TOS Blog: Daily Commentary from an Objectivist Perspective

Sunday, November 11, 2012

To U.S. War Veterans, Heroes All

Posted by Craig Biddle at 6:34 pm ET

U.S. VeteranFrom everyone at TOS, to all American veterans of war:

Thank you for recognizing the value of freedom. Thank you for risking your lives to defend our liberties and protect our rights. Thank you for being men of honor—which, as Ayn Rand put it, is self-esteem made visible in action.

Our hats are off to you—and your families—for all your efforts, your hardships, and your losses suffered to protect Americans from harm.

You are heroes, one and all.

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Image: Wikimedia Commons

Posted in: Foreign Policy and War, History

Comments are welcome so long as they are civil.
  • Roark

    Well said!

  • http://www.facebook.com/paul.s.williams.39 Paul Scott Williams

    Dear Mr. Biddle,
    I suppose I can agree if we are talking about WWII vets, although if America had the sense to stay out of WWI there probably wouldn’t have been a WWII. But we should not have been in Korea or Vietnam just like we shouldn’t be in all the countries we are invading today. Anyone who signs up for the military now when we are agressing (not defending against) against several mideast countries that have not attacked us is not a hero, but a moron.

  • Patrick Jarrold

    As an Iraq veteran, I would suggest that generalizations that all war veterans or service-members of any time period are heroes or morons fail. If Mr. Biddle’s reasons for thanking war veterans are sufficient standard of heroism, both altruists and objectivists may qualify. Further, since the vast majority of service-members are not rational egoists but rather are at least somewhat altruistic or irrationally egoistic, it is no surprise that Mr. Williams disagrees; an explicit, detailed definition of heroism is warranted. I, however, cannot provide one.

    As Ayn Rand and many other objectivists have stated, there exist rational reasons to join the military, even in time of war. What makes the decision rational is the determination of whether the benefits to oneself outweigh the risks. Joining an aggressive force is not sufficient to be labeled a moron, only a non-objectivist.

    Many service-members join for selfless reasons as they have been taught, namely the protection of other American’s freedoms and rights as Mr. Biddle suggests. Some join for selfish reasons: honor and integrity, job security, the Montgomery GI Bill–which I may state from experience is a magnificent contractual benefit that gains many recruits–or a misguided desire to be part of a collective. This latter reason is why being in the military is so poisonous for those with a healthy sense of individualism and gratifying for those with no self-esteem, which many service-members join to gain rather than to affirm.

    In terms of risk, you are to consider that there are many jobs in the military and many jobs in a war zone–not just infantry–so there exist many evasions that allow recruits to minimize in their minds the risks of joining. It is possible to join and never be deployed and it is possible to be deployed to a war-zone but to never see combat (through evasion, good luck, or job duties).

    So I may speak for all war veterans in saying, thank you, Mr. Biddle, we appreciate your gratitude; and I may speak for all rational, present or former service-members in saying that we–no surprise–do not appreciate your aspersion, Mr. Williams.