is, you seem to have gotten to this point largely by default.

Edward F. Palm, a former enlisted Marine and a Vietnam veteran, is dean of the Social Sciences and Humanities Division at Olympic College in Bremerton.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Service Obligation of Old: An Afterthought

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Reflections on the Current War and on the All-Volunteer Force

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Women Warriors: Shouldn't We Talk About This?

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