Reading `Fighting Identity, Sacred War and World Change' by Professor Michael Vlahos stirred several emotions within me. The book is written with not only a profound personal and scholarly knowledge of the U.S. military as it exists today but with a well honed appreciation for history ancient and modern. As I sit here trying to write this review, I am having some difficulty coming to terms with the many jolts of emotional turmoil and honest self analysis, and I am laid bare. For you see, I was one of the few who sat in the audience with Prof. Vlahos together with my fellow Naval War College classmates during the showing of the movie `300'. I completely identified with the 300 Spartans defending their homes, their families, and most importantly, their belief in the sacred oath that is America.
As Prof. Vlahos writes, the symbolism of the movie `300', accurately depicts in the simplest of terms, the motivations and religious fervor that accompany a devotion to country, to service before self, that appears so foreign to much of America. The movie was in a very real sense a religious experience. The emotional and passionate symbolism is so profound that it expands consciousness and washes over you warming the soul as the sun breaking out from a cloud. To not only believe but to really know that there ARE ideas and causes that ARE worth sacrificing and dying for. For those who have worshiped and suffered at the Alter of Liberty, God and Country are synonymous. As John Stuart Mills writes, "War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things." With a depth of historical and anthropological context seldom seen, this book accurately identifies the decayed and degraded state of our `Sacred Identity'. The enemy is us and we have met the enemy.
As a recalled reservist for the War on Terror serving most recently in OIF as a member of a Marine Corps detachment, I have breathed the intensity of `God, Country, Corps'. I identify with Vlahos' Tribal Confederacy of Defense'. The men and women that I serve with epitomize Vlahos' described 2nd America, those of us who have committed to a solemn vow to `defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic'. "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers".
But in a larger sense, I fear that the `gathering hunting bands' that make up the Tribal Confederacy of Defense are becoming disillusioned and with disillusionment comes anger and defiance. As a member of the Warrior class and a proud member of the Tribal Confederacy of Defense, I understand what history has shown, that a house divided against itself cannot stand for long. Prophetically, this book is a must read for all citizens who truly believe that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth".
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