Knights in Kevlar - @MidEastTruth

Knights in Kevlar

It’s time to recognize those much-maligned institutions – the Israeli and the American armed forces

By Gil Troy
B'nai Brith Magazine
Winter 2005

Even as the rampaging Mississippi waters muddied the reputations of so many involved with the Katrina catastrophe, one institution performed magnificently. The American military mobilized, restored order, ministered to thousands, evacuated tens of thousands in New Orleans, and then offered help again when Hurricane Rita menaced.
The soldiers’ distinctive, formalistic rhetoric – talk about “offloading” supplies and the mission of “our men and women” – offered a calm, confident, competent-sounding contrast to the victims’ despair, critics’ anger, officials’ defensiveness, and reporters’ headline-driven hysteria.

Thus, this summer, two of the world’s most maligned militaries -- the United States Army and the Israel Defense Forces – demonstrated remarkable civility, efficiency, humanity, and a spiritual power rarely recognized in these high-functioning killing machines. Just as the American Army’s field hospital at the New Orleans airport distinguished itself by saving lives, treating approximately 50,000 patients within a few days, the Israeli Army’s empathy and restraint during the Gaza evacuation illustrated how to manage conflict peacefully rather than pursuing the expected military approach of confronting it violently.
In August, under Gaza’s blazing desert sun, after journalists and extremists on both sides had predicted settler violence and massive civil disobedience in the military, Israel’s soldiers enveloped Gush Katif’s settlers in a warm, firm and very effective hug. Resurrecting the happy stereotypes of the 1960s, the sensitive soldiers illustrated the moral power of a citizens’ army filled with sabras who revealed soft interiors beneath allegedly prickly shells. As Yisrael Meir Lau, the former Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, said: “They faced each other, evacuators and evacuees, but not one drop of blood fell to the ground. Only the tears they shed together fell, blessing the land.”

Of course, people familiar with either of these institutions – and the varied roles democratic armies often play – will not be surprised. The Israeli Army has repeatedly helped out in natural disasters worldwide, establishing field hospitals in Rwanda after the 1994 genocidal massacres, deploying search-and-rescue teams after last year’s tsunami – and offering New Orleans its tsunami-honed forensic expertise. At the same time, every day in Iraq, America’s soldiers demonstrate a superhuman sensitivity, restraint, and compassion in trying to rebuild Iraq – a point of great national pride even many war critics acknowledge.

Sadly, in our media-saturated hypercritical Western world – especially among our supposedly sophisticated elites – it is more fashionable to scorn soldiers than salute them. All too often, we allow the intimidating image of the armor-shrouded, armed-to-the-teeth modern soldier to hide the idealism and humanity of the often-scared young people who serve behind the night-vision glasses or reflecting sun-visors.
Many of us who have not served do not even know someone who knows an active-duty soldier, and we prefer therefore not to think too much about what these knights in Kevlar body armor risk to preserve our freedoms. If we considered their sacrifices more carefully, thoughtless critics might approach their analyses with more thoughtful compassion, and the rest of us lucky civilians would bomb our selfless soldiers with love. We should be donating phone cards so soldiers can talk with friends and relatives for free, celebrating our birthdays and holidays by sending care packages to those serving overseas, or simply embracing family members praying for their loved ones to return safely.

Democracies are far from perfect, as the first days of the New Orleans debacle proved. But at a time when it is fashionable for super-patriots to lament democracies’ weakness against terrorists and for hyper-critics to exaggerate democracies’ sins when they do lapse, both the Israel Defense Forces and the United States Army have been particularly inspiring. Both have demonstrated the strong social fabric, the compassionate idealism, the individual grandeur and the collective greatness that have been the hallmark of successful modern liberal democracies in general, and America and Israel, in particular. We should not wait for a catastrophe to appreciate and praise our soldiers’ many contributions and to thank them in many and generous ways.

My family and I have decided to put our money where our mouths are. We are donating one dollar for every copy of my new book on Ronald Reagan that is sold to help families affected by the recent worldwide scourge of terror, and that includes the loved ones of America’s soldiers. What can you do for them, symbolically and substantively?

Gil Troy is a Professor of History at McGill University and the author most recently of Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s, and previously, of Why I Am A Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today.