[Peace-discuss] On Memorial Day…

[Brussel Morton K.]

No, says Arthur Silber, I don't support the "troops", understood  
collectively.

From

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2009/05/no-i-do-not-support-troops.html

Here he quotes from an article by Lawrence Vance: http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance124.html

We should have this posted everywhere, and especially in our schools  
and colleges.
Should anyone join the military?

Here are seven reasons why I think that no one, regardless of his  
religion or lack of it, should join today’s military.

1. Joining the military may cost you your limbs, your mind, or even  
your life.

...

2. Joining the military may have an adverse effect on your family. The  
breakup of marriages and relationships because of soldiers being  
deployed to Iraq and elsewhere is epidemic. Multiple duty tours and  
increased deployment terms are the death knell for stable families.

...

3. Joining the military does not mean that you will be defending the  
country. The purpose of the U.S. military should be to defend the  
United States. Period. Yet, one of the greatest myths ever invented is  
that the current U.S. military somehow defends our freedoms. First of  
all, our freedoms are not in danger of being taken away by foreign  
countries; if they are taken away it will be by our own government. It  
is not a country making war on us that we need to fear, it is our  
government making war on the Bill of Rights. And second, how is  
stationing troops in 150 different regions of the world on hundreds of  
U.S. military bases defending our freedoms? It is not the purpose of  
the U.S. military to change regimes, secure the borders of other  
countries, or spread democracy at gunpoint. The Department of Defense  
should first and foremost be the Department of Homeland Security.

4. Joining the military means that you will be helping to carry out an  
evil, reckless, and interventionist U.S. foreign policy. For many,  
many years now, U.S. foreign policy has resulted in the  
destabilization and overthrow of governments, the assassination of  
leaders, the destruction of industry and infrastructure, the backing  
of military coups, death squads, and drug traffickers, imperialism  
under the guise of humanitarianism, support for corrupt and tyrannical  
governments, interference in the elections of other countries, taking  
sides or intervening in civil wars, engaging in provocative naval  
actions under the guise of protecting freedom of navigation, thousands  
of dubious covert actions, the dismissal of civilian casualties as  
collateral damage, the United States being the arms dealer to the  
world, and the United States bribing and bullying itself around the  
world as the world’s policeman, fireman, social worker, and busybody.

5. Joining the military means that you will be expected to  
unconditionally follow orders.

...

6. Joining the military means that you will be pressured to make a god  
out of the military.

...

7. Joining the military means that you may be put into a position  
where you will have to kill or be killed. What guarantee do you have  
that you will always be in a non-combat role? You are responsible for  
the "enemy" soldiers you kill as they defend their homeland against  
U.S. aggression. It may soothe your conscience if you attempt to  
justify your actions by maintaining it is self-defense, but it is  
hardly self-defense when you travel thousands of miles away to engage  
in an unnecessary and unjust war. You are responsible for the  
civilians you kill. Dismissing them as collateral damage doesn’t  
change the fact that you killed someone who was no threat to you or  
your country. You are responsible for every soldier and civilian you  
kill: not Bush, not Cheney, not Rumsfeld, not Gates, not your  
commanding officers, and not Wolfowitz, Feith, Hadley, Perle, Abrams,  
Tenet, Powell, Rice, and the other architects of the Iraq War. Bush  
and company will not be firing a single shot. You will be expected to  
do their dirty work and live with it the rest of your life. "Thou  
shalt not kill" is not just a tenet of the Judeo-Christian tradition;  
it is part of the moral code of every civilization, pagan or religious.

Should anyone join the military? Certainly not today’s military. And  
until a major change in U.S. foreign policy occurs, not tomorrow’s  
military either. So be all you can be: Just don’t be it in the U.S.  
military.
For further details, study the full article. 
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