Fat Man and Blunderbuss

My parents were in town this past weekend and the whole family drove up to West Point to take the tour. It’s not the first time I’ve been there. One time a friend and I took a boat up the Hudson to see the Army vs. Air Force game. The football game was much better than the weekend tour because we could walk freely around the grounds and the cadets were out in their cute little grey uniforms. I didn’t care a whit for the football game itself, but the pageantry was interesting. This time we were limited to a tour bus, the gift shop and a museum.

Understand, West Point is one of the more beautiful spots on the Hudson. It looks like a medieval castle complex on a hill above the river. The buildings are made of grey stone from local quarries that complement the cute grey uniforms of our future military leaders. Familiar names are on statues and plaques throughout the campus. The view of the river valley from the north end amphitheater is spectacular, especially in the fall.

Nowhere did I see the names of any Confederate officers. I was curious how they were viewed by the guardians of West Point’s history, but did not ask because my father is a big civil war buff and something of a wingnut. To be a happy family, we must avoid any talk that could be remotely considered political and anything to do with the civil war falls into that category. Nevertheless, I was happy to imagine that the lack of statues or memorials to the likes of John Bell Hood or Robert E. Lee was due to the fact that they were traitors responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and problems that plague us still. It’s a pleasant thought but I don’t really know. Next time I’m there I’ll ask.

I was a bit uncomfortable taking my son there. He’s only seven and boys can be impressionable at that age, especially when it comes to violence. And my fears were immediately, and comically, realized. They had big screen television showing a propaganda video in which young men climbed walls, forded streams, jumped out of airplanes, and fired all manner of guns. He’d seen it two times through when I walked over. He turns around, face beaming, and says “dad, I want to join the army!” Of course you do Bub, I want to say, and you can walk over my dead body on your way to enlist, but I laugh and let it go. Other kids are having the same reaction, but their parents are encouraging them. Honestly though, as mentioned in an earlier post, I have some respect for our officer corps and even though it’s not a future I wish on my kids, I hope that good decent people continue to attend West Point where by all accounts they get a very good liberal arts education.

I like to think that they should educate the enlisted men as well instead of turning them into mindless killing machines. I understand the reasoning, but would be interested in hearing knowledgeable people discuss the subject. Is it not possible to have mindful killers? Would that necessarily make us weaker? You know I think that a major reason for our failure in Iraq is directly tied to the behavior of the troops. I think that the day-to-day humiliations they inflicted on Iraqis fed the insurgency when we actually did have a chance for a decent outcome and ultimately made us weaker than if we would have taken a few more losses up front and treated people with respect . Perhaps we’d have a lot fewer dead now and terms like “Haditha” and “Abu Ghraib” wouldn’t be dogging us into an ever more dangerous future, if the enlisted men were expected to be as enlightened as the West Point graduates.

We ended the visit on a weird and disturbing note by visiting the museum. It started out okay. All of our wars, little and big, are represented in a glass case or two and winding through the displays gives a nice, albeit narrow, look at the history of the United States. But I think we all became a bit sick to our stomachs walking through the floors dedicated to weapons. Although many are beautiful for their craftsmanship, I don’t think any of us could get away from the fact that their purpose was to kill people. Although some, such as the blunderbusses or the atomic bomb, are worse than others, all of them are brutal and primitive by their very nature. No sane and decent human being would want to be on either end of one of them. Even my uber-patriotic pop made a wry comment. And my son has yet to say anything about wanting to join the army since that little tour.