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From the Associated Press: 'As of Monday, January 7, 2008, at least 3,911 members of the US military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.'
3,911. Just a number on a page, right? Maybe it's nobody you personally know, so that means it's not like they're real people or anything, right?
To put the number in more pictorial terms, each of the + signs below - 3,911 of them - represents one of our soldiers killed in this pointless war. Each of those symbols represents one family who grieves the loss of their brother or sister, their son or daughter, their father or mother, their husband or wife or lover.
And for what? For what exactly, goddamn it, other than because some sick, lying piece of shit in the White House tells us it's really, really important for some unknown, constantly-shifting reason?
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It makes me sick. Literally.
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I have a take on joining the military in the current environment, too. If you don't agree with what the current administration is doing, then from a purely moral standpoint, you can't join. It's that simple.
Listen, I'm certain that there have been other people that have joined the military in times past, due to love of country, feelings of obligation, whatever else. And when they did things they didn't necessarily even agree with because they were told to, I'm certain that they felt things would be alright in the end.
Germany, 1939, anyone?
It's an extreme case, obviously, but certain things can't be ignored, at least not by me. Something that isn't talked about often is that Kofi Annan and Boutros Boutros Ghali of the UN have stated that the US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter, which technically could make the US soldier an international war criminal. What if that were pushed?
"Not to us", you might think, "that couldn't happen to us". Well, what if it did?
Everything you have done in the Iraq war is illegal, since the war itself is illegal. Even if you don’t kill during your tour of duty, you are technically still guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, on the same principle as the guy who drives the get-away car and is guilty of bank robbery. You are in much the same position as a German participating in the invasion of Poland. Recall that some Nazis faced prosecution even into their 90s.
How many wrongful deaths would you not want to be a part of? Hopefully, the answer for you is any. But even if it isn't...how many?
At last count, the conservative estimate regarding the amount of civilians dead in the Iraq War was placed at 87,742. Civilians, not military or militia. Is that enough?
If you believe in what's going on over there, then there's nothing to say, really. But if the thought, "Afghanistan, not Iraq" has entered your mind, then you join...well, people have been called hypocrites for less.
I know that the military has always preyed upon the poor, the less educated, the aimless, the destitute. Generally, the people that had nowhere else to go. Sadder still, because people feel they got some sort of a good deal out of it, they then proceed to instill the ideology that the military is a good deal into their kids.
One person that I know says that if they could, they'd go back in a heartbeat. This person has violent night terrors regularly and has been doing their best to drink themself to death. It has often made me wonder just how bad option B looked to them.
I'm sorry, but no. The military is not a 'good deal'. It's a necessary evil.
Teaching kids (and come on, that's what they are when they get hooked into this) to be obediently violent in a controlled format, to protect us against others who were trained to do the exact same thing...that's bad enough, but I understand its need in the world we live in.
But you better have one exceptionally moral individual in charge, because our young people are going to die, and normally, for every one of ours that dies there's going to be a good 50 to 100 that dies for the other team, whose biggest crime is normally being born where they were. And if you're going to be a part of this (and if you're squeamish, DON'T go here...PLEASE!), you had better be sure that there's someone leading these forces with our country's (and the world's) best interests at heart.
A lot of the old military bristle when they talk about the amount of coverage going on with war nowadays. Well, of course they do. War, real war, is unpalatable. It's nasty, it's dirty, and people do unmentionable things in the name of their country. You can be ordered to kill civilians and children, and commit other violations of the Geneva conventions, according to soldiers like 12-year Marine Staff Sergeant Jimmy Massey. Once you are in the military, resisting is very difficult. You can be shot or imprisoned, and treated extremely badly if your conscience awakens. As mentioned, American soldiers have already killed nearly a hundred thousand civilians, mostly children, and that was before Fallujah.
You may have to kill them too. That is one of the things that soldiers do, kill people they are ordered to.
If you don’t believe me, have a long talk with some vets about their experiences. Keep in mind that many of them won’t be proud of it, and won’t leap to tell you what they have done.
I'm not proud of it. I was in. And not during this war.
And yes, I'd have been willing to kill or die for my beliefs. But I believed in what was going on.
Sure, I was still of the age where what I knew about the world would fit in a thimble twice, but it was there, that fervent belief that we were doing the right thing. Similarly, when bin Laden had been pinpointed to having been in the mountains of Afghanistan, I backed military action in a heartbeat. But we all know what's happened since then.
We've seen the truth come slithering out from under the rock that is the Iraq War, the smoking gun that was released in British journalism, the back door draft that they've been using on these soldiers, and so much more. We know that the majority of this morally reprehensible war is currently about oil and world domination.
It was written that "Once you hand yourself over the army, they will beat your personal will and morality out of you using standard brainwashing techniques (sleep deprivation, exhaustion, humiliation, repetition) and replace it with blind obedience to military authority. Sumbitting to military indoctrination will kill off your remaining spark, intelligence and ability to think for yourself".
It sounds extreme, but I remember all too well what it was like. There are very few people that are more free-spirited than I am, but I remember the psychological vise that was placed on me. At that point in your life, you had better have a genuinely good person manning the helm, because let me tell you, you're not thinking for yourself.
Where am I going with this? If you're considering going, think. Think long and hard. Think of who you're allying yourself with. If you know anyone that's considering going, talk to them. Not to get them to not go, but to make sure they've done a little studying about who it is that's leading them, what causes they're helping enforce.
This isn't a job at Subway (which, coincidentally, one veteran was recently denied getting a job at, having been told they were underqualified). This is your reputation, your integrity and your life at stake. Patroitism and blind faith are not remotely synonymous.
That's it.
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