A new "Greatest Generation"

Words from a Memorial Day speech to from MajGen Kelly to US servicemen in Fallujah, Iraq:

[A] few statistics to ponder. There are twenty-five million living American Veterans. Since General George Washington commanded the Continental Army forty-two million Americans have served the colors.

A million have been killed in its defense. Another million and a half wounded. When most of us think about military cemeteries the first thought that comes to mind is Arlington National in Washington, but there are many, many more in the U.S.

Most Americans also don’t know there are 24 American cemeteries maintained overseas with 125,000 graves of our fallen—61,000 in France alone—the result of two wars that saved Europe and the world from horrors unimaginable to Americans today; unimaginable, that is, unless you are a Veteran who have seen the terrible face of war so those who remained safe in America, and those yet unborn, would never have to.

There are also memorials overseas to an additional 94,000 Americans who were lost at sea, or their remains never recovered from battlefields around the globe. With all this service and loss, we as Americans can be proud of the kind of people we are as we have never retained a square foot of any country we have defeated, we possess no empire, nor have we enslaved a single human being.

On the contrary, billions across the planet are today — and billions yet unborn — live free because our Veterans have fought and died, and, once peace achieved, we’ve rebuilt destroyed cities, economies, and societies.

Memorial Day was established three years after our terrible Civil War that finally established what kind of nation we would be. A war in which 600,000 young Americans—North and South—perished. For a century the day continued to mean visiting and decorating graves or town-square memorials to those who died serving our great nation, and celebrating with parades and civic events...

Americans should not forget this weekend or any weekend as they relax with a few days off that the country is at war, and a new Greatest Generation is fighting a merciless enemy on their behalf in the terrible heat of Iraq, and in the mountains of Afghanistan. Like it or not America is engaged in a war today against an enemy that is savage, offers no quarter, whose only objectives are to either kill every one of our families in our homeland, or enslave us with a sick form of extremism that serves no God or purpose that rational men and women can understand.

Given the opportunity to do another 9/11, our vicious enemy would do it today, tomorrow and everyday thereafter. I don’t know why they hate us, and I frankly don’t care and they can all go to hell, but they do hate us and are driven irrationally to our destruction. The best way to fight them is somewhere else and that is why we are here. For whatever reason they want to destroy our way of life and our countrymen at home should be on their knees everyday thanking God we still have enough young people in America today willing to take up the fight as our Veterans did from the earliest days of our nation.

They should know that they are protected today by men and women as good as have ever served; as good today as their fathers were in Vietnam, and their grandfathers were in Korea and World War II. In this my third tour in Iraq I have never seen an American hesitate, or do anything other than lean into the danger and, with no apparent fear of death or injury, take the fight to the enemies of our way of life.

As anyone who has ever experienced combat knows, and many of you do, when it starts, when the explosions and tracers are everywhere and the calls for the Corpsman or medic are screamed from the throats of men who know they are dying—when seconds seem like hours and it all becomes slow motion and fast forward at the same time—everything in one’s survival instinct says stop, get down, save yourself —yet you don’t.

When no one would call you coward for cowering behind a wall or in a hole looking to your own self preservation, none of you do. It doesn’t matter if it’s an IED, a suicide bomber, mortar attack, fighting in the upstairs room of a house, or all of it at once—America should know you fight today in the same way our warriors have since the Revolution.

The wonderful thing about America’s Armed Forces is that none of us are born killers. On the contrary we are good and decent Americans mostly from the neighborhoods of America’s cities, and small towns. Almost all come from “salt of the earth” working class homes, and more often than not are the sons and daughters of cops and firemen, factory and service workers, and farmers.

Most of us delivered papers, stocked shelves in the grocery store, played Little League baseball and pickup hockey in the local rink, and served Mass on Sunday morning. Some are former athletes, and many “couch potatoes” who drove our cars and motorcycles too fast, and blasted our music louder than perhaps we should have.

We are all ordinary people performing remarkable acts of bravery and selfless acts of devotion to a cause bigger than ourselves—and for millions who will never know our names. Any one of us could have all stayed in school or gone another way, but yet we chose to serve knowing full well Iraq and Afghanistan was in our future. You did not avoid the most basic and cherished responsibility of a citizen—to defend the nation and its people—on the contrary, you went after it.

You did not fail in life which the chattering class back home likes to believe is why you chose to serve and risk dying for the nation, but, rather, are the best our nation produces and have consciously put every American at home above your own self interest. You are all heroes and like many Veterans throughout our history many of us have endured things—sights, sounds and horrors—that will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

I know I find comfort that because I am here those I love and have sworn to protect will never have to deal with memories so terrible. I hope you who have seen these things have the same sense of purpose and balance when you relive the scenes of violence, and of decisions made. America’s Armed Forces today know the price of being the finest men and women this nation has to offer, and pay it we do everyday in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More than four thousand of us have died in this war, and ten-times this number have been wounded. And the sacrifice continues as young Americans have gone to God since we all went to bed last night and slept free and protected.

Their mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, wives, husbands, and fiancés are sitting in their living rooms right now with casualty officers learning the true price of freedom, and are only just beginning a lifelong struggle of dealing with the pain and loss of someone so dear, but they are not victims as they knew what they were about and were doing what they wanted to do.

Many of today’s self-proclaimed experts and media commentators endeavor to make them out to be victims but they are wrong, and this only detracts from the decision these patriots made to step forward and protect the country that has given so much to all of us. We who are serving, and have served, demand not to be categorized as victims—we are not.

Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when strong and committed men and women stand tall and firm against our enemies, just as they can’t begin to understand the price paid so they and their families can sleep safe and free at night—the protected never do.

What the experts, commentators, and elites are missing, what they will also never understand, is the sense of commitment, joy, and honor, of serving the nation in its uniform, but every American Veteran, and their loved ones who support them and fear for them everyday, do understand.

We should all be confident that this experiment in democracy we call America will forever remain the “land of the free and home of the brave” so long as we never run out of tough young Americans willing to look beyond their own self interest and comfortable lives, and go into the darkest and most dangerous places on earth to hunt down, and kill, those who would do us harm.

In closing I wanted to share a story that you may not be aware of that took place only a few miles from here in Ramadi. On 22 April 2nd Battalion 8th Marines and 1st Battalion, 9th Marines were in the process of turning over a Joint Security Station Nasser.

It’s in the Sophia district of Ramadi, and was once the center of the insurgency in that city. Two Marines who barely knew each other as one was coming and the other going were standing guard at the Entry Control Point (ECP): their names were Jonathan Yale and Jordan Haerter.

At 0745, and without warning, a large truck accelerated towards the ECP, careening off the protective serpentine. Both must have understood on instinct what was happening as in less then a second they went to the guns and opened fire until the massive 2,000lb blast took their lives—but the suicide bomber never passed the post they protected, and 50 other Marines and perhaps as many police didn’t die that day inside the JSS.

I spoke to several Iraqi police eyewitness and they all told the same story, but one more emotionally than the others.

He said no sane man would have stood there directly in the path of a speeding truck firing their weapons—yet two did. His officers, some as close as ten feet initially from the Marines, fired and ran when it was obvious the truck could not be stopped—and they survived. The Marines stood their ground and stopped the truck before it detonated, and saved the lives of their buddies.

At this point he reads from a letter he wrote to the family of one of the Marines. I'd rather not delve into that. But as long as America has young men like these...

On the dangers of the word "hypocrite"

Nobody likes hypocrisy. In general, our society has decided that it is one of the worst faults a person can have. Hypocrisy, defined by Merriam-Webster, is "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion." A feigning. An act. A conscious attempt to deceive others. This is bad, no doubt. It is understandable and even right when we feel betrayed by a person who feigns--the very word means a willful attempt to deceive--some virtue or value. But I think this word is too often misapplied.

There are various kinds of hypocrisy. It is most often associated with religion. Christians may recall how Jesus addresses many classes of people as "You hypocrites!" in the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 23). Jesus was, in fact, addressing the same issues with religion as we likely are when we use the word, namely that there are people who pretend to be religious and worshipful but who in fact are depraved. No instance has demonstrated the evil of religious hypocrisy more than the sex-abuse scandal within the Catholic Church these last few years. The abusing priests are hypocrites for willingly reneging on their promise and duty to care for their flocks by sexually abusing parishioners; the episcopal authorities--the Bishops--were hypocrites for knowingly abusing the same promises and duties not only by keeping offending priests in positions where they could continue the abuse, but also by using their influence to hide the problem and effectively deny victims the help, healing, and justice they deserved. This, surely, was an instance of grave hypocrisy, and is rightfully labeled so.

Another common type of hypocrisy is political hypocrisy. Political figures are accused of this when they claim false affinity with working-class people (if they have come from a privileged background), when they endorse the use of military force if they themselves never served, or served in such a manner as to avoid any danger, or when they take a political stance that is expressly contrary to the teachings of their religion. These are pretty clear cases of someone feigning a virtue or perspective they they do not, in fact hold--often for political gain. And we rightly find that reprehensible. Yet here we begin to see the dangers of hypocrisy, because many accusations of hypocrisy levied at politicians come from their political rivals, who are eager that we (their constituents) may develop a negative view of one or the other politician. And certainly--to cite one example--a politician may speak up for the use of military force or weigh in on issues affecting the military if he or she has no military background. The liberal media does this all the time (not specifically on military issues, either), relying on their intelligence and worldly perspective to give their opinion authority. Clearly, not all of the opinions originating from people who are not intimately familiar with the subject or issue on which they opine are bad or hypocritical opinions.

But when it comes to accusing specific people, particularly acquaintances, of hypocrisy, I become especially uncomfortable. For few of us have either hidden a sex-abuse scandal or assumed an unwonted affinity with a demographic other than our own for material gain. Yet we are all surely "hypocrites" in some sense. It would be a very rare person who had never in his or her life feigned to be something they are not. As children, we have pretended to be good or loving in order to get a toy we want; as adolescents we try to shape our personality in order to "fit in" with others, or act like someone cooler than we are in order to get a date; as young adults we feign certain loyalties to befriend those who are in a position to assist us in our ambitions. Surely these are all instances of hypocrisy, yet we look indulgently on this in children and adolescents ("they will grow out of it") and we defend it in the young adults ("he or she is just 'playing the game' to help their career"). Let's face it: feigning is necessary to living a good life. One very clear and unequivocal example of this is that of a man dating a woman with the intent of asking her to marry him. He will feign that he is a better man than he is--perhaps he keeps his apartment tidy when he knows she will see it, or works hard to conceal anger or frustration at his job so as not to be an unnecessary burden to her--not to deceive her maliciously, but to show her what kind of man he's capable of being. Then this "hypocrisy" of which he is guilty becomes a motivation to actually be a better man than he was heretofore.


Yet this example clearly does not exonerate all acts of personal hypocrisy. Though we all may present ourselves as better than we are (to get a date, to apply for a job, simply to impress others, to motivate ourselves), there are also many things we do that are not excusable. C.S. Lewis points out at the beginning of his book Mere Christianity that one common characteristic of all people is that they do things they know they ought not to do, and don't do things they ought to do. Surely each of us has at least once experienced guilt over something, some act we might have committed or some right act that we might have left undone. The source of that guilt is realizing that we have not lived up to the standard or code we had set for ourselves, and if we consider that unspecified "standard" or "code" as a value or virtue we espouse (even only to ourselves), then the act that fails to live up to the standard is an act of hypocrisy. It follows that we only feign to hold the standard or code, since we don't adhere to it in all cases. This is especially true if we pretend that the act is not a violation at all, as when (for example) we justify a "white lie" to a loved one.


Now if someone is very outspoken about their values, their "hypocrisy" of this kind will be very evident. The man who declares in his conversation and his life--perhaps by often taking a stand or by often judging others--what his values are will be an easy target for an accusation of hypocrisy if he even once acts contrary to his virtue. On the other hand, a reserved man will rarely merit the same accusation, because he can reasonably claim that as he has not publicly declared his values, he cannot be called a hypocrite for failing to live up to any values at all. He can, however, be called by discerning people immoral or indecent. But while this distinction between hypocrites and non-hypocrites makes rational sense, it avoids the larger moral issue. It is safe to say that everybody has failed from time to time in being the person they want to be, and if every time that happens we reinforce our own hypocrisy, then we are incurably hypocritical, especially if we accuse others of the same vice. Again, that makes rational sense, but it is both harsh and unrealistic to judge people like that. Surely everybody deserves more than one chance. Furthermore, the man who is outspoken about his values (or who attempts to demonstrate them, as is the case of the suitor mentioned earlier) is usually trying to exhort himself to be better and not fail so often to live up to whatever values he has. The act of saying "I believe it is right to do this" reminds the sayer of what he believes is right and binds him to keep faith with his listeners (who, of course, would otherwise call him a hypocrite).


Of course, the temptation to judge another as a hypocrite is strong, since it often helps us feel better about ourselves if we can compare ourselves favorably to that other person. It is tempting. It soothes whatever insecurities we have about ourselves. But it is the instrument of the coward and the bully. And this is where accusations of hypocrisy become really damaging. Firstly, this accusation allows the accuser to marginalize the accused, either for political reasons (as mentioned before) or simply in the realm of personal relations. It gives the accuser a "legitimate" excuse to dislike and even be cruel to the so-called hypocrite. Secondly, when used as a weapon in an argument it can insulate the accuser from appropriate criticism and advice. And I find that a lot of good advice and constructive criticism is thus ignored by people for whom it would do the most good.


Accusations of hypocrisy and spiteful counter-judgments have become a defense mechanism against facing our own faults. Setting standards for ourselves is a normal and morally correct thing to do; failing to live up to them is understandable, since we are all flawed beings. Admonishing ourselves to live up to the standards we have set by making ourselves accountable to others through communicating our standards is also normal. It is part of how society is good for us, because it provides both motivation and oversight in this regard. The opposite of this, the man who claims no values to protect himself from the fault of "hypocrisy," is a coward. That man has abdicated moral responsibility, and is surely more disgusting and less of a human than the hypocrite.

Though none of us enjoy criticism (unless it is positive criticism), probably most of us recognize its value. The criticism of a coach, for example, helps us do better at the sport we are playing. Criticism or admonishment from others is another tool that reminds us of what we ought to do--and it can help form "values," since if we recognize that we are being criticized validly for some transgression that we weren't previously aware of as such, our values become a little more refined. Catholicism recognizes this moral dynamic in society by exhorting its flock to be humble, while at the same time listing as one of the coporeal acts of mercy "admonishing the sinner." Since we are all sinners, one cannot do this without a certain amount of hypocrisy. But otherwise sinners would never be admonished. After all, Jesus said "before you pick out the splinter in your neighbor's eye, pay heed to the wooden beam in your own," not "go ahead and leave the splinter in your neighbor's eye."


Being aware of hypocrisy is important, because it is a vice that can be very hurtful to others. But I think hypocrisy as a vice really is something malicious. It is an active, premeditated feigning designed to deceive others. It usually is the mark of a truly dishonest person. Too often, however, the accusation of hypocrisy is simply a form at lashing back or protecting one's own flaws or insecurities. And that is simply another way to make oneself feel better by belittling someone else--which by most standards is reprehensible and unfair. And so I think we should be much more careful in how we use the word "hypocrite" and it's derivations.