A Galaxy Not So Far Away
The American Military’s Obsession with Star Wars
We've all seen it. Walk into some Army staffer’s office and there are Lego Star Wars figurines on the shelf. Maybe a small X-Wing model near the Air Force wing exec’s desk. Stroll by an office and you might just hear the sound of the Imperial March as some colonel plots his next career move. Walking by a table in the dining facility, you might hear discussions on the merits of the Empire’s escalation of force measures (they have none) and their need for a remedial weapons qualification program. In truth, the germ for this piece on COIN and the Empire grew out of a conversation I had with some fellow officers, where we decided that the Taliban were basically the Sand People. Frankly, I am terribly guilty of the Star Wars analogies, as can be seen here, here, and here (shameless self-promotion). For the record, I was not the first to talk COIN and Star Wars. That began here, here, and here. In short, the U.S. military is obsessed with Star Wars. This was readily seen when the trailer for Episode VII: The Force Awakens came out. In all likelihood, your military friends were the first to post it, with overly excited comments that are usually reserved for the denizens of comic book stores. Our fascination with the universe of Star Wars is one of the Department of Defense’s great secrets.
Like all DoD secrets, it has not remained one for long. Dan Lamothe blabbed our secret to the Washington Post and laid out our obsession for all to see. The whole thing can pretty much be captured in this picture.
Gamers immediately latched on to this odd mash-up, creating things like the video below, where someone decided to see if U.S. hardware could be used against Imperial war machines. As always, the A-10 comes through. If in an unorthodox way.
Then there’s this brilliant piece from Dan Rosenthal on how the movies and the Expanded Universe tell an entirely different story, from the perspective of an Army infantry officer. Not to be outdone, the Air Force Times goes all in on a comparison of military technology and Star Wars technology. We always knew the Air Force wanted a Death Star.
The Navy, of course, gets the most bang for their buck over all the discussion of fleets and admirals and ships et infinitum. It’s enough to make a good Grunt just want to barf.
Except that the Army obviously has its own fetishes with the franchise. Although the combination of the already terrible UCP with the doubtful reputation of the Stortrooper regalia makes me wonder if we do in fact learn any lessons, ever.
I believe I’ve proved my point. So let’s get back to the root question: why on earth is the U.S. Military so obsessed with Star Wars? I threw that question out on Twitter and got the following responses.
I think the first comment is most telling: when the U.S. military machine most resembles the evil Imperials, with established military doctrine, codified rank structure, fleets, patrols, combined arms warfare, special forces for desert, winter, and jungle campaigns, and contractors (Jabba the Hut, Boba Fett), then why do we so eagerly latch onto the Rebel Alliance? Could it be that as Americans we identify with the underdog? Is it just our latent revolutionary spirit coming to the fore?
My belief is that there is a deeper meaning to our fascination. We look at the Empire through a lens that is tempered with a certain amount of fear: fear that it is what we could become. Everyone likes a good bit of paralellism in their fiction, and this particular example is telling. It is not so much a historical lesson learned as an image of what we could become in the future. A cautionary tale, so to speak. We examine Imperial tactics and are quick to show where they went wrong. In a way, it is almost disturbing to note how we can clinically examine Imperial tactics, techniques, and procedures — because they’re so similar to ours.
By comparison, the Rebel Alliance resembles an insurgency. An insurgency born from a toppled government and religion, which we have learned are the most effective types. Now, we can say that the Rebels were acting to preserve their legal traditions which were suborned by the Imperials. Of course, we are then putting ourselves in danger of identifying with the Confederate States of America, from our own Civil War, minus the whole slavery thing (although the Empire didn't really mind slavery). However, the Rebel Alliance has been billed as the “good” side, and that speaks to our desire to see good win out over evil in the world. Never mind that historically, rebellions and insurgencies have tended towards guerrilla tactics, the use of terror, and a certain devil-may-care attitude towards collateral damage: here, the Rebels are “good.” And that’s what matters.
In the American psyche, it is the battle of good versus evil that is primary to the story. And in Star Wars, as in other fiction, we are comforted by the eventual triumph of good. We believe that good will, in the end after many trials and tribulations, defeat the evil in the world. While this may be naive, it is a naivete that we should not lose. It is a core piece of American optimism that keeps us from verging into the world of the “Dark Side.”
Star Wars, like all good fiction, also presents us with relatable characters and emphasizes the importance of teamwork. From a military perspective, teamwork is what we’re all about.
Why Star Wars and not some other similar military themed universe, like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica? Simply for the reason that the Star Wars movies are almost a cultural point of reference. Its popularity has ensured that most people have a passing knowledge in it. The three (yeah, Episodes I-III don’t count) movies are far more convenient to watch than the hundreds of television episodes in other, and some may say, better worlds.
In the end, our obsession with Star Wars is based on our human impulses towards a good story as well as our conscious (or maybe not-so conscious) assessment of the Empire as an anti-model to our own organization. It is an uneasy obsession, where we go back and forth between admiring the Rebels for their plucky fighting spirit and republican ideals, and delving into the fascinating world of the Imperial military that so mirrors our own. We use this world as a tool to compare and contrast our own institutional experiences where we can be somewhat more objective than if we were considering our own lessons learned. And finally, it’s just plain fun. There’s a kid in all of us that still remembers the first time they heard the unmistakable buzz of a lightsaber or the screaming roar of a Tie Fighter. From a lowly private to the highest general (looking at you, General Dempsey, you know you loved the new trailer), the universe of Star Wars offers us a unifying experience.
May the Force be with you. Always. Even during Command and Staff Call.
