Getting Braver All the Time

Suffers who suffer all
Can swim upon the desert
Where avarice have ravaged all
In spite of good intentions
-- Seven Deadly Sins, Flogging Molly
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The Purple Heart Magazine (May/June) ran Ranger's Letter to the Editor in opposition to the use of the term "warrior" to describe today's soldiers.

This is no small thing. We noticed the liberalization beginning in June of 2007 when Gary Kurpius, national commander of the 2.4 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars, backed recently released Marine Corps veteran Adam Kokesh in his right to protest the U.S.'s involvement in the Iraq war.

It amounts to a sea change when the editorial arm of a military fraternal organization like the MOPH is willing to publish opposition to an accepted ooh-rah stance. The letter is reprinted below:

Editor:

The last issue reports the MOPH [Military Order of the Purple Heart] organization issued Sen. Jim Webb a special leadership award this year for, among other things, his legislation to create a new G.I. Bill. “Webb’s legislation . . . will make it possible for today’s young warriors and their families to live the American dream.” (Purple Heart Magazine, Mar/Apr. ‘09).

Sen. Webb is a great advocate for veterans issues, though he has never referred to himself or our soldiers as “warriors” (aside from its use in the so-called “Wounded Warrior” Project.)

Unfortunately, the P.H. Magazine and by extension, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, is endorsing a “warrior mentality” which is the opposite of the beliefs of our Founding Fathers.

The American dream used to be peace and prosperity and adherence to a set of core values. Both the concept of being a warrior and arriving at the American dream through warfare are gross distortions of the concept of a democracy.

George Washington, the originator of the Purple Heart, never branded himself or his soldiers as warriors. Like the insurgents of Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington fought only in a defensive posture. This is not the stance of the warrior. Washington left office warning of the dangers of entangling foreign alliances.

We have run afoul of his vision.

Respectfully,

Jim Hruska