Vox Veterana : You Ain`t In If You Askin`

There are people and then there are people who ask dumb questions. Of course there are people who ask dumb questions and there are just plain dumb people. Which of course leads me to my third point that there are lots more just plain dumb people who also happen to ask very dumb questions than just plain dumb people.

One of these aforementioned people who asked me a dumb question was Jamie McDougall a promoter for a book by Cilla McCain. Here’s Jamie in his/her own words:

“My name is Jamie McDougall, and I work with Dorothy Thompson at Pump up Your Book Promotion. We represent authors who would like to get the word out about their book online. I am representing Cilla McCain, an author touring in March with her true crime book Murder In Baker Company: How Four American Soldiers Killed One of Their Own .”

Fair enough Jamie, what do you want from me?

“I think your blog site would be an excellent ‘stop’ for Cilla McCain and am wondering if you would be interested in hosting her in March (weekdays only). Hosting her would consist of putting up a guest post written by Cilla, putting up an interview of Cilla, putting up a spotlight of Cilla’s book (book cover, synopsis, excerpt, link to her website), reviewing Cilla’s book, or a multi-day stop consisting of a combination of these things.”

This paragraph raises a few questions in my mind of which first and foremost is “How much am I getting paid for this Jamie?” The second question that arises is a bit more complicated. Before I get ahead of myself let’s look at the synopsis of Cilla’s book that Jamie included in the email.

“ Murder in Baker Company begins as a journey to uncover the truth about what happened to Army Specialist Richard Davis. By using court transcripts, personal interviews, and police records, Cilla McCain unfolds the events of the case and soon reveals a disturbing, eye-opening look into today’s military that goes beyond the Davis case and that affects all troops and their families. Soldiers are handed antipsychotic drugs and sent into battle. Treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder is stigmatized. Gang members carry their affiliation from the streets to the barracks. And many of our soldiers are forced to face down two separate enemies, one in the same uniform they wear. By the end of the book the reader will learn the devastating truth about the injustice and disrespect our military families are forced to endure when their soldier dies a non-combat death.”

You may have read that and found it quite intriguing. Maybe you want to check into the book further. I, however, want to punch glass when I read crap like this.

Do I know anything about Cilla McCain? No. Do I know anything about Spc. Richard Davis or the events in Cilla’s book? No. What I do know, without knowing anything about her book, is that it is more likely than not garbage. Yep garbage. Kindling for my backyard fire pit would be a better description.

I criticize her book for the same reason I criticize ignorant Americans in general. Both times I returned home from my deployments I was asked the same slew of questions by inquisitive, concerned, and informed people: “Did you kill anybody?” “Did anyone near you get hurt?” “What is the worst thing you saw?” “Come clean, I know you wasted some people.” WTF am I supposed to say in response to these people and WTF are they really after? Do they want to see me break down and cry retelling stories of bloody friends or mutilated children after a bombing so they can console me? Do they have some type of disgusting ‘need’ to hear the worst of the worst? Did I even see anything bad? Are they going to be disappointed when I tell them that I didn’t kill anyone or that I never saw anyone hurt? Or are they going to be disgusted when I tell them that I killed 18 people if pregnant women count as two and not one, if not than I only killed 14 people? Who knows? Perhaps no matter what my response is they are going to respond in disbelief thinking that I must be lying. It’s a no-win situation for me or any other veteran who faces these dumb ass questions.

In such a vein lies Cilla McCain’s book. Where are the mainstream books celebrating soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where are the Saturday morning cartoons honoring today’s soldiers as heroes to a younger generation? Where is the ‘common’ soldier profiled for doing common things? Where are the movies about Iraq and Afghanistan vets devoid of outlandish, preposterous, PTSD infested bullshit? You won’t find any of these things because ‘common’ isn’t cool in these 21st century ‘enlightened’ times. The only way to make money (and that’s what its really all about isn’t it Jamie?) is to talk about the worst of the worst no matter whether or not its representative or the vast majority of soldiers or not (see Abu Gharib).

People need to wake up and check themselves to see what is wrong with them before they ask the ‘pressing’ questions to soldiers in which others must certainly have to die for a ‘satisfactory’ answer to be given.

A book like Cilla McCain’s only hurts the national and international view of the American military. The American military is by far and away one of the most humane militaries ever to grace planet Earth. The American military is comprised of millions of self-sacrificing, hard working, patriotic, and honorable men and women. To draw attention to a small band of bad apples like all news outlets do is a disgrace to the 99.9% of those in the military who tow the line. Before you read McCain’s book understand what you are getting yourself into. Without the majority of those in the military doing what is right day in and day out, a book like hers wouldn’t seem so outlandish. But then again if you are like most of the people who ask me dumb questions her book is right up your alley. Read it and get your fix for all the blood, PTSD, drugs, gang affiliation stories you can handle.

Hope that helps Jamie.

By the way I’m hereby announcing that my forthcoming book based upon my wholly ‘common’ experiences is in the works. I’ll be sure to use harsh language throughout so at least most Americans can feel a little uneasy no matter what I’m talking about. Jamie, you wanna pump that up when I’m finished?

7 Comments:

Sig said...

That attitude reminds me of some comments in our old posts re: Scott Thomas. Some people didn`t understand what the big deal was because "everyone knew" that stuff like that really happened. Of course, the reason "everyone knew" that it really happened was BECAUSE of people like Scott Thomas...

Sig

9:25 PM

Jaime said...

I`m sorry.

11:38 PM

The Browser said...

[quote][i]‘Do I know anything about Cilla McCain? No. Do I know anything about Spc. Richard Davis or the events in Cilla’s book? No. What I do know, without knowing anything about her book, is that it is more likely than not garbage. Yep garbage. Kindling for my backyard fire pit would be a better description.

I criticize her book for the same reason I criticize ignorant Americans in general.’[/i][/quote]

So you acknowledge a basis of knowing nothing about the author or book, but feel free to condemn both without mercy anyway? I think you epitomise the same `ignorant Americans` you criticise.

Rational people take a moment to find out the detail before they rant about things; failing to do so shows a level of ignorance hard to beat, particularly when you can see you`re doing it.

3:39 PM

TF Boggs said...

Or `Browser` you could read the entire post and realize that I was criticizing the topic of McCain`s book as the only type of topic that any author, journalist etc. pays any attention to. I was criticizing the frame of mind that only wants to highlight the worst of the worst.

Come on buddy, don`t make it so easy for me next time. What was it you said? "Rational people take a moment to find out the detail before they rant about things; failing to do so shows a level of ignorance hard to beat, particularly when you can see you`re doing it."

I`ll let you speak for yourself.

8:17 PM

Lou said...

People often ask ignorant questions like, “Did you shoot anyone in the war,” because they want to make conversation and don’t realize how stupid they sound. Ex: “How are you today?” No one really wants to know that you ate a burrito and now you have gas – so you just say “fine.” Ex: “How is married life?” Once again the answer is, “fine.” If you say, “Well, I don’t really like cleaning house and cooking, but sex is great,” people will freak. As to why people write books that focus on the bad – well they are just looking to push their own agenda or viewpoint - to prove something. But mostly, they want to sell something – the more outrageous, the better the sales. There is always someone who messes things up for everyone who did good. Unfortunately that one gets most the attention. The good news is that there are people and bloggers who focus on the good that our military has done and refuse to give glory to those who don’t do good.

11:15 AM

The Browser said...

Surely books to celebrate the soldiers can only be written by the soldiers? Anything else is propaganda. But you freely admit to knowing neither book nor author and still feel free to assume you know what it is about, and to place it into a category that obviously gets you going.

War isn`t a nice place, coming home to find out people think what you did was wrong is not a nice place to be, & seeing political scumbags sending more men & women off to die is worse still - if someone finds a problem with the system, or runs into a story showing how badly the system is letting down the people who offer their lives in service so the majority of citizens can feel safer, shouldn`t it be a requirement they publish?

Letting the world know when there is misfeasance or maltreatment of those who are bound by oath to protect us isn`t an easy task & if done properly, isn`t pandering to the ghoulish need to get gory details.

I read the synopsis you post & see someone who is highlighting events that show poor treatment of the men & women in service. If that`s systemic, or endemic in the forces, I`d like it brought into the open.

If someone is willing to possibly die that I may live better, I want them treated as well as we can manage. Watching the non-combatants fuck over the guys on the front line makes my skin crawl.

Unless you`re keeping something from us, the offer you call a dumb question was for you to have a chance to read a book that could offer new information about something that may be harming your brothers in arms. You could have asked questions of the author, read the book & based your criticisms on reality instead of prejudgment & perhaps even got more visitors to your site.

You had a chance to either gain new insights, or to question sources or even riposte to show your view; instead you chose to react blindly & reject what was, after all, just a simple question. How hard would it have been to just politely say `no thanks` & then come on here & do a less confrontational piece about people who (in your view) try to capitalise on sorry situations (or whatever your view of them is)

Instead, you chose to go on a rant about the person who made the offer, then the book & author - all based on your past history or prejudice or even perhaps fear that things you know to be so might come out & make the military look less than salutary.

3:07 PM

Lou said...

If only the military can write a book celebrating the military, they would be the only ones to be able to write a book bashing the military. Was Cilla McCain in the military? The military has lots of rules and regulations governing bad behavior; I would assume they took care of the situation that Cilla McCain chose to write about. I don`t see lots of need to bring it to more public attention - unless your motive is to sell more books.

7:41 PM