I wish I wrote this.

An open letter to LT Layne McDowell:

The smug arrogance in your recent "Open letter to the Dixie Chicks" is more than I can stomach. How dare you suppose that your role as a junior officer in the U.S. military gives you the authority to insult and demean the political views and statements of American citizens? Apparently you, like many in the military, have come to think of the armed forces as a segment of society superior to the civilian population they are supposedly serving.

Get over it, son. We know that you and the rest of the armed forces put yourselves in harm's way to serve American society. And we appreciate it. But that doesn't give you moral superiority. If you want to talk about danger, there are plenty of civilian occupations where the odds of injury or death are almost equally as great. (Compare the number of industrial deaths and injuries over the last decade, say, to the number of deaths in military combat.) They too are serving American society. America's military isn't something separate from the rest of America: we're all part of the same thing and with the same goal: to preserve and enrich the American way of life. We just do it in different ways.

Let's face it: military life and civilian life are different in one very important respect: in the military, rank is everything, and it is forbidden to criticize or take issue with the orders and actions of superiors. In civilian life, and especially in a democratic society, just the opposite is true: citizens are expected to criticize, comment on, and take issue with the actions of political figures charged with running the show. You need to remember that the President is YOUR Commander-in-Chief, but he's not OUR commander-in-chief. He's a politician, and open to criticism like any other. You are obligated to do as he says, and shut up, because he's your Superior in rank. We are not. He's not our superior in anything except political power. The President is not America, and criticism of him and his policies is not criticism of America, or of its people, or of its institutions, principles, or freedoms. In your arrogance, you pretend that being ashamed of a President many regard as corrupt and incompetent is somehow an attack on Our Fightin' Men and Women. But I didn't see many of you writing letters condeming those who were ashamed of an earlier President for his sexual misbehavior.

You say, and I quote, "How dare you pocket profits off songs about soldiers, their deaths and patriotism while criticizing their Commander in Chief abroad, even while they prepare to give their lives to ensure your own freedom of speech. Please ask yourself, what have you done to deserve that sacrifice?" I doubt that you are able to see the irony in this, but I'll try to explain: criticism of the President (Your Commander-in-Chief, not ours) is NOT criticism of the troops under his command, nor is it a denigration of their valor and sacrifice. But it IS a criticism of the policies and decisions that have placed them in combat at this particular time. I find that last sentence of yours especially ironic. Are you suggesting that Americans have to pass some test in order to "deserve" the protection of our military? What would that test be? To sit down and shut up and do whatever the President says?

Your further statement "Never once in our history have we committed troops to war for the purpose of taking innocent lives" is disingenuous to say the least, and betrays ignorance of history in your military training. Check out the systematic massacres of American Indian tribes (men, women, and children) by U.S. troops. The fire bombing of Dresden, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were carried out with the DELIBERATE goal of inflicting massive civilian casualties in order the break the enemy's spirit. The Vietnam war had episode after episode of destroying villages "in order to save them". Nowadays we call it "collateral damage", as if the destruction of innocents were just an unpleasant side effect. But often, it has been the very purpose of a strategy. A strategy that you, and your brothers and sisters in uniform, cheerfully carry out because those are the orders and orders are to be obeyed.

Here you are flaunting your rank and your uniform in order to disparage an American citizen for speaking her mind in public. In my view, you are a disgrace to that uniform, and to the principles it commits you to defending.

Bangs Tapscott
Private Citizen