The Other 1 Percent
By TIMOTHY EGAN
NYT
The yellow banners, the halftime tributes, the bloviating by politicians of both parties — it’s so easy for the 99 percent of us who aren’t serving in the military to act like we support them. We all love the troops, blah, blah, blah.
And then, you see an Army lieutenant colonel accused this week of plotting to blow up the Washington State Capitol and kill his commanding officer. You see, two months ago, a man not long out of his Army uniform gunning down a park ranger in her uniform. You hear of the massacre of children and women in Afghanistan — civilians all — allegedly by an Army sergeant who served four tours of duty.
All of those incidents came from people connected to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Tacoma, Wash., the largest military installation on the West Coast. And all of the suspects had completed combat tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. Is it the base, or the service, or the wars? Who’s failing these soldiers?
For now, we all are. George W. Bush started the two wars in a great flourish of righteous bluster and — in the case of Iraq — outright lies. And he had the backing of most Americans. We honked our horns at bypasses near Lewis-McChord, and told the troops our hearts were with them.
(More here.)
NYT
The yellow banners, the halftime tributes, the bloviating by politicians of both parties — it’s so easy for the 99 percent of us who aren’t serving in the military to act like we support them. We all love the troops, blah, blah, blah.
And then, you see an Army lieutenant colonel accused this week of plotting to blow up the Washington State Capitol and kill his commanding officer. You see, two months ago, a man not long out of his Army uniform gunning down a park ranger in her uniform. You hear of the massacre of children and women in Afghanistan — civilians all — allegedly by an Army sergeant who served four tours of duty.
All of those incidents came from people connected to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Tacoma, Wash., the largest military installation on the West Coast. And all of the suspects had completed combat tours in Iraq or Afghanistan. Is it the base, or the service, or the wars? Who’s failing these soldiers?
For now, we all are. George W. Bush started the two wars in a great flourish of righteous bluster and — in the case of Iraq — outright lies. And he had the backing of most Americans. We honked our horns at bypasses near Lewis-McChord, and told the troops our hearts were with them.
(More here.)
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