Heroes, Villains, and Victims
Heroes, Villains, and Victims – Foreign Policy Op-Ed by Rosa Brooks.
… the average American knows little about the military and even less about those who serve…
This doesn't stop most of us from forming strong opinions, of course. Nature abhors a vacuum, and in the absence of any concrete knowledge, many Americans — and certainly many in the media — fall back on comfortable but dangerously distorted myths about those who serve. Lacking examples of human complexity, we turn servicemembers into stock characters in well-worn narratives: the Hero, the Villain, the Victim.
Each stereotype draws on kernels of truth, but each is far more distorting than illuminating. Together, they make it remarkably difficult to have a nuanced or clear-headed national conversation about our military and its role in society…
I’d be all for having diplomats board the plane before first class – howbeit this might be dangerous for them, targets as they too often are.