Thoughts on the Military...
Jun. 24th, 2005 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masque12Every now and then a conversation about the military crops up on some of the lists I'm on, lately it's been about the recent news about "overzealous" military recruitment practices and the fact that the "No Child Left Behind" Act automatically sends info about high school graduates to recruiters. I haven't looked that much into either story, because it's not a big concern of mine. What irritates me is that any conversation about the military always results in some ex-military people piping up about how everyone is talking shit about the military, and how the military gives us the freedom to talk shit, and because of that we should stop talking shit because of the sacrifice the soldiers make.
I have a message for all those ex-military people who complain in the above manner:
Blow me.
Seriously. First off, no one is criticizing the fucking soldiers. No one is belittling anyone's army buddies who died in battle. I personally have nothing but respect for the actual soldiers fighting and dying in the trenches, although I have little but contempt for the people who sent the soldiers there to die.
In these conversations, people are criticizing policies of the military as an organization, and the politicians and military leaders who make those decisions. This is well within their rights. What many (not all, goddammit) ex-military people seem to do is take any criticism of the military as personal attacks on them, and this is simply bullshit. Look, I have plenty of love for the soldiers themselves, but the military in recent years has been used primarily for fucking with people in other countries, and as much as I respect the difficulties that the troops have to deal with, I think the way they are being used is fucked, and I have the right to bitch about it because when the military is at war it represents the whole fucking country, not just the military. I'm part of the country, too, and the military doesn't speak for me. The military likes to cultivate a social divide between those who are in it and those who are not, with the idea that the military is superior and knows better, but it's bullshit.
I don't have any interest in my country trying to rule the world, and in fact, most of the people who want to fuck with the USA are doing so due to our fucking with them first, either militarily or economically. So yes, for the most part, I think the goals and methods of the military in practice are fucked, and I will say so when it's topical. Invading a country to defend corporate interests is not the same as defending freedom, unless you're referring to the freedom to rape and pillage. The soldiers themselves are following orders, and I don't fault them. The ones that I've known have joined for personal reasons, such as developing a sense of discipline; financial reasons like the GI Bill; or idealistic reasons like they thought they were actually going to be defending our freedom. I don't fault the soldiers because for the most part they are good people trying to do what they think is right. I can fault the people in charge who sacrifice the lives of those soldiers for goals that are often, if not always, shameful.
I have a message for all those ex-military people who complain in the above manner:
Blow me.
Seriously. First off, no one is criticizing the fucking soldiers. No one is belittling anyone's army buddies who died in battle. I personally have nothing but respect for the actual soldiers fighting and dying in the trenches, although I have little but contempt for the people who sent the soldiers there to die.
In these conversations, people are criticizing policies of the military as an organization, and the politicians and military leaders who make those decisions. This is well within their rights. What many (not all, goddammit) ex-military people seem to do is take any criticism of the military as personal attacks on them, and this is simply bullshit. Look, I have plenty of love for the soldiers themselves, but the military in recent years has been used primarily for fucking with people in other countries, and as much as I respect the difficulties that the troops have to deal with, I think the way they are being used is fucked, and I have the right to bitch about it because when the military is at war it represents the whole fucking country, not just the military. I'm part of the country, too, and the military doesn't speak for me. The military likes to cultivate a social divide between those who are in it and those who are not, with the idea that the military is superior and knows better, but it's bullshit.
I don't have any interest in my country trying to rule the world, and in fact, most of the people who want to fuck with the USA are doing so due to our fucking with them first, either militarily or economically. So yes, for the most part, I think the goals and methods of the military in practice are fucked, and I will say so when it's topical. Invading a country to defend corporate interests is not the same as defending freedom, unless you're referring to the freedom to rape and pillage. The soldiers themselves are following orders, and I don't fault them. The ones that I've known have joined for personal reasons, such as developing a sense of discipline; financial reasons like the GI Bill; or idealistic reasons like they thought they were actually going to be defending our freedom. I don't fault the soldiers because for the most part they are good people trying to do what they think is right. I can fault the people in charge who sacrifice the lives of those soldiers for goals that are often, if not always, shameful.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-27 10:22 pm (UTC)