Cole Minors

News of the USS Cole bombing hit Saipan on Friday, October 13. That day just happened to be the birthday of the U.S. Navy, and I was looking through my old Navy photo album when the story reached my desk.

In fact, I was thinking the thoughts that roll in stronger every year when I dust off those photos: How young we looked! I’m sure I’m not the only guy to ever have that reaction to his military pictures. The military–or at least the Navy–is largely run by what the middle aged mind regards as kids. The system is so well designed that it can heap a lot of responsibility on young folks.

Which means, unfortunately, that this same youth has to pick up the tab when U.S. foreign policy inspires nastiness.

I calculated the median age of the 17 sailors who perished in the USS Cole bombing: 22 years old. The “mode” (the most common age) was just 19 years, which accounted for five of the sailors.

Two of the sailors were women. You don’t hear much about that from the media. Why not? My suspicion is that they haven’t figured out how to spin that angle yet, it’s a new one in this politically correct age. Sending women into harm’s way has been hailed loudly as a great social stride, but when the harm hits, well, we just don’t talk about it.

And the harm in this case caught a lot of us by surprise. I never dwelled on it, but when I was in the Navy the way I envisioned a small scale, rogue attack was as some wild eyed guy in a speed boat firing off a rocket propelled grenade or two. Not a healthy thing, of course, but something I regarded as more of a potential nuisance than a genuine threat.

But if you had told me that a rubber craft could hold enough explosives–which I assume were just loosely packed, not arrayed into a shaped charge–to blow a mighty hole in a mighty ship of war, I wouldn’t have believed you. Well, not before last Friday, at least.

In political circles, there will be all sorts of talk about retribution, revenge, justice, and so on. The United States is a self-appointed global god, meting out rewards and punishments in accordance with Uncle Sam’s unimpeachable righteousness. Through this ugly process, the realms of national defense and foreign policy have become blurred, and we’re now in this foggy haze of fighting battles without having any wars.

However–who knows?–such an approach may prove to be in the best interests of the United States, in which case, I’m all for it. A mighty nation and a globally dominant economy requires an ability to keep shipping lanes open, maintain access to resources and markets, and so on.

But such airy theory has to, for the time being, yield to the very un-airy reality of the USS Cole. When the older folks sound a call to arms, it’s the young ones who are mustered out to fight the battles.

Stephens is an economist with Stephens Corporation, a professional organization in the NMI. His column appears three times a week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Mr. Stephens can be contacted via the following e-mail address: ed4Saipan@yahoo.com.