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Sunday 7 September 2008

The way of the warrior

Much of the problem, I believe, lies in the obsession in US military circles with the ‘warrior ethos’. The US military does not have ‘soldiers’ any more; it has ‘warriors’. Air Force recruits, for instance, finish their basic training with a ‘warrior week’, and cadets at the Naval Academy in Annapolis take a course on ‘the code of the warrior’. The army’s Platoon Leader Development Course is now the ‘Warrior Leader Course’, while the military’s Walter Reed Hospital provides ‘warrior care’, not, of course, to its ‘patients’, but to its ‘wounded warriors’. And the army has issued a ‘Warrior Ethos’, which everyone is expected to memorise:

I am an American Soldier. I am a Warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier.

Not to be outdone, the US Air Force has recently brought out a similar ethos of its own. ‘I am an American Airman,’ it begins, ‘I am a warrior ... guardian of freedom and justice, my nation’s sword and shield, its sentry and avenger....’

Warrior status goes beyond mere words; it is a matter of appearance, too. The smarter forms of military dress are now rarely to be seen. Instead, combat uniforms are de rigueur, no matter the place or event. Top generals visit universities and public institutions dressed for digging trenches; soldiers, and even cadets at some university Officer Training Corps, graduate from basic training not in parade best but in baggy camouflage gear; and when the head of the army, General Pace, visited West Point, the entire corps of cadets turned out to meet him in combat uniforms.

The trend has even crept north of the border to mild-mannered Canada. The Canadian Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, previously did an exchange tour as Deputy Commander of Fort Hood in the USA, and has adopted the ‘warrior culture’ in toto. On occasion, I’ve stood at the bus stop outside National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa, and observed all the office-bound ‘warriors’ in their snappy new camouflage-pattern uniforms. Everyone, whatever desk they are sailing, driving or flying, needs to be ready for combat at any moment.

More articles from: Paul Robinson | this section

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