This memoir could have been subtitled "a message in a bottle." PL
I am privileged to have been given reviews of the book by two people I greatly respect and admire:
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"Because much of the focus of Walter Lang’s memoir “Tattoo” is on the author’s career in the U.S. Army, it may be fitting to approach it on more than one front: one being what Lang’s experience and adventures in arms tell us about the nature and evolution of U.S. military life during the period he served and also to some degree about the nature and evolution of American society during that period; another being what kind of man has lived this challenging and far from unimportant life; and finally the tale of how this man came to be the man who has lived the life he has. Let me begin, though, in a rather oblique manner but one that I hope it will seen to have point — by quoting the following passage from Rabbi Chaim Jachter:
“Throughout [their] history the Jews have received many appellations. Among the more famous[is found] in Exodus chapter 32 … one that evokes mixed feelings….
“The source of the appellation is Hashem himself, who says the following to Moses in the terrible aftermath of the Golden Calf: ‘I have seen [observed] this people, and behold they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave Me alone and My wrath will blaze against them and destroy them. I will then make you into a great nation.…”
“One chapter later, Hashem informs Moses that He will be now be sending a proxy, an angel, to watch over the Israelites instead of leading them directly. In explaining why, Hashem invokes this notion again: ‘I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites… [You will then] enter a land flowing with milk and honey… for I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people and I may destroy you along the way.’”
[And yet] in defending the people Israel, Moses uses the very same notion as the essential rationale for their salvation: “If I have found favor in Your eyes my Master, let my Master go among us, because (ki) it is a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sins, and take us as Your own possession.’” In this case, Moses employs the term “stiff-necked” as a reason to receive God’s mercy. How could Moses be using this term to win Hashem’s favor?
Ibn Ezra presents two possible solutions to the problem. First, he cites the opinion of Rabbi Mereinos who explains that the word ki in our context (“ki it is a stiff-necked people”) should be rendered as even though it is a stiff-necked people… Thus Moses is asking Hashem to find the Israelites deserving of mercy despite their stubbornness.
Opting for the standard usage of the word ki as a causative, Ibn Ezra explains that what Moses means is “because (I admit) that we have sinned, that we are a stiff-necked nation, therefore you should forgive.”
In a third interpretation Moses turns to God and says: “Hashem, Your people do not want an agent. We want the Divine Manager!” Why? The words of the Zohar Hadash explain: “For it is a stiff-necked people and You shall forgive” as meaning “The Jews are obstinate and wearying and when they sin, the angel can only do judgment and not forgiveness, but You are merciful and gracious. Therefore when we sin the angel must punish us. But You, Hashem, can fathom us in great depth and can find in our being stubborn the very building blocks of forgiveness.
A fourth approach is suggested by the Midrash:
There R. Yakim said: “Three are the undaunted: among beasts, it is the dog; among birds, it is the cock; and among the nations, it is Israel. You think that ‘stiff-necked people’ is said disparagingly, but it is really in their praise.”
“Tattoo” is rightly subtitled “a memoir of becoming,” and we will return to that theme. But let me suggest another possible subtitle, “The man who knew too much.”
One sees this, as well as a striking instance of Lang’s “stiff-necked” tendencies, in the Prologue, which takes place at a crucial juncture of the Iran-Iraq War — and to be sure we will find Lang at such crucial junctures more than once. In the presence of the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq but addressing the local CIA chief, who is also present, Lang says to him, with one assumes no little satisfaction, “I am here at the direction of the National Security Council and the Secretary of Defense to take charge of this mess.”
The rest of that enlightening encounter I leave to you to enjoy, but do take account of “take charge of this mess.” On the one hand, Lang is the man who knew too much — knows not only that this is a mess but also that the local CIA chief cannot acknowledge this fact, at least not in this setting. Further, as the rest of the encounter begins to make clear, Lang knows far more about this mess than the CIA chief thinks he does — he knows that the White House has betrayed the Iraqis, that Washington fears that Iran has the upper hand in the war but instead and in fact (as Lang accurately sees it) the military crisis in the war has passed and Iran will not prevail. But also one detects the underlying satisfaction Lang feels at being able to deliver a justified stinging reprimand to an arrogant man in the wrong who had felt certain that he could push Lang around.
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