Well, that ought to get the hounds after me for sure. 
Really though, I think it is. Bear in mind that I am military and if ever in a POW situation would like to not be forgotten. However, much like my feelings about how the media covers POWs I think the main job of never forgetting falls to the POW's parent service and to his hometown. The only personal mitigating factor is that I am currently a REMF quite unfortunately, not my goal in life at all. Still, I can quite see the viewpoint of the POW and can probably write most of the Code of Conduct from memory.
-First, the POW/MIA movement I refer to is the one began by Vietnam Vets and is still quite popular with anyone who wants to fly a POW/MIA flag, wear a patch, or display a sticker. Their heart is in the right place.-
The movement drives the current media coverage of POWS and war deaths. In conflicts of the past decade there has always been a heightened sense of and sensitivity to casualties and captures. This goes directly back to our foul experience in Vietnam and increases Americans receptivity when some old general/colonel gets on TV and breaks bad with the "Q" word. Quagmire that is. That word and the fact that our gov't often runs like one giant opinion poll(remember the 6th grade class president popularity contests) has led and could lead to some embarrassing military blunders. Case in point, Somalia. It was not embarrassing that we lost 18 men *. We gave much worse than we got. The embarassment came from the world being shown that some bargain brand dictator could cow the U.S. and make it go home by showing one beat up American and several dead on TV. Now I contend that the POW/MIA movement created this sympathy, but with out of control reality TV and people who lead no lives away from TV I don't think it can be stopped.
Pouring salt in old wounds. That is my opinion of the POW/MIA movement. Re-hashing Vietnam won't help us today. I feel that through reading history we in the military and public can avoid developing CRS syndrome, we don't need an organized political movement to count our dead bodies. In the past 5 years we have killed a bunch of Americans and others in several helicopter crashes, flying around places like Laos looking for pieces of a pilot's jawbone stuck in a hillside for 30 years. What is more valuable, the living or the dead? Time to move on.
Another problem. Deifying POW's. It is all John McCain's fault. Yes he was tough, yes it's good he came back, no he shouldn't have used it so willingly as political capital. Now every POW gets a book and movie deal, except for the one we can't find. (Scott Speicher) They are ordinary folks. Making them heroes makes life a little worse for future POW's in that they can be manipulated by their captors with their coverage back home.
I don't forget our missing soldiers. I should not see their family all over TV when they are still in captivity. If I was captured I would rather be killed than be used as a tool to manipulate foreign policy. I think we must remember that while human life is valuable there are more important things and we must be ever mindful of the high cost but not swayed from action by it. I think the POW/MIA movement was created by veterans who wanted another cause to give them purpose, having ended up disaffected by being forgotten upon returning home from Vietnam. Had we treated them better we could today perhaps still remember our fallen while being able to wage war more effectively.
The positives. The whole world knows we don't forget, I just think a SPECWAR raid or a JDAM says that better than a flag. The current staff has been effective by showing due respect and consideration for our losses but not altering the course of the war because of them.
Ok, I rambled, but in my head it is a convuluted inter-connected subject, now somewhat yours to enjoy. Nowhere did I insult our fighting forces or say we should leave them behind. Nowhere did I insult our veterans of Vietnam or otherwise, so disagree if you wish, that's why I posted it, but please come up with something more than a:
M'kay?
* Nuther threads: Letting Casey Joyce die was an embarassment because no leader insisted he wear all of his body armor. Letting Jamie Smith bleed out all night because we couldn't figure out a medevac or how to get whole blood out there was an embarasment. Overall, though, we kicked major butt. Should we have stayed so long to try to free obviously dead bodies from the wreckage of the first crash? Goes back to over-doing the POW/MIA leave no man behind.
Really though, I think it is. Bear in mind that I am military and if ever in a POW situation would like to not be forgotten. However, much like my feelings about how the media covers POWs I think the main job of never forgetting falls to the POW's parent service and to his hometown. The only personal mitigating factor is that I am currently a REMF quite unfortunately, not my goal in life at all. Still, I can quite see the viewpoint of the POW and can probably write most of the Code of Conduct from memory.
-First, the POW/MIA movement I refer to is the one began by Vietnam Vets and is still quite popular with anyone who wants to fly a POW/MIA flag, wear a patch, or display a sticker. Their heart is in the right place.-
The movement drives the current media coverage of POWS and war deaths. In conflicts of the past decade there has always been a heightened sense of and sensitivity to casualties and captures. This goes directly back to our foul experience in Vietnam and increases Americans receptivity when some old general/colonel gets on TV and breaks bad with the "Q" word. Quagmire that is. That word and the fact that our gov't often runs like one giant opinion poll(remember the 6th grade class president popularity contests) has led and could lead to some embarrassing military blunders. Case in point, Somalia. It was not embarrassing that we lost 18 men *. We gave much worse than we got. The embarassment came from the world being shown that some bargain brand dictator could cow the U.S. and make it go home by showing one beat up American and several dead on TV. Now I contend that the POW/MIA movement created this sympathy, but with out of control reality TV and people who lead no lives away from TV I don't think it can be stopped.
Pouring salt in old wounds. That is my opinion of the POW/MIA movement. Re-hashing Vietnam won't help us today. I feel that through reading history we in the military and public can avoid developing CRS syndrome, we don't need an organized political movement to count our dead bodies. In the past 5 years we have killed a bunch of Americans and others in several helicopter crashes, flying around places like Laos looking for pieces of a pilot's jawbone stuck in a hillside for 30 years. What is more valuable, the living or the dead? Time to move on.
Another problem. Deifying POW's. It is all John McCain's fault. Yes he was tough, yes it's good he came back, no he shouldn't have used it so willingly as political capital. Now every POW gets a book and movie deal, except for the one we can't find. (Scott Speicher) They are ordinary folks. Making them heroes makes life a little worse for future POW's in that they can be manipulated by their captors with their coverage back home.
I don't forget our missing soldiers. I should not see their family all over TV when they are still in captivity. If I was captured I would rather be killed than be used as a tool to manipulate foreign policy. I think we must remember that while human life is valuable there are more important things and we must be ever mindful of the high cost but not swayed from action by it. I think the POW/MIA movement was created by veterans who wanted another cause to give them purpose, having ended up disaffected by being forgotten upon returning home from Vietnam. Had we treated them better we could today perhaps still remember our fallen while being able to wage war more effectively.
The positives. The whole world knows we don't forget, I just think a SPECWAR raid or a JDAM says that better than a flag. The current staff has been effective by showing due respect and consideration for our losses but not altering the course of the war because of them.
Ok, I rambled, but in my head it is a convuluted inter-connected subject, now somewhat yours to enjoy. Nowhere did I insult our fighting forces or say we should leave them behind. Nowhere did I insult our veterans of Vietnam or otherwise, so disagree if you wish, that's why I posted it, but please come up with something more than a:
M'kay?
* Nuther threads: Letting Casey Joyce die was an embarassment because no leader insisted he wear all of his body armor. Letting Jamie Smith bleed out all night because we couldn't figure out a medevac or how to get whole blood out there was an embarasment. Overall, though, we kicked major butt. Should we have stayed so long to try to free obviously dead bodies from the wreckage of the first crash? Goes back to over-doing the POW/MIA leave no man behind.
