Verispeak: The Truth Tellers

“Dannie Tillman [Pat Tillman’s mother, Mary] did what a nation full of high-paid, overblown journalists should have done. She went after the real story while the beautiful people on TV and the nerds with notepads broadcast and wrote morality plays. She got in the military’s face, in the government’s face. She didn’t let up. She was doing journalism while journalists were doing what we mostly do now — chase Web hits and take short cuts to higher profits.”  Bill Dwyre , L.A. Times

Da Capo press sent me a copy of Matt Gallagher’s new book “Kaboom: Embracing the Suck in a Savage Little War.”

I have come to hate war and most of the stories that accompany it; but along with providing an interesting description of the daily routine of his ”Gravediggers” platoon Gallagher shows himself to be a talented leader as well as an extraordinarily gifted writer.  With names like, PFC Das Boot, Sergeant Boon Dock, Captain Frowny-Face, the Haitian Sensation, and Mohammed the Ghost, Gallagher blends humor and great literary skill into the daily fear and tedium of serving with the army of occupation in Iraq.

The title of the book is distracting because it brings up recollections of Billy Mays bombastic promotion of Kaboom shower cleaner.  The association is unfortunate but Gallagher redeems the title with an attention holding narrative.

He divides army officers into “three categories: company grade officers (lieutenants and captains), field-grade officers (majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels), and general officers (the top dogs with stars on their collars)”.

Of the field-grade officers Gallagher wrote “they were seemingly everywhere in Iraq, intent on riding the bureaucratic beast in all its protectionist glory….inept careerists were as much a part of the military fabric as the camouflage pattern and liquid eggs for breakfast…”

It was Gallagher’s first and only deployment.  His empathy for children and families remained in tact.  At every corner “children waved giddily, hoping for chocolate; the women dressed head to toe in black robes stared rigidly at the ground; the old men nodded with hard, empty eyes; and the young men stared back at us callously.”

Lt. G described himself as a talented leader who developed a reciprocal affection with his soldiers.   He found military service fulfilling; “Honestly, if I could have remained a scout platoon leader for twenty years, I would have stayed in and become a careerist.”  He wrote that his reasons for leaving the military were two fold:  One, he had other “goals and dreams”; and two, if he stayed he would “inevitably have to order men into combat and not go myself”.

On a personal level he was never insubordinate but his internet Blog was popular with the troops and when it got picked up by the domestic media his striking description of “staff-stupid” caused his superior officers to demand its removal.

Matt Gallagher is young and without an apparent effective exterior ethical compass.  Kaboom does not question the moral implications of the War.  There is a discussion on the effect it will have on the coming generation of Iraqi children (they will hate the United States) and it clearly describes the unhealthy lust for money (legitimate or otherwise) developed by our occupation policies.  Though he recalls his oath to defend the Constitution Gallagher describes himself as, “More of a passive rebel than an active radical…”

He has an intrinsic attraction to pleasing word combinations and rhythms, an affinity that provides a foundation to a chronic compulsion writers have to construct a clear description or convey a cherished opinion by creating an array of word lilt that sometimes marches like an army.  We will hear more from him.

There are individuals in diverse fields of endeavor who speak against the misconceptions, deceptions, lies, and distortions that are all too common in our time. Lawrence Vance and Chuck Baldwin keep the Christian pot boiling; Butler Shaffer and Tom DeLorenzo are active in academia; and David Duke and Kevin MacDonald keep rattling the Zionist chains.  Though their numbers are comparatively small, there are many more.   Alexander Solzhenitsyn, now gone,  was always one of my heroes.

Palestinian supporters like Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Chris Hedges, and Robert Fisk were dismissed in Conservative Right Wing circles as being radically leftist.  It took several years for me to appreciate their contributions. These are not men who enjoy favorable coverage in the press and media.  Once in a while they can be seen and heard on C-Span but their opinions are not popular with mainstream news sources and none of them are household names.  Howard Zinn passed away early this year (2010).

Chomsky, Finkelstein, and (before his death) Zinn are Jewish intellectuals who have exposed the distorted assertions of Zionists to the detriment of their careers and friendships.  In his doctoral thesis at Princeton, Finkelstein derided the claims of Joan Peter’s book “From Time Immemorial”.   Chomsky said,  “I warned him, if you follow this, you’re going to get in trouble—because you’re going to expose the American intellectual community as a gang of frauds, and they are not going to like it, and they’re going to destroy you.”  Princeton granted Finkelstein his doctorate but shunned him thereafter.  Attorney and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, famous advocate of torture,  derided Finkelsteirn and in 2007 he was denied tenure at Depaul University.

In an article lauding Noam Chomsky Chris Hedges quotes Norman Finkelstein,  “There are two sets of principles. They are the principles of power and privilege and the principles of truth and justice. If you pursue truth and justice it will always mean a diminution of power and privilege. If you pursue power and privilege it will always be at the expense of truth and justice.”  Hedges says of Chomsky, he “… has for decades deflated and exposed the lies of the power elite and the myths they perpetrate.  Chomsky has done this despite being blacklisted by the commercial media, turned into a pariah by the academy and, by his own admission, being a pedantic and at times slightly boring speaker. He combines moral autonomy with rigorous scholarship, a remarkable grasp of detail and a searing intellect. He curtly dismisses our two-party system as a mirage orchestrated by the corporate state, excoriates the liberal intelligentsia for being fops and courtiers and describes the drivel of the commercial media as a form of ‘brainwashing.’ And as our nation’s most prescient critic of unregulated capitalism, globalization and the poison of empire, he enters his 81st year warning us that we have little time left to save our anemic democracy.”  Read the entire article here.

The pursuit of power and privilege (P&P) might be considered a secular quest while truth and justice (T&J) are undeniably religious.  Since the definitions of T&J can be as diverse as the individuals involved a workable definition must depend on an immutable exterior source.

It was the quest for P&P that Gallagher found so offensive in field grade officers.  He may not yet have determined that it comes at the expense of T&J but that will come. Gallagher is a potential truth teller.  Truth tellers challenge the lies that accompany the universal human quest for P&P.  Chomsky, Finkelstein, Hedges, and Fisk are truth tellers.  The Old Testament prophets were truth tellers.  Jesus was a truth teller.  God seems to endow a tiny minority with the desire to shine the bright light of truth on the dark mendacity that pervades the world.  This quest is similar in both Christians and humanists; both are willing to sacrifice P&P, endure derision and expose themselves to possible persecution.  Both exhibit an ability to ferret out and expose the nefarious plans of the powerful and privileged.

The Old Testament portrays two kinds of prophets; Prophets of the One True God and the prophets of Baal.   Truth tellers are not Prophets.  Old Testament Prophets were selected as God’s officers to proclaim His truth as He relayed it to them.  The office is no longer active but the function prevails and should be cherished.

Noam Chomsky and I are about the same age.  We have little else in common but his rendition of the secular ills that plague our country is similar to mine.   According to one writer Chomsky is an Anarchist who is disdainful of all government.  Though his roots were Marxist he is reported to have become disenchanted with Marxism and is now seeking a non-specific utopian government that can “prove its legitimacy”.  He provides no solution to the evils he exposes instead he claims to want everyone to be free.   He might cringe at his name being printed in the same paragraph with the name of The Savior.

Chomsky and Finkelstein speak truth from a personal humanistic platform; they do not claim divine inspiration.  They speak truth knowing their utterances will bring vitriol from the current centers of power.  As with all truth tellers their objective is to realign the center of power.  The common humanistic premise is that people are basically good and Anarchists believe that left to their own devices they can savor unlimited freedom.

The human inclination is to seek P&P and those who pursue that goal must learn to modify truth so that it will be acceptable to the centers of power.  The prophets of Baal predicted success for the king’s plans.  Like the prophets of Baal United States Army Generals commanding troops in the Middle East predict victory and carry out the plans of the government with the same fidelity Hitler’s generals exhibited during WWII.  The legitimacy of the war is not questioned.  They are willing to fight and kill in an evil conquest in order to preserve their position of P&P.

The decline of truth and justice is directly proportional to the deterioration of society.

Today we have several kinds of truth tellers.  Men like Chomsky and Finkelstein speak truth to power even when the cost is high.  Men like General David Petraeus speak truth distorted to conform to the results expected by their superiors; they resemble the prophets of Baal.  Servants of the Most High God are expected to be truth tellers who seek His righteous hegemony over His creation.

United States is home to seekers of P&P.  Competition involves winners and losers and though losers outnumber winners everyone wants to be a winner.  We live in a competitive society.  Higher learning is deemed a stepping stone to higher wages and higher wages produce P&P.  We are urged to work hard and never give up; the universal objective is P&P.  Those that seek empire and world government work for ultimate P&P.   Remember P&P is gained at the expense of T&J.

The Christian Church is not immune.  Church growth is the primary objective of most Christian leaders.  Size gages success in ministry.  Mega-churches bring in huge amounts of money and their leaders enjoy commensurate influence; P&P is pandemic!   Everyone knows the names James Dobson, Pat Robertson, James Kennedy, Jerry Falwell, and Joel Osteen.

Church members emulate their leaders and competition within the church is fierce.  Churches have large numbers of laypeople who seek the P&P of leadership.  Servants and followers are scarce.

There is no better confirmation of Finkelstein’s premise that P&P come at the cost of T&J than the Christian Church.

Exposing the evils of P&P with a goal of replacing it with another humanistic regime will only create another framework for the same goal.  Humanistic seekers of truth and justice work toward a political solution which is usually collectivist and tyrannical.  We can admire the temerity of Chomsky and Finkelstein but if they are not aware of their inability to properly govern themselves without the immutable ordnances of their Creator, their solution will fail to correct the problem they so valiantly expose.

We were created to be servants of the Most High God.  The vocation of every Christian should be to return power to the Creator by obeying His Law and urging others to do likewise.  It was the Devil’s promise of P&P that caused Adam and Eve to disobey God.

Our situation has not much changed from Biblical times.  Elisha thought he was alone but God claimed 7000 (still a small quantity) had not bowed their knee to Baal.  Jesus confronted the established Pharisaical church of His day and Truth fell on the floor to be trampled and hung on a Cross by the arrogance of P&P.  Truth arose in triumph and His Glory has since been the treasure of the world.  He was obedient to His Father; the Pharisees were not.  Today, most Christians have fastened their attention on the Pharisees and allowed the evil one to obtain dominion.

The quest for P&P is an American illness.  Every generation wants to be better off than the last.  Businessmen want to rise to positions of P&P; athletes want the same; church leaders are no different; politicians are at the forefront; even little children fight for a superior position.  T&J has fled and each day brings greater chaos and barbarity.

“Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added onto you”.  Church growth is God’s responsibility; Christian leaders are to seek first the kingdom of God. Our Triune God is King!  King Jesus!  The platform of God’s Kingdom is His Law.

The pervasive seeking for P&P is destroying our nation.  Seekers of P&P, even when converted to Christ, are religiously humanistic.  One cannot be a servant while seeking P&P.  Everyone must come to understand (Christians first, then everyone) that the only path to peace and freedom is to seek first the kingdom of God by obeying His Commandments.  All human solutions will end in despotism.

In God’s kingdom all of His created beings are servants.  The best servants should be the leaders.  God’s kingdom is governed by God’s Law and obedient servants receive the greatest blessings.  There is no striving in God’s kingdom; only obedience.  P&P belong to God.  When men strive for P&P they strive against God.

Postscript:  Mary “Dannie” Tillman’s book “Boots on the Ground” is a literary failure but a truth telling paragon.  Kaboom is a literary success with limited truth.  Boots on the Ground costs a dollar at the Dollar Store while Kaboom should be a literary success!