For the past six weeks, my husband and I have been watching Generation Kill on HBO. This mini-series chronicles the slow march of the Marine Corps 1st Recon Battalion to Baghdad at the start of the Iraq War. Not your father's John Wayne war story, this series is tough to watch. It is gritty, violent, raw and honest.
Based on the book of the same name by Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright, who traveled with the Marines, Generation Kill shows us what happens to men when they are put into an ambiguous, poorly planned, life or death battle with orders from officers who must make it up as they go along and are more interested in medals than morality. It shows the loss of inhibition and ethics when one has the power of life and death over others, and when the normal rules of civilization are suspended, as they always are in war.
Race becomes something to ridicule, women become sexual objects, and killing ("lighting 'em up") is the day's business. While occasionally an officer or enlisted Marine tries to get the men to retain some semblance of humanity, he is quickly overruled with ridicule or the reality of the situation. In one telling scene, an officer comes up to one of his men to congratulate him on the day's kill, which included mostly civilians. In response, the Marine says "Dog, if we killed this many people in civilian world, we'd be in prison." The officer tells him that in this world, he's going to get medals.
Of course, eventually these men have to come home to "Civilian World," and what occurred to me as I watched the mini-series is how hard it is for many to make the transition. In particular, I thought of the three female soldiers (two of them pregnant) who were killed - just in the past few months - by their Iraq veteran boyfriends/fiancés/lovers after they returned home.
What also occurred to me is that this presidential contest is between candidates who are operating in two different worlds. Barack Obama, having never been in the military, and wanting to run a different kind of campaign, is operating according to the rules of "Civilian World."
John McCain, on the other hand, is running the campaign like he is in a war zone, where anything and everything civil is abandoned and conscience is put into a lock box. Lying, cheating, stealing, and attacking your opponent without mercy is the hallmark of the McCain campaign, as it was in the Bush campaign.
The current controversies over whether or not McCain lied about an incident when he was a POW and about his cheating by knowing the questions ahead of time at Rick Warren's "civil forum" are just nonsense. It's war. Of course you're going to lie and cheat. In Generation Kill, it's okay to use racial slurs, to denigrate women, to have no respect for those on the other side. You want to win and normal rules of courtesy and political correctness are out the window. In this world, a lie isn't a lie; it's simply part of the strategy. It's what you have to do if you want to win, even as you smile your fake smile and tell the American people you are a pro-life Christian. (McCain's recent offer of his wife as a contestant in the Miss Buffalo Chip Contest tells us he hasn't stopped demeaning women.)
John McCain and the Republicans declared war on the Democrats long ago and it is time Democrats realized that. When Republicans play with rules of war, and Democrats oppose them with rules from "Civilian world," it isn't hard to see who wins.
Barack Obama better choose a fighter as his vice presidential nominee, and he better get a few lessons from advisors who have seen combat, or McCain is liable to eat him alive.
