Gavel Gamut

By Jim Redwine

(Week of 16 February 2015)

BORROWED GLORY

My father was thirty-six years old when America entered World War II. He had a massive heart attack just three years before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 07, 1941. He wanted to serve and always regretted being unable to, but he never claimed that he had.

My mother’s younger sister and all three of her brothers served; two of those brothers saw combat.

Our parents encouraged my two brothers and me to serve. We all did, but were never in combat. Our sister’s husband also served, but not in combat. Neither I nor my brothers nor our brother-in-law ever claimed to see a shot fired in anger.

My son saw combat in the 1990 – 1991 Gulf War and in the Iraq War between 2006 -2007. He does not see himself as any sort of hero. He says many more have done much more.

When Brian Williams of NBC intentionally lied about being in a helicopter that received enemy fire during the Iraq War he fell into that abyss that has ensnared many people, especially men. Although, Hillary Clinton and Brian Williams could have both “come under fire” had Williams been on Clinton’s plane in Bosnia. There is something about the mystery of death and its close friend, war, which calls out to armchair soldiers like the Sirens to Odysseus.

Most of us are glad to miss the horrors of war, such as, the wounds my great-great grandfather suffered at Shiloh and Chickamauga or the blindness my old law partner, Tom Rachels, suffered on Okinawa. On the other hand, many people secretly dream of being Audie Murphy, only if they come out unscathed, of course.

I am confident the parents of the five Sullivan brothers who were killed while serving on the USS Juneau in the Pacific during WWII were proud of their sons. And that is often the difficult bargain. Death and devastating injuries are not assuaged by pride or even glory. That is why Brian Williams’ attempt to garner the admiration most of us feel for combat soldiers is both contemptuous and understandable.

Ernie Pyle would have seen Williams’ weakness through the eyes of one who observed a great deal of combat. Pyle probably would analyze the current situation with his clear understanding of human nature in war:

“When you’ve lived with the unnatural mass cruelty that mankind is capable of inflicting on itself, you find yourself dispossessed of the faculty for blaming one poor man for the triviality of his faults.”

(From: Here’s Your War by Ernie Pyle)

That is not to say Brian Williams or any of the others who seek credit to which they are not entitled should receive a pass. What it means is we should not lose sight of our own frailties as we castigate others.

The assertion of false claims of military glory is so universally recognized it has a name, Munchausen’s Syndrome. Karl Munchhausen (1720 – 1797) told so many false stories of his military heroics the fields of psychology and medicine use his lack of character to describe false claims of illness.

So what do we make of the Brian Williamses of the world? After six months of “leave” will NBC bring him back? I think they should not and I think they will not, unless of course, the executives who have long known of his proclivity to prevaricate believe his return will raise NBC’s ratings. I speculate that will depend upon the success of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer’s pro-Israel puffery and Fox News’ ability to smother its embarrassment over “Muslim Free Zones”.

My father was thirty-six years old when America entered World War II. He had a massive heart attack just three years before Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 07, 1941. He wanted to serve and always regretted being unable to, but he never claimed that he had.

My mother’s younger sister and all three of her brothers served; two of those brothers saw combat.

Our parents encouraged my two brothers and me to serve. We all did, but were never in combat. Our sister’s husband also served, but not in combat. Neither I nor my brothers nor our brother-in-law ever claimed to see a shot fired in anger.

My son saw combat in the 1990 – 1991 Gulf War and in the Iraq War between 2006 -2007. He does not see himself as any sort of hero. He says many more have done much more.

When Brian Williams of NBC intentionally lied about being in a helicopter that received enemy fire during the Iraq War he fell into that abyss that has ensnared many people, especially men. Although, Hillary Clinton and Brian Williams could have both “come under fire” had Williams been on Clinton’s plane in Bosnia. There is something about the mystery of death and its close friend, war, which calls out to armchair soldiers like the Sirens to Odysseus.

Most of us are glad to miss the horrors of war, such as, the wounds my great-great grandfather suffered at Shiloh and Chickamauga or the blindness my old law partner, Tom Rachels, suffered on Okinawa. On the other hand, many people secretly dream of being Audie Murphy, only if they come out unscathed, of course.

I am confident the parents of the five Sullivan brothers who were killed while serving on the USS Juneau in the Pacific during WWII were proud of their sons. And that is often the difficult bargain. Death and devastating injuries are not assuaged by pride or even glory. That is why Brian Williams’ attempt to garner the admiration most of us feel for combat soldiers is both contemptuous and understandable.

Ernie Pyle would have seen Williams’ weakness through the eyes of one who observed a great deal of combat. Pyle probably would analyze the current situation with his clear understanding of human nature in war:

“When you’ve lived with the unnatural mass cruelty that mankind is capable of inflicting on itself, you find yourself dispossessed of the faculty for blaming one poor man for the triviality of his faults.”

(From: Here’s Your War by Ernie Pyle)

That is not to say Brian Williams or any of the others who seek credit to which they are not entitled should receive a pass. What it means is we should not lose sight of our own frailties as we castigate others.

The assertion of false claims of military glory is so universally recognized it has a name, Munchausen’s Syndrome. Karl Munchhausen (1720 – 1797) told so many false stories of his military heroics the fields of psychology and medicine use his lack of character to describe false claims of illness.

So what do we make of the Brian Williamses of the world? After six months of “leave” will NBC bring him back? I think they should not and I think they will not, unless of course, the executives who have long known of his proclivity to prevaricate believe his return will raise NBC’s ratings. I speculate that will depend upon the success of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer’s pro-Israel puffery and Fox News’ ability to smother its embarrassment over “Muslim Free Zones”.