INTERVIEWS 11. Captain Banner (Patreon)

"It is at this point cliché to introduce someone and claim they need no introduction, but we find ourselves struggling to do so nonetheless. Our guest tonight is Captain Banner, the Hero of the 4th of July, the Powered Patriot, and the world-renowned Supreme Soldier of World War II and the Korean War. It's unlikely that anyone listening is unaware of his extensive exploits, which began with the fight on the Statue of Liberty where, alongside Lt. Stars and Sgt. Stripes, Captain Banner exposed the Uber Korps' camouflaged airship and prevented them from launching a gas attack on New York City, and run up into the modern era.

"So, Captain Banner... what's your main takeaway from being a patriotically-themed masked superhero for 83 years?"

"Fascism is a pervasive evil and a powerful tool for the greedy and hateful to rally the angry, emotionally dispossessed, and vengeful to a single, obscene cause."

"You consider fascism to have survived to today, rather than being a relic of the Second World War?"

"Absolutely, and sadly, yes. That's not to say all evil philosophies are fascism, but there are without question, multiple modern movements that use the core principles of fascism to rile and motivate large groups through demonization of the 'other' and the rhetoric of hate. These range from obvious and dangerous cases such as neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups, to increasingly mainstream political cults of personality that decry any criticism of their methods and policies as 'derangement' or 'fake news'."

"You are referring here to the current US administration?"

"I am! I know many heroes try to stay solidly antipolitical, and in general I respect their reasoning. But I fought a war to end Fascism as a threat to the world, and have been both seeing the misery and pain that movement causes, and literally fighting its agents, for longer than most modern heroes have been alive. I am unwilling to stand idly by while the newest iteration of hate-based ideology takes over OUR country. Hitler came to power legally in Germany. There's nothing about democracy that makes us immune to installing a Fascist regime."

"Over the decades you have often been seen as a very pro-government hero. Yet, you famously declared yourself separate from and independent of the US government in 1971. It caused quite a stir. Could you talk to us about that?"

"I can and will, though I confess that it's a painful memory for me, and sadly part of a painful ongoing reality. For those of your audience not aware, 1971 is when pieces of a report on the Vietnam War that Defense Secretary Robert McNamara had commissioned in 1967, went public. They're generally referred to as The Pentagon Papers, though the report's official title was "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force.

"Anyone who wants to understand both United States politics and the reputation the U.S. has worldwide should read the report. Or at least, read an analysis of the report by a scholarly, nonpartisan source. I won't re-hash all of that here -- there are thousands of pages in the report, and thousands more pages of supporting documents -- but a few points are key to my decision then, and how I view it now.

"I will note that many of the actions taken by the US, as outlined in that report, should be viewed with the proper context. The men making those choices--and they were almost exclusively men--were not far from World War 2. Things done in 1950s and 1960s were done just 20-30 years after the German invasion of Poland. That war wasn't ancient history, it was as recent as the 1990s or 9/11 are today.

"Within the US government, both China and Russia were seen by many as exactly the same kind of threat Germany had been in the 1930s. Stalin died in '53, which made the Soviets look vulnerable. As though real victory over Russia was possible. And until 1961, the US was the only country with atomic weapons, so there was a sense that we had both the power and the duty to protect the world from another global conflict.

"None of that excuses immoral or illegal actions that were taken by the government, of course. And, to my shame, I'm guilty of some of those. At the time, it felt like a continuation of the war against Nazis and their evil. We convinced ourselves that we were the Good Guys, because we had helped put down a genuine evil. We forgot that there is a difference between an open, declared war, and the regular interplay between nations. We forgot that we were one of the Allies, now part of NATO, and that we weren't actually empowered to just police the world in whatever way we wanted.

"I had taken actions during Vietnam, at the direction of the government, but even so the totality of the Pentagon Papers shocked me. Records of the executive branch not just lying to the American people, but lying to Congress. The Gulf of Tonkin incident had been at least misrepresented to Congress, and more likely the US destroyers involved had breached North Vietnam's territorial waters. There was proof that bad policy had been maintained not for lack of understanding its failure, but out of fear of political consequences at home. I had done things on the assumption that I WAS fighting the next Nazi regime and, like Congress, I had been lied to.

"Then, as the Nixon administration sought to stop more of the Pentagon Papers from being leaked, they took actions against American citizens, on American soil, that were clearly unconstitutional. Attempts to bribe a judge with an FBI posting. Breaking into a leaker's psychiatrist's office to steal documents. Claiming to have lost wiretap tapes.

"At the time, I was still operating with Lt. Stars and Sgt. Stripes. We weren't in the army anymore, and had no legal authority, but the Banner Foundation was funding and supporting us. We fought criminals, sure, but most of our activities were government-related. Some government agency or official would ask the Foundation for help, and they'd give that information to us. It all felt very much like Taskforce H, during the war, and I never questioned the legality of it in those days.

"Until we were asked to apply pressure to people we knew in journalism.

"It struck me wrong even at the time. Yes, nations have a right to keep secrets... but the US is supposed to be a nation of laws. Of inalienable rights. Its government is supposed to work for the citizens, not the other way around. So, I pushed back. I said I wouldn't do it without a better idea of why it was both necessary and important. The Banner Foundation tried to dissuade me, but I insisted. And then it turned out the request was from the CIA, and they were trying to use us to bypass oversight and record-keeping risks.

"At that point, the Department of Defense got involved. They told me in no uncertain terms that 'Captain Banner' was an identity owned by the Army, and I could do as I was told, or I could stop being Captain Banner. I refused, and I took that refusal public. There was a court case over it, at about the same time there were court cases trying the original Pentagon Paper leaker for treason and espionage, and to try to prevent the Times and Post from publishing more of the leaked report.

"And, roughly speaking, those cases all went the same way, mine included. The executive branch was acting in bad faith, and the courts called them on it. Charges against the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers were dropped following government misconduct. The newspapers were allowed to keep publishing. In my case, SCOTUS stated that certainly the Army COULD create an identity that was government property, but up until now they HADN'T. The fact Stars, Stripes, and I had been given legal IDs under those code-names -- and allowed to live under those names with no government oversight -- was de facto proof that the identities might have been created by the government, but that we owned them."

"How did Lt. Stars and Sgt. Stripes react to that?"

"Well, I think most people know Stars was not happy with my refusal to follow orders, however unofficial. He rejected the Stars identity, re-enlisted, got a promotion, and has been operating as Major Flag ever since. I'm sorry to say he and I have been estranged ever since."

"And the new Lt. Stars?"

"A fine young woman. Major Flag has tried to stop her from using that nom de masque in the field, but her name IS Braxton Stars, and she earned the rank of lieutenant in the Memphis Fire Department, so there's not much he can do about it. I'm proud to call her a colleague and a friend."

"What about Sgt. Stripes?"

"He retired not long after Major Flag re-upped. Stripes had certainly earned it. I know his sons operated as just 'Red Stripe' and 'White Stripe' in the 1980s and 90s, but they've since stopped operating as masked heroes and are family men. The sergeant still trains younger powered people sometimes, mostly at the request of Anthem Lass or Professor Nu. But he wants to be out of the public eye, and I don't want to say any more out of respect for his wishes."

"Your very vocal calls for impeachment, disbanding ICE, and expanding the Supreme Court when and if a different political party takes control of the executive branch has some conservative government officials claiming you now hate America, and that you are either not the original Captain Banner, or that you have gone senile. How do you respond?"

"My identity is well established, and claims otherwise are always made for political points, not from any actual concerns. They are bad-faith sound bites, as proven by the fact that not one of those officials ever suggests arresting me for identity fraud. Concerns about the mental health of someone over 100 years old are perfectly reasonable, and I go through voluntary certification with both S.T.E.E.L. and Professor Pheonix every six months for exactly that reason."

"And do you hate America?"

"No! The exact opposite. I LOVE the United States. But if you love something, and it's unwell, you don't ignore the problems because of your love for it. The U.S.A. is a country founded on ideals and promises, but even from the beginning, it didn't always live up to them. The man who wrote 'All men are created equal' owned slaves that he could have, but did not, free in his lifetime. As a young country we declared that we had a right to exist without invasion or interference from other nations, while at the same time invading and slaughtering Native nations that pre-dated our arrival on this continent.

"The fact we so often fall so far short of our ideals isn't something we should hide or refuse to discuss. If we love what this country stands for at its best, we MUST acknowledge and learn from the sins of what we did at our worst. We can both believe all men are created equal, and want to uphold that ideal, AND admit that the man who wrote it did not live up to it. In fact, we have to be willing to do that, or we put lie to claims that the ideal ever mattered.

"I love the ideals of the United States. I love us at our best. I love that we built into our highest law the rights to publicly protest, to speak freely, to report without censorship or fear, to be safe from government overreach into our lives and our homes. But those ideals ONLY matter if we, as a nation, are willing to defend them. I love the idea of a person risking themselves to save others. I hate using one such act in an effort to shield a once-hero from the consequences of other immoral and illegal acts.

"I can say, with absolute confidence, that Major Flag saved lives and helped shorten World War Two by actions he took in the early 1940s. But that does not somehow make him immune to criticism and even prosecution for war crimes he committed in Korea and Vietnam. Liberty and justice MUST be defended. There have been times when such defense has meant standing on a battlefield, and I am proud of my service doing so. But the fact war is justified in one case does NOT forgive making war when there are any other ethical options. And more often, defending liberty and justice means calling out our own failings, as a government, and as a nation.

"Power in the United States must come from the people, and their consent to be ruled. Ideally, that happens through voting. But from the very beginning, our laws acknowledge it might not. That protest, and raising voices in anger and as cries for change, may be needed. That only matters if we, the people, are willing to do it, and if we refuse to let anyone frighten, shame, or gaslight us into thinking we shouldn't, or that doing so can't change anything.

"I'm a man in a mask. People protesting for their fellow citizens in the streets are heroes."