From "Support the Troops" to Condemning MoveOn: The Cult of the Military and the Decline of Democratic Values
In some ways the Petraeus hearings were just another scene in the pro-war theater of the absurd, recalling Colin Powell's smash hit at the UN and George Tenet's "slam-dunk" exuberance, and playing to those herds of Americans who wrap themselves in the flag and plaster yellow ribbons on their SUVs and Hummers.
But the hearings were also something else. They were ritual-ritual as in an act or verbal expression performed in deference to a higher authority, in this case, the authority of the military.
In a world where most western nations attempt to maintain some balance between military and social spending, Americans alone are the "true believers" in the cult of the military. For over half a century we have fed the military god more than his share of their GDP while watching our infrastructure crumble, and have allowed that god to rampage through much of the world, leaving behind more than 700 overseas temples, from Germany to South Korea, dedicated to militarism.
The roots of our deference to military authority are deep, but more important are the ongoing rituals that entrench the cult of the military firmly within the American psyche. Of these, the most potent and insidious is the incantation, "support the troops." These three words may seem to be a simple statement of support for the men and women in uniform. In reality, they say more about the embedment in the American psyche of the cult of the military than could any presidential war speech or Pentagon defense budget.
In fact, in the absence of a legitimate causis belli, "support the troops" has become the glue that binds the American people to the war, and it is no coincidence that, until recently, the dominant cry from the American public has been "support the troops" rather than "stop the war."
When exposed, "support the troops" is, of course, more rhetoric than a reality. It clashes with every known incidence in which the administration and Congress have ignored the needs of soldiers in battle and at home. From protective armor to veteran health care to humane home leaves, "support the troops" never lives up to its promise. But, then, it's not supposed to. Its job is not to actually do any good for the troops, but rather to block serious debate about the troops-and the military establishment they represent.
The "troops" have become the "human face" of the military-industrial complex and the moral camouflage for the administration's war agenda. For this reason, "support the troops" represents an essential dilemma and denial within American culture. Were we to look beyond these human faces, we would have to confront the reality they stand for: the military as an institution that has grown to monstrous proportions, endangered our security by conducting unjust wars, robbed us of our children, squandered our taxes on obscene war technology, and protected the interests of greed-driven multinational corporations.
As Ira Chernus has recently noted,
`Supporting our troops' is not about helping individual soldiers to live better lives or, for that matter, making their lives safer. It's about supporting a morality play in which the lead actor, "our troops," represents all the virtues that so many believe-or wish they could believe-America possesses, giving us the privilege (and obligation) of directing all that happens on the world stage.
In other words, "support the troops" feeds the cult of the military and allows Americans to be self-righteous about our global interventions. It has absolutely nothing to do with, well, supporting the troops.
