History is the story we tell ourselves to feel better.
But sometimes, it gets you into the wrong frame of mind.
Watching Roger Mudd on CNN talking about a book he wrote on World War II, he mentions a U.S. Army general who said that when German or Russian or Japanese teenagers with guns appeared around the world, everyone shrank back in horror, because they knew rape, pillage and murder would follow. But when American boys carrying guns stormed into Dutch towns, French towns, Italian towns, the people wept with joy, laughed and smiled, because those American soldiers carried liberation, Hersey bars and love. We were the sunshine boys, dropping bombs of cheer and enlightenment from bumble bees.
The American soldier had no equal, in his ingenuity, the general said. The American boy had spent his life under the hood of a car, tinkering with engines, so when his tank or his Jeep stalled, he had it fixed in a jiffy and he carried the battle forward.
Of course, this is the image of the good American we all love to conjure. If the Phantom had heard this coming from surveys of French civilians, Germans civilians, Italians, Greeks, he might believe it. The German soldiers seemed pretty good at fixing their war machines and carrying the battle forward. And the Russians...well, the Phantom seems to dimly recall something about the dread which which the Germans reacted to being sent to the Eastern (Russian) front, which met or exceeded the prospect of fighting the Americans. And it wasn't because the American soldiers were offering the German soldiers Hersey bars.
Americans, since at least the Civil War, if not before, have loved to think of themselves as the instrument of good, the exception to the rest of mankind, who are out only for themselves and their own tribe.
We carry God's terrible swift sword as we march on. Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
It is this version of the white man's burden that kept us in Vietnam and Afghanistan too long, and it may carry us into Syria the same way.
The Phantom hopes we will find it in ourselves to be less exceptional and more modest and to allow the terrible swift sword to be given a rest.
We got drones, and that's enough for now.
Don't you find that the younger generation--our kids-take a dimmer view of all the rah-rah, America is the most superior, does everything better than the rest of the world rhetoric? As for the belief that America is exceptional--that seems like a double edged sword-on the one hand it probably has spurred a confidence and can do attitude that has played a role in many of our major accomplishments-how big a role I guess could be debated. But I agree with you that that same view has led us to some of our worst decisions and hampered our ability to admit when mistakes are made and change course. It does seem to often render us unable to recognize reality as opposed to some fervently patriotic fairytale(ie "dropping bombs of good cheer and enlightenment"-good one)....
ReplyDeleteMaud
Maud,
ReplyDeleteInteresting point. I do not have enough truck with people in their 20's and 30's, but it would be a hopeful sign. I suspect you are reflecting knowledge of a more highly educated portion of that generation.
The Phantom