I'm taking a break today from beating up the General with my own reasearch, now that the Tom Clancy homosexual-romance community over at "Blackfive" is looking into the question I emailed them about some days ago. Strangely, the fellows over there had, somehow, not thought to ask it themselves.
Because I think we may have found the answer - and a fun one - in a wonderfully humorous piece in Vanity Fair magazine by Jim Windolf entitled "Lazy-Ass Nation".
Now it must first be said that David Petraeus is anything but a lazy person - qua lazy. If anything he is uniformly characterized as irritatingly energetic, but in combat, one feels he did not have the (God, please, please forgive me) "hands on" experience that this young Marine Corps hero had.
If you click the link or read below, do notice the unbelievably valiant corporal's saluting hand.
That's right, there isn't one. He doesn't have the other one, either.
Of course the salute is still utterly perfect, arm absolutely level. I'm given to understand that in the Marine Corps they say to such an individual, with the dignity of understatement:
"Outstanding, Marine!"
Your nation concurs.
He was awarded the same combat valor medal as then-Major-General David Petraeus who was lucky enough not to lose his hands in a vigorous planning session, a push-up contest with his junior officers or a dangerous map-reading incident,
as diagramed in the Right Wing press.
But, as Windolf points out, ours is now a nation of remote controls. Rumsfeld's concept of the new military was, in essence, an unstoppable, remotely-controlled blitzkrieg that could penetrate to almost any nation's capitol with relatively modest staging needs. He succeeded. So possibly it's understandable that Petraeus should feel comfortable with a claim on the same combat valor as the troops who did the killing and dying and getting torn to shreds.
After all, we hire people to do that sort of thing these days.
And, in the General's defense, we can't always go to the most-heroic in our military to lead it and shape its policies. Many of them do not have the advanced education necessary and are dead. And so the necessity that a commanding General have direct, valorous combat experience has always been a bit of a myth. General Eisenhower had no combat experience.
But neither did he accept any medals for it.
There is an inevitable necessity for heroes. We need to feel strength and determination coming from our military leaders. And General Petraeus, by all accounts, has determination to spare. But the heroes who march in parades and go to public medals ceremonies also show us sacrifice - theirs, not ours. When their missing limbs give us a glimpse of the terrible price of letting slip the dogs of war, they are showing us only our responsibility.
What war is not, is the imposition of order. War is the destruction of a rival community. War itself is the process of intimidating people through extraordinary violence and destruction. It's barbarism conducted by well-disciplined and honorable people.
Whom do they honor? Us. They honor our community and its commands. That is where honor comes from - us. If our community is honorable, then people like that young Marine will sacrifice a great deal to protect it.
But for us, war creates only responsibily. From soldiers it demands honor, and for real, fighting soldiers, valor.
Because war is still hand-made - by our votes, Generals' orders, and the hands of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen
and Marines.