Abu Gharib in 2003. Fallujah and Haditha in 2005.
American marines urinating on dead Taliban, burning copies of Quran and US
gunmen massacring innocent civilians in 2012. These incidents are both
disturbing and increasingly worthy of creating derision in the minds of many in
America
as well as across the globe.
A clear pattern can be clearly observed here. The pattern
here is that a group if young US servicemen in spite of their rigorous training
programs which mean to term them into disciplined and law-obeying young men,
are not following what they are taught to and becoming involved in acts which
can be easily categorized as derisive and dangerous to prestige and reputation
of the United States all over the Muslim world.
Belmont v/s Fishtown
To understand and find the exact reasons into why there
is this spurt in the unfortunate and tragic events involving American
servicemen who are otherwise noted for their discipline and valor we need to
take a deep and long look at the specific strata of American society from which
they come.
Charles Murray, a noted social commentator in the
American affairs has pointed out in his latest book “Coming Apart” in vivid
terms the growing economic and social inequality in the US. Charles Murray
mainly points out that the growing economic inequality in the US has given rise
to two separate economic classes in the US with almost oxymoronic social
attitudes and quickly diverging lifestyles.
According to Charles Murray, the economically backward
areas of US are the ones prone with more divorces, lack of social capital, a
breakdown in family values, a spurt of single mothers, a bulge of social crimes
and myriad other social issues.
As Murray has pointed out clearly in his book that the
growing economic inequality in the USA, creating two different classes of
peoples with increasingly divergent worldviews. Murray decides to divide the
two classes into two superficial entities; one is Belmont which represents the
richer elite strata of the society and then there is Fishtown or the
comparatively poorer sections of American populace.
Belmont according to Murray has fewer divorces,
out-of-wedlock children, fewer educational dropouts, fewer broken families and
fewer drug addicts and fewer levels of indebtedness, home foreclosures and most
importantly lesser number of violent crimes.
By Murray’s analysis Belmont and the social class i.e.
the rich , upper-class that it represents not only does well over Fishtown in
terms of wealth creation but it also does well in terms of fostering better
human qualities amongst its people.
The status of American family has gone through a
tremendous transformation whereby a majority of women under the age of 30 now
give births to their children as single
moms. [2] Undoubtedly it is Fish town than Belmont which leads in this
phenomenon according to Murray. [3]
As a result many kids will be living under single parents
with either mom or dad in the role of playing both parents’ part as well
carrying the burden of being the only bread earner in the family. In most of
the cases though it is the single mother who has to play the roles and
responsibilities of both the parents while being the sole wedge earner in the nuclear
family. [2]
Many prominent psychologists opine that all of our important character traits
generate from the subconscious section of human mind and two fundamental parts
of human subconscious i.e. anima and animus actually play important parts in
helping the child develop important character traits such as sympathy , love ,
responsibility and fighting spirit.
Now the anima is the aspect which is grown inside a
Child’s subconscious mind from 0 to 6 years of age and this aspect is developed
primarily by the influence of the mother. Anima helps a child grow qualities
such as sympathy and love. The aspect of
Animus which helps a child build character traits of responsibility and
fighting spirit is developed from the 6 to 12 years of a child and this
particular quality is developed by the influence of father.
So by the science of psychology the biggest negative
effect of children who come from single parents or broken families is that they
do not sufficiently grow their anima and animus which in later years may
prevent them from developing important character traits such as love , sympathy
, taking challenge and taking responsibility for own actions.
Since Fishtown overwhelmingly leads Belmont when it comes
to phenomenon such as divorces and broken marriages and single moms, it can be
argued that Fishtown also leads Belmont when it comes to producing children without
proper parenting i.e. children without sufficient amounts of Anima and Animus
grown into them. This makes the children from Fishtown vulnerable to lacking
important character traits such as love , sympathy , taking challenge and
taking responsibility for their own actions etc.
Unfortunately it is Fishtown rather than Belmont which
produces more prospective employees for what is probably the most important
institution for projecting America’s image abroad i.e. the US military. [1] This
deprives America to deploy her best talents in the military profession since it
is Belmont which by far outshines any other social strata in the US when it
comes to producing children with better abilities and talents.
Since the military service in the US is voluntary we can
argue that it is the economic problems that lead to many from Fish town to seek
employment in what is probably the last port of call for them in hard economic
times i.e. the American military. [1]
This suggests that the US military may be burdened with
the fact that a considerable amount of its potential recruits may be coming from
a social strata like Fish town with not sufficient amount of social capital.
The phenomenon of quick gratification
Another prevailing situation in the USA is that
abundance of items which bring quick gratification and pleasure. Now day’s kids
from a very early age have access to various electronic gadgets and mobile
phones of all different hues, providing a very quick gratification.
As the child grows up in age they tend to develop a
tendency to find out quick and simple solutions to problems in general and at
times at very small inconveniences. This
habit can tend kids to treat problems in a very simplistic manner and find out
solutions also in a similar way. This character trait can be attributed to the
habit of a child to satisfy him with objects of quick gratification from his
child hood.
The absence of anima and animus also could be attributed
to a child’s inability to find other than simplistic and temporary solutions.
In an wartime scenario, for a young man who does not
possess sufficient amounts of anima and animus due to a troubled childhood and
who is prone to seek simplistic solutions to his problems may find himself taking
the painful but sudden and abrupt decisions which ultimately leads to tragic
incidents such as Abu Gharib , Fallujah and Kandahar .
Lack of deterrence
Another significant factor which could be considered as
vital in addition to the above two reasons is the reluctance of the American
military authorities to hand down tough sentences to servicemen found guilty of
disturbing acts.
Normally after a tragic incidence a familiar ritual can b
observed whereby senior American officials apologize, an investigation
commission is formed, and the families of unfortunate victims are compensated,
media claims “these are works of a few rotten apples and we are not like these”
and then the perpetrators of the act gets the maximum penalty of being
discharged from the service.
In a country like the USA which still boasts of carrying
out most number of death penalties is yet to hand down a single capital
punishment to any perpetrators of these tragic acts thereby creating an
impression to some of these would-be perpetrators of these terrible acts that
they would at most be discharged from the service.
David P Goldman aka Spengler has pointed out that there
tends to be strong disincentives for crime once the state comes with rigorous
penalties for those who commit crimes. [4]
This is a very interesting dilemma for the American
policymakers. The mindsets which lead people to commit horrible tragedies at
places like Kandahar and Fallujah, do not take a leave when they come back home.
If America does not come up with a strong deterrence to the serious disciplinary
issues which are exemplified by her soldiers committing tragic and horrible crimes,
there may be unforeseen and unpredictable consequences.
As Ron Unz points out citing a recent New York
Times story described the morale-building visit of Secretary of
Defense Leon Panetta to our forces in Afghanistan and noted that all American
troops had been required to surrender their weapons before attending his speech
and none were allowed to remain armed in his vicinity. [5]
Robert Fisk also points out that the top US commander in
Afghanistan Gen. John Allen had to appeal to his troops for being calm and not
act hastily for revenge after news spread out about the death of two American
servicemen following the Quran burning riots in Afghanistan in early, 2012. [6]
These are probably the two most serious examples of
breakdown of discipline in the ranks of American military in a long time. This
trend is disturbing to say the least since after all Timothy McVeigh was also a
psychologically troubled veteran.
References
[1] “Youths
in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military” by Ann Scott Tyson published in “The
Washington Post” on Friday, November 4, 2005 (URL: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/03/AR2005110302528.html)
[2] “For Women under 30, Most Births Occur Outside
Marriage” by JASON DePARLE and SABRINA TAVERNISE published
in “The New York Times” on February 7, 2012 (URL : http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/us/for-women-under-30-most-births-occur-outside-marriage.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all)
[3] “Tramps like Them:
Charles Murray Examines the White
Working Class in ‘Coming Apart’” by Nicholas Confessore published
in “The New York Times” on February 10, 2012 (URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/books/review/charles-murray-examines-the-white-working-class-in-coming-apart.html?pagewanted=all)
[4] “What would James Q Wilson tell Mexico?” by Spengler published
in “Asia Times” on March 20, 2012 (URL: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NC20Dj02.html)
[5] “China’s rise, America’s fall” by Ron Unz published in “The
American Conservative” on April 18, 2012 (URL: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/chinas-rise-americas-fall/)
[6] “Madness is not the reason for this Massacre” by Robert
Fisk published in “The Independent” on March 17, 2012 (URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-madness-is-not-the-reason-for-this-massacre-7575737.html?origin=internalSearch)
