Dead Soldiers Aren't Heroes

I've seen it on CBS and all the media outlets. I've heard it on radio and read it in newspapers.
They call the dead soldiers, Marines, sailors and Airmen heroes. The very act of dying is being used to call them heroes.
I've felt myself bristle with the characterization without being real clear in my mind why I did. Or maybe it was I just didn't want to add salt to the wounds of the families of the deceased.
It seems a callous thing to dispute the heroic characterization of our war dead. The truth is it's time such a characterization stops being used. It's just one more way to promote and continue the violence of war.
Chris Hedges calls it the myth of war. We create heroes out of the war dead and glorify the cause of it when in fact war is the single most horrific thing humans do. For ingrained in wars are torture, rape, war crimes and incredible brutality.

I recall a few Marines I served with dying without being heroes. The squad leader I had that caused the unnecessary deaths of innocent women and children in the bomb shelter, for example. He needlessly fragged the innocent people out of need to avenge the deaths of Marines in his company.
The soldiers responsible for the massacre of My Lai that later died in Vietnam are questionable heroes. In fact, all combat veterans know heroism and being a coward are just one fire fight apart.
I've been saying for years we need to redefine who the heroes and heroines are in our world. Far too often it is the warrior of violence being called hero and the peacemaker being ignored or called traitor or coward.
Casting the warrior as hero has an economic factor. Without the heroic figure of the warrior in battle it becomes more difficult to sell the young on sacrificing themselves for nationalistic causes of dubious reasons.
Without the heroic figure of the warrior the military-industrial complex finds it more difficult to sell the next profitable war.
Hedges describes the narcosis of war in his book The Force That Gives Us Meaning. Warriors and nations become addicted to the rush of war. When the fervor of war becomes the reality of war for the non-combatant they have the luxury of ignoring it or opposing it.
The combatants loathe the meat grinder of death and wounds brought by war but when it's over find nothing to substitute for the narcosis it brought them.
Dying in a war does not make anybody a hero. It makes them a victim. The constant glorification of the "fallen" by the media lends itself well for political propaganda but does nothing to bring us peace
A combat veteran often times gains some instant credibility from both the promoters and the opponents of war. It's not merited.
I don't say the veterans aren't entitled to benefits to return to the best state of health possible. I don't say they shouldn't have college benefits. I advocate all the benefits promised and even more.
Taking part in killing another person doesn't merit special status of hero or villain. Taking part in killing another human is a tragedy. Heroic is the warrior that puts down his weapon and says "enough, I won't fight your war anymore".
I knew one Marine who did that in Vietnam. He'd been part of the meat grinder without question of his willingness and his ability. But suddenly he told the leaders of death he quit.
The leaders of death couldn't afford his type to flourish. They made an example of him by parading him in front of the troops to embarrass him. They sent him to prison. To them he was just another uppity black man who needed to be put in his place.
I was a coward in my time in Vietnam. I went along to survive. I killed to survive. I led other men to kill to survive. The career ladder in the Marines is one you climbed the better you killed and did as you were told. I was especially good at that.
Once home, I found I could no longer endure the continued call to arms. But I wasn't done with it. I was told to train the next mindless, nameless group of cannon fodder to perish and lose body parts for nothing but the profit of greedy corporations.
Smedley Butler called it a racket. War. It took him thirty plus years but he finally made that conclusion. Needless to say they didn't teach us about Smedley at Marine Corp Recruit Depot.
I knew nothing about Smedley on the day I left Camp Lejeune, NC without permission. I just knew I could no longer go along to survive. I knew I could no longer be a party to training the young clones who followed me.
For over a year the Corps and I battled. They put me in a corrections camp for 6 weeks. I left the day after I was sent back to my company. They promised me a psych evaluation in Chicago. Instead the arrested me in front of my WWII veteran father.
The brig at Great Lakes was over crowded with mostly Vietnam vets. We rebelled when the section guards refused to allow a young Marine permission to use the "head". He soiled himself.
The guards were forced out and the doors barricaded. We made a list of demands for better treatment of inmates. They tear gassed the section and isolated who they felt were the leaders. All black Vietnams vets.
After a month of detainment I was sent to my company in North Carolina. They shackled us as we walked through National Airport in D.C... Then let us free at Camp Lejeune. I walked away.
I stayed away for a year until one day two cars with six FBI agents pulled up in front of my parents house and ran up to me and my father as we were about to enter. They had pistols aimed at us both.
As a deserter I faced possible prison time for many years. I was sent to the Denver City Jail for two weeks while the Marines decided where to send me. Finally I went to Camp Pendleton, California.
They handcuffed me on the plane but the blonde and very attractive flight attendant told them I couldn't be in cuffs when we were flying.
She paid me more attention than the two chasers trying to hit on her. She made it clear she sympathized with my cause once she understood I was a combat veteran who walked away. Her brother was in Vietnam at the time.
Eventually, I received an Undesirable Discharge when the Marines backed away from a court martial. I hired an ACLU lawyer who gave his services for free.
The Marines didn't want a decorated killer of their making brought to trial with the press fully informed.
A deal was offered. I accepted. My storied Marine Corps career ended. My life as peace activist began. Too bad I only found my bravery after I took part in the slaughter.
My personal story isn't the shining example of a veteran. It's not the shining example of a person of peace. It's the shining example of an 18 year old entering the military with idealism and nationalism finding out the truth. It's the shining example of going along, just doing my job and dehumanization.
Now I'm wiser. Now I know the heroes are the strong people who said no up front. The heroes are the nuns who dare challenge the whole system by cutting wire to enter a nuclear site. The true heroes are the young men and women who refuse to take part in immoral and illegal acts of murder.
As for us who did take part, we must take responsibility for our actions. We had choices. We made the choice to take up arms and hunt other humans to kill them. We allowed that squad leader to frag a bunker with a baby in it. We allowed My Lai.
We cannot get peace if we fail to acknowledge our responsibility and think we're heroes or victims. We are victims of self-inflicted wounds. We failed to educate ourselves. We failed to set moral limits. We failed to say "enough" as my fellow Marine did that day in 1968 as he was surrounded by angry and resentful men with weapons.
I didn't go to the Vietnam Memorial looking for heroes. I went to see the men I joined with to fight an immoral war. I went to grieve for us all because they weren't able to grieve for us. At times I feel they may have been the lucky ones. They didn't wake up one day and realize what horrible deeds they took part in doing.
I am sick of dead men becoming instant heroes. I'm sick of young men and women once again killing in the name of a nation long ago gone astray. I'm tired of being told I have some credibility for being part of a meat grinder.
My only credibility is as a witness to the insanity of war. I was awarded medals for alleged bravery and being wounded. They mean only that I was proficient at killing and poor at avoiding.
Do not afford heroic status on dead men of wars. Give it to those who have dedicated their life and souls to stopping those wars. Give heroic status to the true heroes and heroines like Rachel Corrie, Ardeth, Carol, and Jackie. Give heroic status to Daniel Berrigan, Kathy Kelly and William Sloane Coffin.
Heroic figures are men and women of peace and as I tell classes I speak to about my experience; you give up the role of peacemaker once you pick up a weapon and go out hunting other people to kill.
Terry Leichner
VVAW