Re: [Peace-discuss] On Memorial Day…

[John W.]

On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Brussel Morton K.
<mkbrussel at comcast.net>wrote:

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.
>


It WOULD be nice if our History/Social Studies teachers taught some of this
stuff.




> *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<http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance124.html>.
>
>
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