Over a dozen years ago, my parents decided I should go to Europe. So they took me. It was nice of them. I'd never been. But I'd studied history in college and was eager to see the castles and cathedrals I'd only read about in books.
By the time we'd hit our third country, I'd noticed something. Many of them had been built--or at least started, as it often took hundreds of years to complete some of the larger or more ornate ones--in 1100 or soon thereafter. So I asked a nice Irishman at Kilkenney Castle in Ireland, whose job it was to answer stupid tourist questions, why that was. His answer might be instructive for us today. One of the larger European crusades had just ended in 1100. Europe was flooded with armed men, experienced in warfare, who now had no way to make a living. The lords and kings needed something to do with them. So they started building to keep them from turning to banditry.
Europe was not the only region that faced this problem. Japan also had a feudal society where lords raised private armies they pledged to the emperor. There were no standing national armies to speak of in these feudal countries. Just what we might today call private militia. And a great deal of a lord's power depended on how many troops he could pledge to the emperor or king. In Japan, if a lord was killed, the samurai warriors who served him could either find a new lord, or they could become bandits. And Japan was plagued by these highly skilled and well-armed bandits, or ronnin, who preyed on travelers and small communities.
So, what does that have to do with 2011? The U.S. is currently drawing down tens of thousands of troops in two undeclared, but long-running wars. The country is mired in high unemployment. Unlike earlier conflicts like Korea or Vietnam, we have no draft. So, to quickly ramp up troop strength, the Bush administration called up National Guard and reservists. These troops served unusually long tours of duty, and more deployments than in previous conflicts. In many small towns, these unexpected call-ups decimated police and fire departments. One town I read about in the Midwest lost all of its 2 or 3 auto shops as all the mechanics went to war. Like the returning crusaders, these troops are coming home to find their businesses closed. Their jobs either filled or cut. And their prospects dim.
But, unlike the lords and kings in 1100, the U.S. is not proposing a public-works push to employ these returning warriors. President Obama is. But almost everybody knows Republicans in Congress are going to kill his proposals. They've already started.
In fact, not only is our government not doing anything to provide jobs for the people whose careers and businesses it destroyed, Congress is proposing to cut their benefits. And National Guard troops already got far worse benefit than "regular" servicemembers, despite facing the same dangers, suffering the same wounds, and doing the same duty. In fact, their mortality rate was often much higher because they went into dangerous situations with less training and inferior equipment.
So it's hardly surprising that former servicemembers are starting to show up at Occupy sites around the country. They have given their all in service to their country. They are justifiably proud of that service. And are justifiably angered by the shabby treatment they are now receiving. We made a commitment to these people. And we break it at our peril. For too long, people in Washington made life-and-death decisions with other people's lives. Decisions that treated human beings like so much cannon fodder.
They may be surprised to find this cannon fodder sees themselves as much more than that. I read a quote from a former marine today. He said he'd sworn an oath to protect the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. By protecting Occupy protesters, he figured he was upholding the oath he swore. I figure he was right. And I was proud of him.
I was less proud of the people who had commanded him. Because they swore that same oath. And they've not upheld their oath as well as that marine.