Chronicler of Freedom's March

Fire of Liberty

While browsing through the January/February 2006 issue of The American Enterprise magazine, I came across this excellent interview with Robert Kaplan who is a writer at the Atlantic Monthly and has just recently published a new book titled Imperial Grunts. I highly recommend you read this interview because It'll give you a greater insight into what our soldiers do on a day to day basis to spread the fire of freedom and democracy throughout the world and how the MSM and our elites just can't seem to grasp. Here's a sample:

TAE: We hear much in the establishment media about morale problems in U.S. military ranks, and reporters often seek out disenchanted troops to put in front of microphones. Have you encountered widespread morale problems among American fighters in Iraq?

Kaplan: Absolutely not. I'’ve only met two kinds of soldiers in the combat arms community: Those who have served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, and those who are pulling every bureaucratic string to get deployed there.

I spent the summer of 2004 with a group of marines in Niger and sub-Saharan Africa, and every marine in that platoon was trying to get to Iraq. A few months later, one of them got lucky and ended up leading Iraqi forces into combat in the second battle of Fallujah. He was a sergeant from Georgia, and after the battle, he sent me a long e-mail flush with pride. And that'’s not just a cutesy-pie story——that's basically what I encounter all the time.

The only disenchantment is found in the Reserves and the National Guard, mainly because they signed up for a short time and end up serving many months. That'’s a system that needs reform. But generally speaking, morale is better than it'’s been in a very long time.

Keep in mind there is very little combat going on now. Most deployments feature more humanitarian missions than combat. Even in Iraq, the troops really have to search far and wide to find combat activities.

TAE: How do our soldiers understand for themselves, and explain to others, the value of the work they are doing in Iraq?

Kaplan: Soldiers are very aware of why they'’re fighting——and that awareness stems from their own practical day-to-day experience, which is not killing people. By and large, they'’re rebuilding, patrolling, and helping the Iraqi people.

Second, it'’s important to realize that most soldiers don'’t sit around discussing abstract questions like whether or not we should'’ve intervened. They do, however, take policy and command directives, break them down, and then argue, complain, and fervently discuss them.

Since the dawn of time, the most popular hobby amongst soldiers has been complaining at night in the barracks. If you don'’t hear complaints, then you know morale is bad——because that means people are silent. And I think that many journalists misconstrue this, because they don'’t understand——and they haven'’t read the history of—barracks life.

At least some folks in the media seem to at least get a little grasp around the way of our soldiers and our current mission of promoting freedom and democracy throughout the world. Maybe the MSM should read this interview as well as Kaplan's new book.