WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS (WWW) #3
DANIEL SJURSEN
Patriotic Dissent: America in the Age of Endless War. Heyday Books, 2020. 160 pp.
By Daniel A. Sjursen
Publisher's description:
This incendiary work by Daniel Sjursen is a personal cry from the heart by a once-model US Army officer and West Point graduate who became a military dissenter while still on active duty. Set against the backdrop of the terror wars of the last two decades, Sjursen asks whether there is a proper space for patriotism that renounces entitled exceptionalism and narcissistic jingoism. Once a burgeoning believer and budding conservative, Sjursen performed an intellectual and spiritual about-face. He now calls for a critical exploration of our allegiances, and he suggests a path to a new, more complex notion of patriotism. Equal parts unsentimental and idealistic, this is a story about what it means to be an American in the midst of perpetual war, and what the future of patriotism might look like.
"Tyrants, oppressors and exploiters, Eugene V. Debs observed, always wrap themselves in the cloaks of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the public. The true patriots, as Danny Sjursen understands, are not the crowds of flag-waving cheerleaders used and manipulated by the ruling elites to stifle dissent, but those isolated individuals who find the moral courage to speak uncomfortable truths and demand justice. True patriots, as Sjursen explains, make us a better people and a better nation. True patriots, like Martin Luther King or Debs, are usually viciously attacked in their lifetimes. But history exposes, long after true patriots are gone, who stood beside us and who wrapped themselves in the flag to betray us. Sjursen, a combat veteran and West Point graduate, brings to this book the weight of his experience and a moral clarity that delineates the true patriots from the imposters, and with that delineation the meaning of patriotism itself." —Chris Hedges, author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
A scholar/soldier's jeremiad in favor of "Participatory Principled Patriotism."
Sjursen, a retired U.S. Army major who served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, writes in deft, mordant prose about the lost tradition of oppositional patriotism and its intersection with the post–9/11 forever wars. "The vast majority of the citizenry has divorced attentiveness to America's wars—or even basic knowledge about them—from their definition of patriotism," he writes. The author began questioning his embrace of a professional military career during "fifteen awful, life-altering months" in Iraq, when sectarian violence was at its peak: "The horror, the futility, the farce of the war in Iraq was the turning point of my life." Yet the Army selected Sjursen to teach at West Point; although he loved it, his scholarship was solidifying his anti-war bent. While he "deftly flew under the radar for quite some time," his writings eventually were brought to the Army's attention, leading to medical retirement. He clearly discusses his complex relationship to his service, noting that less than 0.5% of Americans serve in the all-volunteer military, a situation that leads to "pageant patriotism." As he notes, "taking this veritable soldier worship to the level society has in the twenty-first century can be perilous for the republic." Later in the narrative, the author pivots toward a broader historical focus, noting that combatants contributed to counternarratives of dissent during all American wars (except World War II). The ferocity of the Vietnam War led to the all-volunteer military; now, dissent has disappeared from the ranks while "service has become 'optional,' the responsibility of a tiny professional warrior caste." These pitfalls were disastrously enacted during the years since the Iraq invasion. "Every one of Bush's and Obama's military forays has sown further chaos," writes Sjursen, "startling body counts, and increased rates of terrorism." Yet with guarded optimism, he concludes by calling for "a revitalized movement defined by patriotic dissent." A brisk, approachably radical treatise bolstered by its rueful veteran's perspective. Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020 KIRKUS Review Posted Online: June 20, 2020
Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon. "Patriotic Dissent: How a Soldier Turned Against 'Forever Wars.'" The Peace Sentinel (Fall 2020).
Patriotic Dissent: How a Working-Class Soldier Turned Against
www.counterpunch.org › 2020/07/24 › patriotic-dissen...Jul 24, 2020
Daniel A. Sjursen is a retired US Army Major and contributing editor at antiwar.com. His work has also appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Salon, the Nation, TomDispatch, the Huffington Post, and the Hill, among other publications. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at his alma mater, West Point. He is the author of a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. He cohosts the progressive veterans' podcast Fortress on a Hill. Follow him on Twitter at @SkepticalVet. Sjursen lives in Lawrence, Kansas.
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