David Morrison to the mattresses

Former Navy man on the prison abuses as a reflection of civilian America here. One of the best rants I've heard in a while.

Folks, may this serve as a horrible wake up call to all of us. Because the men and women who abused those prisoners are not aliens to us, they are not monsters, they are not fiends. I predict they are going to turn out to BE us - and what does that say about how we have fallen - and continue to fall - as a people.

His rant calls to mind "The Last Samurai" which I just caught on DVD. Even among our professional military, I wonder about the existence/vitality of a code of honor, of chivalric virtue. The film doesn't do bushido enough justice; it's predictably romanticist about "eastern values." Still, the contempt Tom Cruise's character feels for American culture is identical to Morrison's. And both point to a hellish spiritual vacuum that can only be authentically filled by a "ressourcement" of Western civilization.