Can we trust our military?

Over the past couple of months this year, there have been several incidents which involved U.S. soldiers in rape or murder. Really, through all of our five years in the middle east, there have been many times when our media reports of unfair or wrong actions by our U.S. military, making every incident sound earth shattering and of the most shameful kind. Despite many peoples realizations of our medias biased and twisted reports, those who are not provided with a clear, accurate source of news (hint: milblogs) may yet find themselves wondering; can we really trust our military?

Trained for the worst… taught to be the best

In the Navy, Marines, Air Force, Army, and Coast Guard, recruits are taught to be the best and to challenge themselves beyond their normal abilities. During training, the future servicemen and women and beaten down by degrading remarks and yelled in the face by fearsome DI’s. They are physically challenged and pushed beyond their limits by strenuous, life-like exercises and battle imitations. They are mentally challenged by lack of sleep and confusing situations. As one man, they are told they are nothing. As a group, they are a strong force; brothers watching each others backs. Through years of intense and orderly training, our military has become the best fighting force in the world, and remains so even today.

Losing heart in the heat of battle

Though our military is strong and more than adequately trained to protect America, our soldiers are not perfect nor invincible, and we should not expect them to be. No human being on earth has the power to completely remove his or her heart and mind from the horrors or disturbing moments in life, and we cannot be so unfair as to ask our soldiers to act as robots, totally unaffected by the images of war. Many young men in America lack the strength even to resist drugs, or gangs, or other temptations. Thousands of murders happen every year in the U.S., and millions of teenagers the same age as our soldiers are allowing themselves to commit crimes every day, and that’s minus the horror, exhaustion and stressful expectations faced by our young soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. How can we accuse a handful of young, tired, and stressed U.S. soldiers of doing something that happens every day in America; in our hometowns, in our own neighborhoods?

Yes, more is expected of our military. But when we pause to consider the significantly low number of such incidents in the past five years in Iraq, we can rest assured that we need not judge our entire military, a force of roughly 2 million men and women, on account of a few men.

Playing a part in Iraq

Despite the growing disregard towards our media by many Americans, the major news source still plays a large role in the attitude of our country, and especially the attitude of our troops watching from around the world. After a hard days work toiling for a cause one believes in, the last thing a person wants to hear is that his country does not believe in him or what he fights for. Personally, this would be enough to make me depressed, angry, and stressed, even apart from the strains of war. Yes, we are all playing a part in this war; how we react affects how the soldiers work, which in turn affects the whole war on terror. When we send a message of hopelessness and distrust to our soldiers, we can only expect to see the same attitude displayed in them. When we encourage and support them and let them know we trust them, we will be rewarded with a better performance as they go into battle with assurance of not only their own strength, but the strength of a people who will back them up.

I cannot express my pride in our troops and the strong, resolved attitude they have displayed, even in the face of rejection from our media. They deserve no less than our undying, unquestioning respect and admiration, and America would do well to strive to be more like the best military force in the world; the United States Armed Forces.