Longing for Gary Cooper

Cover of High Noon (Collector's Edition)

In a column sure to generate controversy (designed to?), a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel writes that America needs to return to a “quieter, less muscular, patriotism.”

Here’s William Astore’s opening, uh, shot:

“I have a few confessions to make: After almost eight years of off-and-on war in Afghanistan and after more than six years of mayhem and death since “Mission Accomplished” was declared in Operation Iraqi Freedom, I’m tired of seeing simpleminded magnetic ribbons on vehicles telling me, a 20-year military veteran, to support or pray for our troops. As a Christian, I find it presumptuous to see ribbons shaped like fish, with an American flag as a tail, informing me that God blesses our troops. I’m underwhelmed by gigantic American flags — up to 100 feet by 300 feet — repeatedly being unfurled in our sports arenas, as if our love of country is greater when our flags are bigger. I’m disturbed by nuclear-strike bombers soaring over stadiums filled with children, as one did in July just as the National Anthem ended during this year’s Major League Baseball All Star game. Instead of oohing and aahing at our destructive might, I was quietly horrified at its looming presence during a family event.”

What Astore wants, he writes, is a return to the kind of quiet but resolute strength depicted by Gary Cooper in the movie, High Noon.

Astore raises some good issues as he outlines a “seven-step program” for ditching the swagger that insults rather than affirms our patriotism and replacing it with an older “saner” style.

I suspect that this kind of showy patriotism is more common in those who haven’t served in the military, civilians who feel vaguely guilty about never having put on a uniform and so they try to out-hooah real warriors — but only in ways that are safe and not too inconvenient. The Chicken-Hawks are the most egregious examples of this behavior.

(Any veterans or those currently serving have an opinion on this? Please comment below.)

I particularly like step 5 of Astore’s program.

He writes:

Let’s not blindly venerate the serving soldier, while forgetting our veterans when they doff their spiffy uniforms for the last time. It’s easy to celebrate our clean-cut men and women in uniform when they’re thousands of miles from home, far tougher to lend a hand to scruffier, embittered veterans suffering from the physical and emotional trauma of the battle zones to which they were consigned, usually for multiple tours of duty.

Amen, brother, William.

You can read his full article here.