Super Bowl Flyovers, Patriotism and Empire
It has become something of an American tradition to enjoy a military flyover during the playing of our national anthem at major public events. The "Star Spangled Banner" has always demanded a singer and a flag. Nowadays, it also demands fighter aircraft. This should give us pause.
Anyone who has seen such a flyover in person , as I have at several football games, will admit that it is awe-inspiring. Its power depends partly on its timing. It ideally occurs right at the most stirring portion of the anthem, its closing lyrics:
Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
It also depends upon the element of surprise. Due to their low level of flight and their speed, the jets seem to appear all of a sudden out of nowhere, just over the lip of the stadium and the heads of those seated in the highest seats. The deafening crescendo of the engines and the flash of the afterburners bring the anthem to a rousing close. The best fireworks display I have ever seen pales by comparison.
Although fighter jets put on an amazing show, the most impressive aircraft for the flyover is the B-2 Stealth Bomber. What it lacks in speed and sound, it makes up by its otherworldly appearance. Its slowness and unmarked body gives the faint suggestion that it just might attack and that, if it did, it would sooner vaporize its victims than drop bombs on them. The slight whisper of its engines hushes the crowd in wonder and a hint of fear, before it inevitably erupts in paroxysms of shouting and applause. The Stealth Bomber frightens and then reassures, once the thought occurs that it's our plane. I recall my mother, sitting next to me at the 2004 Rose Bowl, gleefully wondering aloud how anyone could dare stand up to that.
By combining the national anthem and the flyover, we jointly celebrate our patriotism and our military prowess as two things that naturally belong together. Love of America entails love of American arms and vice versa. When we sing of freedom and bravery as the flyover passes, we acclaim that we are free and brave because our military might is unsurpassed.
When we are caught up in the moment of the ritual, it seems natural and appropriate. However, on reflection, it's an uneasy juxtaposition. The lyrics to the anthem were not intended to celebrate our military supremacy per se.
Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to the "Star Spangled Banner" to celebrate our victory in the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The concluding lyrics of "the land of the free and home of the brave" honor the courage of average American citizens and their willingness to take up muskets to defend their country against foreign invaders. They testify that we, as Americans, are willing to bear arms and risk our lives for love of our republic (in contrast to the foreign subjects of imperial monarchs, who are unable and unwilling to defend themselves and must therefore depend upon professional soldiers and mercenaries).
This is decidedly not what we celebrate today when we sing the last lines to the accompaniment of the flyover.
Instead, we celebrate our absolute military supremacy. We celebrate the fact that we are willing to spend more money on "national defense" than the twenty countries with the next largest defense budgets combined. We celebrate our ability to produce the Stealth Bomber ($2.2 billion per aircraft) -- essentially an offensive weapon (One doesn't need stealth technology to defend one's shores, for there's no need to avoid one's own radar.) We celebrate our willingness to hire others to secure our interests and to extend that "security" around the globe. We celebrate our capacity for preemption, shock and awe. In fact, the flyover is such an awe-inspiring event to witness precisely because it gives one a little taste of what it is like to face the most advanced weapons of war. It's reassuring to know that such machines are on our side.
If we were truly committed to the lyrics of the "Star Spangled Banner," we would find a simple National Guard display to be the more appropriate accompaniment (especially if the National Guard were still devoted to defending our shores, rather than those halfway around the world). That we prefer the military flyover reveals that, despite our words of humble, republican pride and civic courage, we take pleasure in our empire.
8:33:27 PM 
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