Battle For Haditha, the Movie and Assorted Comments

FINALLY SAW THE BATTLE OF HADITHA AND READ THE ARTICLE ON PHONY MEDALS BELOW, TIME TO BLOG

BY G DUFF

The movie itself, if I am not Roger Ebert, was realistic, cheap and without merit.  If it showed how the Marine Corps of today works, how people are trained and how they behave, despite the killing, it was a shocker to someone from the "medium old corps."

Everyone who goes into the Marine Corps suffers from those before them.  Marines by their nature are liars.  Lies are a way of razzing people, of keeping them in their place and making people earn the arrogance that comes with belonging to a lifetime brotherhood.

The Marine Corps of Vietnam was a mix of poor kids, college kid misfits (me) and the proper group of minorities creating an almost "American" and "democratic" experience.  We missed one group in particular, children of the "better classes."  They had other priorities and were saving themselves to be our leaders later in life.  We have seen how that has worked out…

What shocked me is that college kids, who were seen as the smartest, were also most likely to end up in the most dangerous occupations.  I learned  that they had the least likelihood of "staying on."  This might help explain some of the "gene pool" problems I notice when out shopping.  This is based on the idea that educated people are "better."  Reality hasn’t proven this out too well either.

What the movie showed was, of course, a unit attacked, that went into a housing complex and killed civilians.  It also showed they were attacked from that complex more than once.  The part that bothered me mostly is that the Marines depicted were not like my kids.  Marines I was with were.  The movie "Jarhead" was a bit more familiar.  This movie may have had an agenda.

The World War II movie, based on the Leon Uris book, Battle Cry, described the experiences of the author a a combat Marine in the Pacific.  We had more in common with his crowd than anything seen in this movie.  Please have someone from the recent Corps pick this up.  I didn’t like what I saw.

Marines depicted in Battle for Haditha spent most of their time riding around in vehicles, were large, some were fat (if this was a Canadian movie, it is understandable, I have seen "their" diet) but living conditions were well beyond any stateside training facilitiy the corps ever had.  We, the "medium old corps" as I call us, slept out on the ground, lived with the people, knew them well, and didn’t live inside a compound of barracks, hot meals, hot showers, mattresses and electronic toys.  Nobody had a waistline of 30 inches.  I dream about that part occasionally when trying to see my shoes.

Some other services did live well, when not in the field, including some Army units, not all.  I know from experience that such living conditions make for poorly adjusted soldiers but is currently meant help encourage a "volunteer  condominium army."  I expect Officers and Staff NCO’s to live on soft mattresses and afternoon tea and later give each other medals based on combat they learned about in briefings.  This is the Corps that exists and has existed since Vietnam.  I always note that at Guadalcanal, 10 MOH (Medals of Honor) were given out.  6 were given out posthumously.  Of the ten, General Vandergrift gave himself one.  Ouch! This tradition got worse and worse as the war went on.

The men who got the other 9 went through unbelievable hell.  The man who got the 10th at most of his meals on sterling silver and never fired a weapon. Anything to the contrary is fiction and I have nothing against General Vandergrift.  He may have been a good leader but leadership and beating dozens of japanese to death with a rifle butt while wounded several times is not comparable. 

1000 MOH were earned on the Canal or more.  10 were chosen.  Perhaps the idea of giving a Marine a medal, is in itself wrong.  Membership was always enough.  Medals are a way of taking people out of something great and attempting to set them above.  Those who were there knows that a medal means you had your lips very close to the wrong area for too long.

By the time we got to Vietnam, it became pretty much official that any officer had to look like a Mexican general to move up the ladder.  Since officers didn’t go out with Marines in the field except on the most rare of occasions, for photo shoots or short/safe patrols to the nearest "ville" and back, the thousands of medals earned by officers in the Marines and other services are, for the most part, frauds.

Knowing this doesn’t seem to bother them.  I know what this means.  Think about it.  Then you will know what it means.  Understanding why a toilet seat can cost $600 will no longer be a problem for you anymore.

By officer standards, I qualify for over 200 Bronze stars, 10 Silver Stars and with enough lying one or two "real" medals, not the phony "end of tour awards" that silver and bronze stars became.  I would have coveted one of the awards I was written up for but never received.  I would have then felt shame.  How could I face the families and friends of the real heroes I knew?  However, then I was a real soldier.  After wars, too many "real soldiers" become something else.  Without that, we wouldn’t have the VFW.

I was AVERAGE.  I know Marines who were exceptional.  They left Vietnam with fewer awards than me, less rank and now live in relative shame because they fought with extreme bravery but can wear nothing on a uniform because they didn’t drink tea with the right people or earn the "ring clinking" freebies that those who went to the service academies got.  A few names come to mind, one in particular.

One of my friends recently talked about how Al Gore, an army enlisted journalist had bodyguards.  What do you think every West Pointer or Naval Academy grad had?  Every one of them walked with more protection than the president on a trip to the middle east.

With very few exceptions, each of them spent just enough time "in the field" to justify awards (hours, not months) and were rushed back to the safest place possible so their ultra-valuable asses could find the fattest chairs available.  They run our military now.  Is our failure in Iraq and Afghanistan or our bloated budget filled with broken weapons hard to understand?  I think not.

Now they prance around the Pentagon wearing the honors of the poor, mostly dead, Marines and Soldiers who spent months on the ground, drinking poisoned water,eating garbage for food when they could get it.  People thank them every day and I seriously doubt they feel the shame they should.  I sometimes meet them.  I tell them that my biggest combat command was 4 Marines in a Special Landing Team. 

The Marines of the movie may or may not have been real.  I have had young Marine Reservists at my house and I have not met a better group of young people.  Movies are movies.  Recognizing that soldiers and Officer/Managers are not really soldiers is something this society needs to correct.

Officers should get medals for their ability to learn, lead and demonstrate capability.  This is their job.  It is an important job.

I don’t want to see any of them with combat medals.  They aren’t earned.  They shouldn’t be.  Demanding they wear them is degrading to real combat vets who earn them but never get them.

The concept of awards is, in itself evil.  No real soldier ever wants one except for the CIB or CAR.  Medals are earned in combat by real soldiers. Everything else is from kissing ass.  No real soldier can place himself above his buddies. 

Stories of "jumping on hand grenades" or leading "one man bayonet charges" is for movies.  Movies are for fools who pray in foxholes.

Sending our kids into ratholes for years and putting them on trial for killing people is, in itself, a crime.  Even putting their officers on trial is a crime.  Criminals start wars.  Victims fight and die, military and civilian.  Leave the victims alone.  Bury the dead, save the living and stop making the same mistakes century after century.  Let the world become human.

I was at a VA appointment last week.  I always walk the clinic, looking at who is there, how many are wearing hats, and what war people may have come from.

The numbers dwindle every week.  World War II and Korean vets are all but gone.  Vietnam vets are turning into old men and disappearing quickly too, it seems.  New vets crowd the Psych Clinic periodically, but are seldom seen elsewhere.  I don’t really think they ever get out anyway.  They might also hate getting near US Government facilities.  That I understand very well.

Two countries understand military.  One is gone.  One is here.  First was Nazi Germany.  They had the greatest Army of their time with the best leadership.  They promoted officers from the ranks, paid everyone the same, everyone ate the same food and it took us years to build a force to defeat them.  The other is the IDF from Israel.  Everyone belongs, including RICH KIDS.  Imagine seeing Jeb Bush or Tom Delay (or Bill Clinton) in uniform?  We have all seen "W" in his phony flight jacket.  If is is possible to dishonor a piece of clothing, that’s the man who could do it.  If accomplishing a mission is humiliating the United States, then he has done a good job.

We spend most of our money building a military and in the process have lost the country that we were defending.  We are supposed to fight for rights and freedom, something largely gone here but our kids die to give to others.  We are supposed to fight for a way of life, now made up of fast food, dirty movies and missing jobs.

The generation that nearly starved to death in the depression fought World War II.  Many got their first new shoes in the Army. We called them "the Greatest Generation".  I suspect they were.  Perhaps we need another one, not the empty shadows that creep thru our malls and parking lots now. 

Now we have built a feudal country based on corruption, propaganda and lying politicians, all fighting over tax dollars, privileges and a lifetime of "free lunch" while the rest of us hope to hold on to enough to keep our children alive.

The Iraq our soldiers have learned to hate is too similiar to the US they return to and find suicide their only answer. 

I have my own answers.  Terms limits should disassemble the government.  Jail all lobbyists.  Empty the Pentagon of the fatasses and put someone in charge that knows what a real soldier is.  Dig up General George Marshall.  He could do it.  Bring back Colonel David Hackworth.  He spent the last years of his life fighting the phonies. 

Disband our two political parties and start over again.  They are both corrupt machines, one run entirely by thieves, polluters and internationalist bullies.  The other is not led at all.

Rewrite the constitution, putting in real guarantees for freedom.  This means less government, no "Homeland (read "Reich") Security, no TSA and other agencies that need to be gutted and made to serve America, and not the rich and venomous.

Fix our court system.  Let most in jail out.  Build a drug free country safe for our kids to grow up in.  Let real lawyers go to real courts rather than ones with judges chosen by secret groups in the middle of the night like we do it now. 

Make healthcare free.  Care for our aged.  Some of us may live long to become one.  Build a life for our children in a country they can love and respect, one that should be the light of the world and can be again.

G. DUFF IS A MARINE VIETNAM VET AND UN ENVOY

 

The opinions expressed on VT are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff as a whole.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. VT has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is VT endorsed or sponsored by the originator. Any opinions expressed by the author(s) are not necessarily those of VT or representative of any staff member at VT.)

Gordon Duff

Gordon Duff posted articles on VT from 2008 to 2022. He is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War. A disabled veteran, he worked on veterans and POW issues for decades.

Gordon is an accredited diplomat and is generally accepted as one of the top global intelligence specialists. He manages the world’s largest private intelligence organization and regularly consults with governments challenged by security issues.

Duff has traveled extensively, is published around the world, and is a regular guest on TV and radio in more than “several” countries. He is also a trained chef, wine enthusiast, avid motorcyclist, and gunsmith specializing in historical weapons and restoration. Business experience and interests are in energy and defense technology.

• Gordon’s Archives:  2008-2015
• Gordon’s Archives:  2016-2022