Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country (29 page)

13
. Jonathan Werve, “Contractors Write the Rules,” Center for Public Integrity, June 30, 2004,
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2004/06/30/5630/contractors-write-rules
, accessed September 1, 2012.

14
. The phrase
merchants of death
, which entered the lexicon of American politics in the 1930s, derives from a best-selling book by that name, written by H. C. Engelbrecht and F. C. Hanighen.

15
. Report of the Special Committee on Investigation of the Munitions Industry (The Nye Report), U.S. Congress, Senate, 74th Congress, 2nd sess., February 24, 1936, pp. 3–13,
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/nye.htm
, accessed August 24, 2012.

16
. Gerald P. Nye, “U.S. Munitions Investigation,”
Vital Speeches of the Day
(December 31, 1934): 217. This article reprints the text of a presentation by Nye delivered on the NBC radio network on October 3, 1934.

17
.
They
very much includes senior military officers. In an investigative report describing the “revolving-door sprint from uniformed responsibilities to private paid advocacy,” the
Boston Globe
determined that fully 80 percent of three- and four-star officers who retired between 2004 and 2008 found work as Pentagon consultants or with defense contractors. These officers, the
Globe
’s Bryan Bender reported, inhabit “the lucrative nexus between the defense procurement system, which spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and the industry that feasts on those riches.” Bryan Bender, “From the Pentagon to the Private Sector,”
Boston Globe
, December 26, 2010.

18
. A more common term for aretai is
virtues
.

19
. Theodore Westhusing, “A Beguiling Military Virtue: Honor,”
Journal of Military Ethics
(2003),
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15027570310004186
, accessed September 2, 2012.

20
. “Born to be a warrior” is from the introduction to Westhusing’s dissertation. Quoted in T. Christian Miller, “A Journey That Ended in Anguish,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 27, 2005.

21
. Michael Shaara,
The Killer Angels
(New York, 1974), p. xviii.

22
. Undated letter to “LTC [
sic
] Westhusing.” This is the anonymous letter containing the charges against USIS, made available in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. I thank the journalist Robert Bryce for providing me with a copy along with the other documents cited below.

23
. Letter from T. S. Westhusing to Major General Fil, May 28, 2005.

24
. Quoted in Miller, “A Journey That Ended in Anguish.”

25
. U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, “SUBJ: CID Report of Investigation,” December 20, 2005. This thirty-seven-page report documented in detail the immediate circumstances of Westhusing’s death, when and where the body was found, for example. Although noting the allegations of USIS corruption and misconduct, it did not address them.

26
. Department of the Army, Office of the Inspector General, “Report of Investigation, Case 05-030,” September 20, 2005.

27
. Quoted in Miller, “A Journey That Ended in Anguish.”

28
. Greg Mitchell, “General Petraeus’s Link to a Troubling Suicide in Iraq,”
Nation
, June 27, 2011.

29
. Matthew Moten, “Out of Order,”
Foreign Affairs
, September–October 2010, pp. 2–8.

10. TRAHISON DES CLERCS

1
. George Packer, “The Liberal Quandary Over Iraq,”
New York Times Magazine
, December 8, 2002. Packer also interviewed Michael Walzer and David Rieff, both of whom opposed an invasion of Iraq. Neither cited concerns for the well-being of U.S. forces as part of their argument.

2
. Paul Berman, “Who’s for War, Who’s Against It, and Why,”
Slate
, February 19, 2003,
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2003/02/roll_call.html
, accessed January 2, 2013.

3
. Richard Cohen, “A Stranger’s Wars,”
Washington Post
, January 4, 2011.

4
. Richard Cohen, “In Syria, It’s Past Time for the United States to Act,”
Washington Post
, August 14, 2012.

5
. David Brooks, “The Certainty Crisis,”
Weekly Standard
, March 9, 2003.

6
. David Brooks, “The Phony Debate,”
Weekly Standard
, March 31, 2003.

7
. David Brooks, “Optimism Rediscovered,”
Weekly Standard
, April 6, 2003.

8
. David Brooks, “Today’s Progressive Spirit,”
Weekly Standard
, April 9, 2003.

9
. David Brooks, “Collapse of the Dream Palaces,”
Weekly Standard
, April 28, 2003.

10
. Ibid.

11
. Brooks, “Optimism Rediscovered.”

12
. David Brooks, “Boots on the Ground, Hearts on their Sleeve,”
New York Times
, December 2, 2003. Brooks was by no means the only conservative writer holding this view. Adam Garfinkle, editor of the right-leaning journal
American Interest
, described “the military today as the largest repository of [the nation’s] founding values.” In a country beset with “internal social dysfunction,” soldiers, in his view, remain committed to “industriousness, honesty, marriage and religiosity.” See “A Conversation with Charles Murray,”
American Interest
, March 8. 2012,
http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1221
, accessed August 29, 2012.

13
. David Brooks, “Take a Deep Breath,”
New York Times
, April 10, 2004.

14
. David Brooks, “A More Humble Hawk,”
New York Times
, April 17, 2004.

15
. Ibid.

16
. David Brooks, “Crisis of Confidence,”
New York Times
, May 8, 2004.

17
. David Brooks, “For Iraqis to Win, the U.S. Must Lose,”
New York Times
, May 11, 2004.

18
. David Brooks, “Bush’s Epic Gamble,”
New York Times
, May 25, 2004.

19
. David Brooks, “Can We Save Iraq? No, But the Iraqis Can,”
New York Times
, January 11, 2005.

20
. David Brooks, “The Winnable War,”
New York Times
, March 6, 2009.

21
. Bill Roggio and Lisa Lundquist, “Green-on-Blue Attacks in Afghanistan: The Data,”
Long War Journal
, August 23, 2012.

22
. By the spring of 2012, opinion polls showed that two-thirds of Americans wanted the United States to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. “Americans’ Support for Afghan War Drops Sharply: Poll,”
Reuters
, March 26, 2012,
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/27/us-usa-afghanistan-poll-idUSBRE82Q02K20120327
, accessed August 28, 2012.

23
. Notably prescient contributions include Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson,
The Imperial Temptation: The New World Order and America’s Purpose
(New York, 1992)
;
and Ronald Steel,
Temptations of a Superpower
(Cambridge, Mass., 1995).

24
. For a bracing example, replete with Buchanan’s trademark swipes at American supporters of Israel, see Patrick J. Buchanan, “No End to War,”
American Conservative
, March 1, 2004.

25
. Howard Zinn, “The Case Against War on Iraq,”
Boston Globe
, August 19, 2002.

26
. Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Eagle Has Crash-Landed,”
Foreign Policy
, July 1, 2002.

27
. Randolph Bourne, “The War and the Intellectuals,”
Seven Arts
, June 1917, pp. 135–36, 143–45.

28
. In the category of books, the classic remains David Frum and Richard Perle,
An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror
(New York, 2003).

11. DRONING ON

1
. “200 U.S. Marines Join Drug War in Guatemala,”
CBS News
, August 30, 2012,
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57503167/200-u.s-marines-join-drug-war-in-guatemala/
, accessed September 9, 2012.

2
. For chapter and verse, see Robert Dreyfuss,
Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam
(New York, 2005).

3
. The quotations come from William M. Arkin, “The Pentagon Unleashes a Holy Warrior,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 16, 2003.

4
. One can only speculate regarding the fate likely to befall a U.S. high-ranking officer daring to say of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “My God is a real God and his is an idol.”

5
.
http://jerryboykin.com/
.

6
. The quotation is from a video clip titled “Marxism in America,” October 29, 2010,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QcPr9TAF1g
, accessed September 16, 2012.

7
. Family Research Council, Values Voter Summit 2012, Schedule of Events,
http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/schedule
, accessed September 18, 2012.

8
. Maggie Haberman, “Romney Held Private Denver Meeting with Dobson, Bauer,”
Politico
, August 3, 2012,
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/08/romney-held-private-denver-meeting-with-dobson-bauer-131076.html
, accessed September 21, 2012.

9
. Public Religion Research Institute,
What It Means to Be American: Attitudes Toward Increasing Diversity in America Ten Years After 9/11
, September 6, 2011,
http://publicreligion.org/research/2011/09/what-it-means-to-be-american/
, accessed September 22, 2012.

10
. The Pentagon plans further reductions in the number of U.S. troops stationed in Europe. Donna Mills, “Force Changes in Europe to Preserve Strategic Edge,” May 7, 2012,
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=116221
, accessed September 19, 2012.

11
. “About U.S. Central Command,”
http://www.centcom.mil/about-u-s-central-command-centcom
, accessed September 21, 2012.

12
. “About United States Africa Command,” August 2011,
http://www.africom.mil/AfricomFAQs.asp
, accessed September 20, 2012.

13
. Akiva Eldar, “Israel’s New Politics and the Fate of Palestine,”
National Interest
, July–August 2012.

14
. A classic example was Operation Shoshana, conducted on October 14, 1953, by the IDF’s Unit 101, commanded by Ariel Sharon. Arab militants had killed an Israeli woman and her two children. In response, the IDF assaulted the Jordanian village of Qibya, killing sixty-nine while leveling forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque.

15
. “Obama’s Speech to Troops at Fort Bragg,”
New York Times
, December 14, 2011.

16
. Michael Gerson, “Obama’s Iran Options,”
Washington Post
, February 24, 2012.

17
. Nick Turse, “A Secret War in 120 Countries: The Pentagon’s New Power Elite,”
TomDispatch
, August 3, 2011.

18
. David Ignatius, “Deadly Drones Can’t Win War on their Own,”
Washington Post
, October 4, 2011.

19
. Dana Priest and William M. Arkin, “Top Secret America,”
Washington Post
, September 2, 2011.

20
. Jo Becker and Scott Shane, “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will,”
New York Times
, May 29, 2012.

21
. Alfred Kazin,
New York Jew
(New York, 1978), p. 254.

12. AMERICAN CHARACTERS

1
. Alasdair MacIntyre,
After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory
(Notre Dame, Ind., 1981), pp. 26–29. Italics in the original.

2
. “A Letter from the Publisher,”
Time
, January 1, 1951, p. 5.

3
. “Destiny’s Draftee,”
Time
, January 1, 1951, pp. 16–18.

4
. Ibid., p. 17.

5
. “Person of the Year: The American Soldier,”
Time
, January 5, 2004, p. 36.

6
. Ibid., p. 5. The photographs are available at
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1996518_2151845,00.html
, accessed September 29, 2012.

7
. “Person of the Year,” pp. 36, 41.

8
. John Keegan, “The Making of the American G. I.,”
Time
, January 5, 2004, p. 46.

9
. Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899). This poem is well worth reading today. It testifies to the racist assumptions informing any attempt by a foreign army to “uplift” (or in contemporary parlance “liberate”) a people said to be in need of salvation. It also warns against the lack of self-awareness that permits and sustains such benighted enterprises.

10
. Charles A. Beard, “Giddy Minds and Foreign Quarrels,”
Harper’s
, September 1939, p. 351.

11
. Wyatt Durrette and Zac Brown, “Chicken Fried,” recorded in 2003 by the Zac Brown Band.

12
. In retirement, Marshall refused to identify himself with either political party and never endorsed a candidate for public office. One can imagine his opinion of present-day retired senior officers who eagerly align themselves with—and allow themselves to be used by—one candidate or another during presidential elections. See, for example, “Romney for President Announces Military Advisory Council,” October 17, 2012,
http://www.mittromney.com/news/press/2012/10/romney-president-announces-military-advisory-council
, accessed October 23, 2012. The “council” consisted of some three hundred retired admirals and generals. Retired army General Tommy Franks explained why he was supporting Romney. “Instead of playing politics with our military, he will strengthen our defense posture by reversing the President’s devastating defense cuts,” Franks himself thereby using the military as a political football.