The "Tillman Factor" and the steeling of America

I don’t claim unique insight into the American psyche--if there even is such a thing--and my circle of friends and acquaintances is not vast or influential. So for me to make assertions about the country’s mood will likely draw criticism. So be it. Sometimes gut feelings need to be asserted.

During these recent tumultuous weeks I have sensed a deep but subtle shift in our collective resolve concerning the war in Iraq, and the wider war against the terrorist jihad. April’s spike in U.S. casualties, the awful prison scandal, the killing of Nick Berg and the assassination of IGC leader Salim have made it seem that all is unraveling in Iraq. Many now say it is a lost cause.

But the attitudinal shift I have sensed is not towards resignation. Rather, I believe that there is a realization dawning across America that we are in for a long, tough fight. And along with that realization is the onset of grim determination--a quiet setting of the jaw.

The lighting liberation of Baghdad last year, and the campaign in Afghanistan before it, seemed detached from us. They happened somewhere else and to someone else. In contrast, the occupation of Iraq and the demands of the U.S. mission there have been more palpable to average citizens. To a great extent, this is a function of more than 300,000 troops being deployed there, with a large percentage being reservists and guardsmen. Many Americans now have family or friends who have been to Iraq, are there now, or will be going. And many families have now been touched by the death in action of a military member.

Yes, the war is coming home, but so too are the stories of dignity and heroism and sacrifice. Such is the story--just now coming to light--of Corporal Jason Dunham, USMC, who recently died of wounds received in Iraq on 14 April. Corporal Dunham, just 22, was fatally wounded when he covered a live grenade with his own body to protect his fellow Marines. It is very likely he will be nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, and I expect we’ll hear much more about Jason Dunham of Scio, New York, in the weeks and years to come.

Another story of honor and sacrifice is that of PFC Chance Phelps, who died in the April fighting while protecting his unit’s convoy from hostile fire and after volunteering to man the lead vehicle’s gun position. The story of his return for burial in his hometown of Dubois, Wyoming is a moving description of the grace and dignity of everyday Americans under the burden of grief--and of a young man’s service to comrades, country and the cause of liberty (see www.westrim.net/chance).

Ennobling accounts such as these have been overshadowed or ignored by the mainstream media in their lust to focus on the ignoble and the negative. But at the grassroots level they are seeping into the nation’s consciousness anyway.

This represents something I call the “Tillman Factor” (after Pat Tillman, the NFL star-turned-soldier who was killed in Afghanistan), that is having a fundamental effect on our collective resolve. With the loss of over 700 young men and women in Iraq--each a Dunham, Phelps or Tillman in his or her own way--regular Americans from all walks are realizing that we cannot turn from this fight and dishonor the sacrifices that have already been made. This is our war now, not George Bush's.

Whether we agree or disagree with the decisions that brought us here, or the strategies used so far, most of us instinctively recognize the rightness of ending Saddam’s reign of terror and of bringing new freedom to the Iraqi people. And most of us instinctively recognize that there’s no turning away from the battle now. The only way out is forward.

T.T.

©2004, WestRim Digital Arts