Here's a Gift Idea for Your Favorite Chaplain

Sword of the Lord: Military Chaplains
from the First to the Twenty-First Century
edited by Doris L. Bergen.

Amazon.com's book review states: " 'The Sword of the Lord' is the first book to examine military chaplains and the development of the military chaplaincy across history and geography—from the first to the twenty-first century, from Europe to North America. The scope of this work reveals the astonishing fact that the military chaplaincy has existed in a recognizable form for more than 1,600 years. Contributors analyze specific historical moments in the development of the chaplaincy, beginning in antiquity and progressing through the Crusades, the English Civil War, the American Civil War, both World Wars, and the Vietnam War."

Link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0268021767/qid=1133373802/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-1383834-5280159?n=507846&s=books&v=glance

Colonel Placed "Too Much Pressure on Himself to Succeed"

Yesterday I linked to an article about the apparent suicide death of a military ethicist in Iraq. The link at the end of this post is another article about Colonel Ted Westhusing's death, and concludes with these comments:

"A psychologist reviewed Westhusing's e-mail and interviewed colleagues. She said that Westhusing had placed too much pressure on himself to succeed and that he was unusually rigid in his thinking. Westhusing struggled with the idea that monetary values could outweigh moral ones in war.

"Westhusing's family and friends are troubled that he died at Camp Dublin, where he was without a bodyguard, surrounded by the same contractors he suspected of wrongdoing. They wonder why the manager who discovered Westhusing's body and picked up his weapon was not himself tested for gunpowder residue.

"Mostly, they wonder how Col. Ted Westhusing — father, husband, son and expert in doing right — could have found himself in a place so dark that he saw no light."

Link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3487227.html

UK: "Our Abused, Disarmed Forces"

Libby Purves of The Times (United Kingdom) reports that British soldiers are suffering from stress levels comparable to WWII -- in part out of fear that whatever actions they take could lead them to court.

Purves writes, "Last week [early November], after tormenting seven British soldiers with suspension for nearly two years, a court martial for murder collapsed when the judge ruled the evidence grossly unreliable. Witnesses — flown over and paid $100 a day — admitted to lying and collusion fuelled by these payments."

Purves concludes her article with the following:

"Soldiers are not saints. They may sometimes be rough, scared, deficient in split-second judgment. Our Army has suffered years of sneaky cutbacks, not least in expensive but civilising things like putting all soldiers through prisoner-handling courses. ..Yet the British Army is still pretty good: professional, upheld by tradition, gruffly idealistic about Queen and Country, reluctant to grumble. Its top brass will not thank me for pointing at the disaffection creeping through the ranks, at recruiting difficulties and the quiet exodus of soldiers buying out.
But it is not their fault. It is the fault of callow, modish thinking since 1997 and relentless cheeseparing before that. Politicians must grasp that it is not enough to wear a poppy on TV and pose with tanks. If you’re going to have an army, treat it with respect."

Link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1056-1861864,00.html

Death of a Military Ethicist

A military ethicist who was upset by the possible misconduct of contractors in Iraq has apparently committed suicide. An L.A. Times reporter writes that Col. Ted Westhusing "was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor. So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq...In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military."

Although the Army believes Col. Westhusing committed suicide, his friends and family question that assessment. According to them, "He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. He was an extraordinary intellect and had mastered ancient Greek and Italian. He had less than a month before his return home. It seemed impossible that anything could crush the spirit of a man with such a powerful sense of right and wrong."

Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-colonel27nov27,0,1641096.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Fall in, Padre!

"The [U.K.] army has toughened up its recruitment regime for chaplains because so many will be sent to gruelling combat zones such as Iraq," reports the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/21/npadre21.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/11/21/ixhome.html

More Torture Talk

Protein Wisdom comments on Sowell's op-ed article which I linked to yesterday: "Like it or not—accept the premise or not (that the McCain amendment would ban torture altogether)—Sowell raises the important questions that must necessarily straddle the line between moral absolutism and pragmatism; and though his argument ultimately go the route of contextual justification for torture (a position with which I don’t agree, necessarily), the reasons he raises for reaching such a conclusion are quite sound—namely, that to shut off all conversation over how far we’re willing to go to save lives simply because self-righteousness is an easy and comfortable position to take, is rather shortsighted and, quite possibly, dangerous."

Link: http://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php/weblog/entry/19401/

Thanksgiving for the Troops

300,000 pounds of turkey...50,000 pounds of stuffing...10,000 pounds of mashed potatoes... 30,000 pies....and you thought you had a lot of cooking to do for Thanksgiving!

Halliburton is preparing Thanksgiving dinner for U.S. troops in the Middle East and Central Asia:

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20051122005629&newsLang=en

By Whatever Means are Necessary?

"If a captured terrorist knows where a nuclear bomb has been planted in some American city, and when it is timed to go off, are millions of Americans to be allowed to be incinerated because we have become too squeamish to get that information out of him by whatever means are necessary?" writes one Thomas Sowell: http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/thomassowell/2005/11/22/176427.html

World Magazine's blog linked to Sowells opinion piece, and World's "comments" section has many other opinions: http://www.worldmagblog.com/blog/

Christian Ministries at Military Academies...

or, "You Mean This Kind of Thing is Allowed by the Constitution??!!"

Christianity Today does an excellent job of summarizing the "conspiracy" of evangelicals who minister to students at U.S. service academies ... and takes apart a Washington Post article about the Navigators' ministry at the U.S. Air Force Academy: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/146/21.0.html.

Slow News Day
leads to this Air Force Academy-related story

"A private missionary group has assigned a pair of full-time Christian ministers to the U.S. Air Force Academy," writes a Washington Post journalist on what must have been a slow news day.

"The letter makes clear that the organized evangelization effort has continued this year despite an outcry over alleged proselytizing at the academy ... A spokesman for the Air Force Academy said the Navigators are one of 19 [emphasis added] outside religious groups -- including Buddhist, Jewish, Catholic and Mormon organizations -- that hold voluntary meetings on Mondays from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in a program known as SPIRE, for Special Program in Religious Education."

The most important word to keep in mind here is "private" -- private, as in non-governmental; private, as in not managed by the Air Force Academy; private, as in "the government guarantees religious freedom in America, even the freedom for Christians to talk to military personnel about Christ."

The outcry over the situation at the Air Force Academy was because of allegations of what was going on from within the Academy, not from without. Let's not get the two confused.

Links:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/11/AR2005111101650.html

A bit after I wrote this, I read an excellent post on the same article by the good folks at Get Religion. Check out what they have to say on the subject: http://www.getreligion.org/?p=1188

Armies: "Sacred and Profane"

"Armies, like other social constructions, are both sacred and profane," states Stephen J. Cimbala, author of numerous books on national defense and security and the American military. "...Those who are trusted by society to employ this kind of destructive force [military power] must not be beasts or behave in a bestial manner. They must be expected to respect the tradition of military honor in regarding the sacredness of other human beings, including enemies captured and rendered hors de combat."

Link:
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/opinion/13154270.htm

Theme: Military Ethics

Prisoner Debriefing and a Doctor's Role

According to the Washington Post, a doctor's role in prisoner treatment has been under discussion among military leaders and medical experts: "...a vigorous debate sprang up among the experts over the ethics of physicians and caregivers participating in the debriefing of prisoners. The debate, which participants said was conducted in earnest over a lengthy dinner at Andrews Air Force Base after they returned from Cuba, explored concerns that medical experts in general, and psychiatrists and psychologists in particular, have aided U.S. government interrogations in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, often by applying their insights into human behavior to break the will of prisoners."

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/13/AR2005111300868.html

Theme: Military Ethics

Living by the Sword

A bishop in the Australian Armed Forces has written a book called Living by the Sword -- the book description at amazon.com states: "Living by the Sword is the first critique of the Australian military experience from a Christian ethical perspective. It surveys attitudes toward war and warfare from ancient to modern times, considers the moral status of the nation-state and international sovereignty, asks whether the just war tradition was relevant to campaigns against Iraq, assesses the recent emphasis on collective security, and suggests some difficulties associated with recognizing conscientious objection. As intra-state conflicts increase, this book considers when and where humanitarian intervention is justified and whether the creation of 'international constabulary' might avoid the need for pre-emptive military strikes."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0868405191/qid=1131995784/sr=8-3/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i3_xgl14/102-9356833-1204164?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

99-0 Vote for Voluntary Prayers at AFA Activities

The Rocky Mountain News reports: "A Senate vote Wednesday could clear the way for more voluntary, nondenominational prayers at Air Force Academy activities. Lawmakers waded into the ongoing controversy over religious tolerance with a 99-0 vote giving superintendents at the nation's three major military academies more discretion to decide when prayer is or is not appropriate."

Republican Senator Wayne Allard (Colo.) "called it a 'common sense' proposal to give academy leadership more discretion and remove confusion created by the guidelines. 'Micro-managing from Washington when prayer can and can't be offered at academy events is a sure-fire way to increase religious intolerance and deny our cadets at the service academies the opportunity to express their faith,' Allard said in the release."

In a related article at the Denver Post, Tom Minnery, a Focus on the Family vice president, "said the idea that the Air Force can neither favor nor disfavor religion 'is just totally unworkable in an arena in which you are asking people to give the ultimate sacrifice. If the military hires chaplains, the military endorses religion.'"

Links:

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4227104,00.html

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3196220

Canada's
Remembrance Day
Nov. 11th

Canadians remember their veterans tomorrow, as do U.S. citizens.
The Canadian War Museum has some good information as well as an interactive game for kids (but worth checking out even for adults).

"Over the Top is an interactive adventure game that allows YOU to experience life in the trenches during the First World War. As a young Canadian soldier stationed somewhere along the Western Front in the late Fall of 1916, you will live through some of the excitement, despair, brutality and sheer horror of trench warfare."

Museum Link: http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/cwme.asp

Game Link: http://warmuseum.ca/cwm/overtop/index_e.html

Theme: Veteran's Day 2005

We are the Dead...

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

"In Flanders Fields", by Colonel John McCrae

Theme: Veteran's Day 2005

God's Forgotten, Soldiers Slighted?

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day in the U.S. The following poem, written in 1632, still speaks powerfully to how much we look to God and the soldier to help us when things go bad...and when things are back to normal we quickly forget how we have been helped:

Our God and soldier we alike adore.

Even at the brink of danger; not before;

After deliverance, both alike requited.

Our God's forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.

- Francis Quarles (English poet), 1632

Credible Leadership, Servant-Leadership

"Leaders we admire do not place themselves at the center; they place others there. They do not seek the attention of people; they give it to others. They do not focus on satisfying their own aims and desires; they look for ways to respond to the needs and interests of their constituents. They are not self-centered; they concentrate on the constituent. . . Leaders serve a purpose and the people who have made it possible for them to lead . . . . In serving a purpose, leaders strengthen credibility by demonstrating that they are not in it for themselves; instead, they have the interests of the institution, department, or team and its constituents at heart. Being a servant may not be what many leaders had in mind when they choose to take responsibility for the vision and direction of their organization or team, but serving others is the most glorious and rewarding of all leadership tasks." -- by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It.

Middle Class Military:

U.S. Enlistees Now Better Educated, Wealthier

"Middle-class youths, not the poor, are providing the bulk of wartime recruits to the armed forces, according to a new study by a conservative think tank," reports the Washington Times.

"Mr. Kane [an Air Force Academy graduate and economics scholars] said overall evidence 'is at odds with the image, painted by some supporters of the draft, that the military exploits poor, ignorant young Americans by using slick advertising that promises technical careers in the military to dupe them into trading their feeble opportunities in the private sector for a meager role as cannon fodder.'"

Link: http://washingtontimes.com/national/20051107-113124-8563r.htm

Torture:

Intrinsically Immoral, Never Permissible

At First Things, Richard John Neuhaus writes: "Among ethicists and moral theologians there has been little serious effort to make the necessary distinctions between interrogation, intimidation, coercion, and torture. It appears that the treatment of prisoners is a dark and dirty business from which we wish to avert our eyes...As a nation, we should be committed to outlawing the use of torture—as we apparently are by virtue of a number of international agreements."

The second link (below) takes you to a statement by Rev. Kenneth F. Slattery: “'Does the duty to protect thousands of innocent lives override the duty not to torture?' The reply should be in the negative. An intrinsically immoral act is never permissible, not matter what physical good it may occasion."

Links: http://www.firstthings.com/

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0506/correspondence.html

America's Religious Revolution

Early Americans viewed their revolutionary war as a "sacred obligation", according to Dave Kopel in The Religious Roots of the American Revolution and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms: http://www.davekopel.com/.

Military-Related Stamps

"Distinquished Marines" stamps will be released on Nov. 10th by the U.S. Postal Service. See link for images: http://shop.usps.com/cgi-bin/vsbv/postal_store_non_ssl/browse_content/stampReleaseDisplay.jsp?OID=8610

In today's mail we received a letter with a stamp featuring African-American soldiers and the words "1948 Executive Order 9981" -- that order established equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services. Strangely, I can't find that stamp listed anywhere on the USPS website. The following link will give you information about the executive order, though: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/9981.htm.

Pacifism vs. Barbarism

"Peacemaking has always been a major theme in Christianity, and pacifists a strong voice within the Christian tradition...Yet modern pacifists, for all their citations of Scripture, seem miles away from the moral insights of biblical religion," writes Joseph Loconte.

"Nowhere is this gulf more striking than in their posture toward terrorism. Despite the record of gruesome violence since 9/11, many Christian leaders still refuse to confront the radical evil of militant Islam."

"...But moral equivalence has nothing to do with the ethics of the Bible. In the political arena it becomes a substitute for responsible action. The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, writing in early 1941, when most of Europe was under Nazi control, assailed such thinking as a kind of perfectionism derived from secular culture. 'This utopianism,' he warned, 'contributed to the tardiness of the democracies in defending themselves against the perils of a new barbarism.'"

"Christians have never viewed peace as the highest good. There are other goods: protecting human dignity and restraining evil, for example. A just peace can be the final result of these pursuits, God willing. But if peace is made the supreme goal, if it consumes all other virtues, it becomes an idol--and a snare to the statesman as well as the saint."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007503

Torture, the CIA, and Cheney

"Over the past year, Vice President Cheney has waged an intense and largely unpublicized campaign to stop Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department from imposing more restrictive rules on the handling of terrorist suspects, according to defense, state, intelligence and congressional officials," reports the Washington Post.

Link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601281_pf.html

A New Christian, Now a New Resident of Heaven

Army Sgt. Christopher Monroe, who died in Iraq on 25 October, had only recently become a Christian: "During his talk on being prepared, [Pastor] Schmoekel held up copies of Monroe’s first Army dog tags that read 'no religious preference.' But his new dog tags, reading 'Christian,' showed that God had a place prepared for Monroe when he died...".

Link: http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/13096243.htm

The Military Applications of Silly String.

Seeing is believing: http://cockeyed.com/citizen/silly/silly.html

The Soul Wearies, The Work Continues

Blogger thunder6, an American stationed in Iraq, writes about the death of four men in his battalion: "In the face of so stunning a loss it is natural for the soul to grow weary, and for the mind to wail for that which has been so violently ripped away. It would be the easiest of things to let my heart turn as cold as death and let it pump my veins with frigid and poisonous ice. But that would dishonor the memory of our fallen, and would be an unfitting tribute to men who had given the last full measure of devotion. Instead I will do something far more difficult; I will continue onward and complete our unfinished work."

Link: http://thunder6.typepad.com/

Murphy's Laws Of Combat Operations

Here's some humor to start off your weekend:

Friendly fire - isn't.
There is nothing more satisfying than having someone take a shot at you, and miss.
A sucking chest wound is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.
If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid.
The enemy attacks on two ocasions: when he's ready and when your not.
When your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.
The enemy diversion you're ignoring is their main attack.
If your sergeant can see you, so can the enemy.

Jarhead

Opening to mixed reviews: Jarhead, an R-rated movie about the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Rottentomatoes.com has review summaries, including:

"Puzzlingly hollow."

"Although it's well made...the actual point of the film is...well, hard to find."

"This is not a war film; it's a lack-of-war film."--

Link: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jarhead/

A Military Officer's Prayer

Lord, when I am wrong,
make me willing to change;
when I am right,
make me easy to live with.

So strengthen me,
that the power of my example
will far exceed the authority of my rank. Amen.


". . . to offer ourselves as a model for you, that you might follow our example."
II Thessalonians 3:9

A Canadian Military Blogger....

can be found at this link: http://spaces.msn.com/members/martininafghanistan/. He's just back home from Afghanistan.

A Soldier's Farewell

There's a fuss going on about a New York Times article about a soldier who died in Iraq. Blogger Michele Malkin feels the NYT's article about Corporel Jeffrey Starr was "agenda-driven" and "selectively-edited." I don't agree with what Malkin has said -- but that's not the issue. What is the issue, in my mind, are the amazing and powerful words this soldier wrote in a letter to be read in case of his death:

"Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

Many people are, in Corporel Starr's words, confused about why U.S. soldiers are in Iraq. But Corporel Starr wasn't confused, had no regrets, and was prepared to face the consequences. May that be a comfort to his family and friends as they mourn his death.

Link:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003821.htm

What Does Right Look Like?

Major Ed Lowe, United States Army, writes, "One of the challenges facing many leaders today is knowing exactly what right looks like. This can be especially trying for junior leaders getting their first taste in a leadership position, whether as team leader or platoon leader."

The full article, from Officers' Christian Fellowship, is available here: http://ocf.gospelcom.net/pubs/right_look.php

Christmas Gifts for U.S. Soldiers

Soldiers’ Angels, a non-profit organization, is packing stockings stuffed with items for soldiers who are deployed in the Middle East combat areas and hospital units. Cash donations are urgently needed to purchase supplies as well as to help with shipping the stockings to the Middle East. Also needed are AT&T phone cards (asking for this brand because it works in the Middle East area).

Tax deductible cash donations to Soldiers’ Angels, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, can be made by going to the Soldiers’ Angels website at www.soldiersangels.org and clicking on the “Donations” button to donate using Paypal or by sending a check to:

Soldiers’ Angels, 1792 E. Washington Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91104