I came back from a International Studies Conference in New Orleans with a fresh perspective on academia. It needs revival. My dad did a fabulous job though. He tackled a subject that is extremely controversial to both academia and the miltiary. His school of thought is entirely unique-well grounded in the firm roots of academia while having donned the military uniform for 22 years of his life. He is caught between the rifts of both worlds and he is guiding his ship ever so smoothly through the rough waters. His topic: Increasing Airpower resourses to assist in state development using Afghanistan as a case study. Afghanistan with air routes to take their produce from village to village, with routes that take government officials from the capitol to the hinterlands, could this world exist? Absolutely my dad says and he is working his way venue through venue to promote his thoughts on why and how we can make this revolution happen. I am behind him (and continuously learning from him) every step of the way. I could go on and on about the fantastic thoughts that my dad has, he is a genius amoungst men seeking to make his mark. It wil happen and the world will be a better place for it.
Out of this conference came some thoughts that I didn't even know could be provoked, because I had never willingly put myself in this type of setting that I found myself in while sipping a margarita at Jimmy Buffets' Margaritaville in NOLA. We were there to watch the screening of 'Human Terrain'. A documentary on the element of civilian assistance in Afghanistan so we thought. Needless to say, 20 minutes into the movie I found myself in a venue that I was having mixed emotions about. I became angry. I watched at academia's feeble attempt to portray the life of a fellow academic who chose to join the war as a civilian, er, as a anthropologist operating under the U.S. Army's Field Manuel. So many emotions and angles were perceived from the film that night but these are mine. The plot was simple in a way. Michael Bhatia was a social scientiest, an Anthropologist at that, who was given the opportunity to embed with a combat team. The social scientists are mixed on this concept. Many are anti-war while some jump at the gun to hold a gun and be a part of the military even if only in theory and not by rank. Michael reported on his experiences and had hopes that the HTT's were making a difference. Controversial, the HTT's have been deemed good in theory, but a disaster in practice. Just as so many of our beloved military men have gone in the wake of IED's detonating while on a routine patrol, Michael was not immune to this. He lost his life in May of 2008. His collegues have chosen to use his death as somewhat of a martyr. They are using it to promote the fact that academic's should not be involved in war. Hmm. Last time I checked, and Bing West quotes as well, Al-Quaeda does not distinguish between professor and soldier. Whether in the confines of academia or marred by sweat and blood in the battlefield, terrorists will find you. They will hunt you down if they choose and target you.
I found a bit of hypocracy with the anthropologists. While they preach that there is an alternative to kinetic warfare, when there is an opportunity to assist the military in making this happen they close the door. They would rather read and research about human populations and culture but when it comes time to put the pen away and put on their workboots to turn research into policy, they back down. This is my opinion and largley the opinion of the military as well. We can use civilian forces to assist in understanding non-kinetic methods of curbing violence and increasing state building but locating the unique population of civilians will continue to be a problem. It appears to be more simple to locate those civilians that are very adament about being comfortable in the seats of their ivory tower while sipping their lattes than those that are willing to join the fight.
On another note, I happened to come across a comment made by a college student on facebook that really struck my chord. I tend to shy away from making controversial comments on blogs, attacking individuals or overstating my opinion but I really felt compelled to respond and to share my point of view.The valuables of Bradley Smith were horrifically stolen by a couple of meth addicts and the college student had the nerve to try to engage in discourse with military men who were simply venting their anger in response from the situation. Let me repeat: the last things that were touched and worn by Bradley were stolen from his widow Tiffany's rental car while she was in Colorado attending a memorial. Does Tiffany and those defending her and Brad's honor not have the right to show anger and disgust at these cruel men? The worst part came when this college student attempted to think that her education would hold weight in a discussion-she was ignorant enough to believe the preconceived notion and the theory that mainstream media has put out there that military men are uneducated. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Rather than repeat my words, I will post them here as a reminder to how I responded to this 'fellow' acadamian:
Posted 2/27/2010
"Well said Tiffany, Jarred and Christopher. I can usually attempt at keeping a cool head while being offended by ‘fellow' academia and I do say ‘fellow’ because I hold several degrees of which don’t even matter because here, in this discussion, we are all concerned citizens-degrees and even rank don’t matter. Heck, Ted Bundy had a degree. Please explain to me how that helped his character. I am consistently disgusted on a daily basis on the divide between academia and military. The battles between human populations will exist so long as humans inhabit earth. The ‘study of people and populations’ actually teach us that. It is a fact. Men like Sun Tzu and Clausewitz tell us this. It is a very ugly world we live in. Thankfully, there are men guarding those dark walls from our view like SRA Bradley Smith and countless others that have joined in on this discussion that will gladly face those demons so that we can have sweet dreams of sugarplums at night. If these men were not out there, our dreams would be a lot less sweet. Trust me. If you were to ask Tiffany, the wife of Brad, who studied Pashto at the Defense Language Institute she can tell you stories about girls in Afghanistan who will never see the walls of a school because their country frowns upon the education of women and for that matter, women having many rights at all. What would you resort to if you could not educate yourself, better your way of life and even choose the man that you wanted to marry? When you don’t stand behind these men and women expressing their anger towards criminals who stole a hero’s belongings simply to promote an addiction to drugs then frankly, you’re supporting the criminals. These criminals aren’t citizens of our country that represent the majority of us. They live a life in the trance of amphetamines and they support this destructive lifestyle through stealing. Drugs, theft, what comes next? Murder? I encourage you to watch Law Abiding Citizen. Imagine it was your father in Gerard Butler’s shoes.
Brad was also well on his way to earning his college degree for himself, his family and for his career. Completing classes and fighting a war. These men do their homework on their cots, not in Starbucks. They don’t party on the weekends, they have no weekends. There biggest tests are on the battlefield. The demands on our modern military are phenomenal and I encourage you to commend them, honor them and respect them for having the courage to be in the arena, wearing the dust and the blood and making sacrifices every single day in the name of FREEDOM."
I will continue to defend the military man/woman to my peers in academia and stand up for the honorable life that they lead. I will not let the theories, ideas and opinions of students taint what the miltiary has provided and continues to provide us with. And if anyone has forgotten what they have provided us just step outside and breath that fresh air. What's that you taste on that breeze? The taste of sweet freedom. Something intangible that I am grateful for every single day of my life.
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