War Phonies

“Are we ready to fight?”

“In a fallen world, war eventually comes, wanted or not,” he intoned.

Worried (and perhaps just a bit excited?) about the prospect of war (with Iran or Russia or China … whichever opportunity presents itself), Swaim traveled to the Earlysville, Virginia farm of Helprin to seek the fiction writer’s thoughts on the future. He scanned Helprin’s “vast and spacious library,” which included “row after row” of war publications “one seldom encounters outside university libraries.” Apparently impressed, Swaim listened as Helprin walked through every conventional take on American foreign policy from here to War on the Rocks.   

•        Iran is evil;

•        Russia is bad; and

•        China is the worst, but maybe not by much.

We ought to ignore Helprin, too. I admired him 30 years ago, when he had the humility to confess that he dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. “I am absolutely certain that in not serving I was wrong,” Helprin said to the Corps of Cadets at West Point, recognizing at the time that his actions had diminished his credibility on matters of duty, honor and country. He mentioned his betrayal in Swaim’s piece too, but only in passing. Though Swaim treats Helprin as if he were the reincarnation of Leo Tolstoy, it’s worth noting that Tolstoy served his country as a young artillery officer during the Crimean War.     

Writing about war for the Journal – like laboring over war policy in the catacombs of the Pentagon or ginning up yarns about the “next” great war for a bestselling novel – is a substitute for serving in our armed forces. It’s a substitute taken by modern men set on their course of preferment, too prudent to sign away inherited privileges and submit to the iron will of a drill sergeant, too careful to risk their fragile sensibilities in the arena of hard, physical standards and equal competition among grittier young men from Oklahoma and Idaho, those American nobodies whose life force has fueled our elites’ war drive since Vietnam.

Men like Swaim and Helprin understand American combat in their imaginations, not their memories.

The answer to Swaim’s question is “no,” we’re not ready to fight. We’ll be ready when a worthy cause compels privileged observers to stop imagining and to begin acting with conviction in service to our country.   

Citizen Soldier believes in life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.