I suppose we all know the typical 'special forces' or 'small arms guru' folks; looking tough, posing with guns, usually with a manly beard, lots of 'tactical' clothing to make sure everyone gets that they're not everyday civilians.
This idolization is clearly originating in the United States, quite successful in 'white' anglophone countries in general and has also spawned its ridiculous offspring in France, Germany, Austria where by comparison negligible idolizations of GSG 9 and similar groups were replaced by a much broader 'tough guy in tacticool kit with gun' fashion.
Luckily, this nonsense only seems to affect a tiny share of the populations; but this share is probably the bigger share of those who pay attention to the military.
Now why did I begin this blog post with a music video?
Simple. James Blunt (James Hillier Blount) - the guy in the video - was actually an active service Household cavalry captain in the UK's army. He led his troops into Kosovo 1999, tasked to occupy Pristina airport. Russian peacekeepers had made their famous dash from Bosnia to Kosovo and had arrived first.
General Clark wanted an attack on them, but Captain Blount and General Jackson (both UK) refused. The incident - which could have grown into a major battle with battalions of Russian paratrooper reserves on stand-by - was eventually resolved with words and a fresh water-depriving siege within a few days.
This singer-songwriter would easily outrank all those tough guy shooters if anybody asked me about examples for military role models. Modern military forces lack IQ much more than muscle or shooting skills.
It's not that soldiers are stupid; the reason why brains are so important is that almost every unit - even and especially infantry - performs much better if manned by more intelligent people. Branches don't fight over who gets the most muscular recruits, but about who gets the smart ones.
The things about 'special forces' and 'small arms gurus' that are getting highlighted by their fanbois are exactly not the brainy, but the rather mechanical things.
It's not that soldiers are stupid; the reason why brains are so important is that almost every unit - even and especially infantry - performs much better if manned by more intelligent people. Branches don't fight over who gets the most muscular recruits, but about who gets the smart ones.
The things about 'special forces' and 'small arms gurus' that are getting highlighted by their fanbois are exactly not the brainy, but the rather mechanical things.
S O
Hi Sven, in case you don't know it already.
ReplyDelete"No bravery" was a song about his time as soldier in Kosovo.
Well, I've heard about the confrontation at the airport, of course, but I must admit I don't know any of the details.
ReplyDeleteSo, you are claiming that a gung-ho, trigger happy American cowboy General thought it was a great idea to start a shooting war with the Russians, and the world was only saved the horrors of nuclear war thanks to some peace loving Brits, in the form of Captain Blount and General Jackson? Why do I feel there's more to the story than that?
"John", it was a wise decision to stay de facto anonymous while posting this comment. After all, all you did was showing that you don't care about reality, but live in wild-interpretation-land.
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