Abstract
The sincerity of the antiwar soldiers who understand patriotism as being true to one’s conscience and engaging in political dissent is matched by the pro-war soldiers’ commitment to a different definition of patriotism. The following testimonies preserve the memory of those soldiers who defend the war for both ideological and personal reasons. Interviewees in this chapter capture the ways in which soldiers attempt to facilitate positive change in the middle of a combat situation.
Some people are not comfortable in life if they are not part of something bigger—if they are not part of a team. Being in the military is like that. I think it is a place where people come to seek order and to be part of something special … I see an [a]rmy of soldiers who want to better themselves. I see an eagerness in their eyes and their desire and motivation …”
—U.S. Army Brigadier General Jim Chambers1
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Notes
Quoted in Tam Cummings, “Why I Serve: General Says Teamwork Makes Military Appealing,” Armed Forces Press Service, February 4, 2005.
W. Thomas Smith, “Baghdad Calling: U.S. Troops Make the Case for Courage,” National Review online, April 23, 2007.
Thom Shanker, “Army Career behind Him, General Speaks Out on Iraq,” New York Times, May 13, 2007.
John Batiste and Pete Hegseth, “Getting Beyond Stalemate to Win a War,” Washington Post, December 8, 2007, p. A17.
Ralph Peters, “Year of Wonders,” New York Post, December 31, 2007. Dahr Jamail, “Challenges 2007–2008: Iraq Progresses to Some of Its Worst,” Interpress Service, December 29, 2007. icasualties.org reports 817 U.S. casualties from the start of the surge in February 2007 to December 31, 2007.
Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Pantheon Books, 2006), pp. 497 and 507.
Andrew J. Bacevich, “Warrior Politics,” Atlantic Monthly (May 2007); Bacevich “Vietnam Relevant, but Not How Bush Cited It,” Stars and Stripes (August 2007).
Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor, Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (New York: Vintage, 2007).
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© 2008 Carl Mirra
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Mirra, C. (2008). From Bunker Hill to Baghdad: We Will Continue the Mission. In: Soldiers and Citizens. Palgrave Studies in Oral History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617223_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617223_4
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