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Thank you for your service...
- Thread starter s2a
- Start date
Service?
In what way has the military "served" the common good recently?
It seems to me the military, of late, has ruined America's reputation, imperiled the populace it purportedly protects, ruined the economy and diminished our vaunted liberty.
Then there are the millions around the world impoverished, killed or made homeless by our military adventurism.
In what way has the military "served" the common good recently?
It seems to me the military, of late, has ruined America's reputation, imperiled the populace it purportedly protects, ruined the economy and diminished our vaunted liberty.
Then there are the millions around the world impoverished, killed or made homeless by our military adventurism.
May I ask, what's brought you to mention this suddenly?
Or is it just a "general appreciation" sort of thing?
Yesterday was Veteran's Day in the US.
You know, it's always irked me a bit when someone thanked me for my service. When I chose to enlist, it was the most selfish thing I ever did; it was all about me. My neighbors and fellow Americans were the last thing on my mind. I wanted to serve, I wanted the benefits, I wanted to wear the eagle, globe, and anchor.
I volunteered for a job and I was compensated for the work I did. And when I was injured, I was discharged and compensated for that.
We've had an all-volunteer military for a long time now. Just about everyone currently serving has done so by choice. It's the poor ******** who were never given the choice that deserve our heartfelt thanks.
Epic Beard Man
Bearded Philosopher
"As a veteran I have always been uncomfortable with "Thank You For Your Service" because it has always rang hollow to me because it only became vogue or chic to do so after the first Gulf War."
I firmly agree in the above.
I firmly agree in the above.
Aquitaine
Well-Known Member
I see. Thanks for the clarification, and the honesty. :yes:
s2a
Heretic and part-time (skinny) Santa impersonator
May I ask, what's brought you to mention this suddenly?
Or is it just a "general appreciation" sort of thing?
A belated reply, but that day was Veteran's Day...
...absent any ulterior motive or meaning...just gratitude.
Make sense?
s2a
Heretic and part-time (skinny) Santa impersonator
Understood, and I appreciate you expressed sentiments... but do understand the real distinctions resident between those that make policy, and those that volunteer to exact those policies as a matter of chosen service to nation first and foremost...
US citizens no longer are "drafted" or compelled to render their services , duty, or sacrifices without any lent consent (though that may yet remain the case...)
If you take issue with political and policy ideals and objectives of The US govt.. I'm not only listening, but may readily stand alongside when such issues come to the forefront for fair discussion...
But that lies within the policy makers themselves, NOT the volunteers that willingly choose to sacrifice and serve a nation on behalf of their fellow citizens.
Only historians will write the future dialogue of the victorious and righteous (ie. "the common good"), for soon enough the defeated/deflated/crushed will be forgotten...for better or worse
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I think it's directed primarily at our enlisted and officers in the military who are there to genuinely serve for love of country and its people. Not at shallow political hacks in charge seeking self gratification and personal gain through the abuse of the power of our armed forces.
But they're not serving their fellow citizens, and they should know that. The volunteers are volunteering to unquestioningly "promote the political and policy ideals of the US government."
Warriors are, for example, creating the terrorists that they claim to protect us from. It doesn't take a PhD in history to see this. Soldiers work for the military-industrial complex and for multi-national corporations that have no interest in the common weal. They're tools of the 1%, and they harm society.
The right wing makes much of "individual responsibility," yet absolves soldiers of it completely.
Are you saying the responsibility for their actions falls on their officers and on politicians?
I wasn't aware that there were any individuals in the past 2,000 years that could take the sins of another upon themselves.
Absolving individual soldiers of responsibility for their actions; shifting the responsibility to the politicians, is like absolving Mafia enforcers of responsibility for their actions.
Apex
Somewhere Around Nothing
Have you ever served in the military? Honest question.
BSM1
What? Me worry?
[
Much of this was inspired by the Viet Nam veterans that knew first-hand what it was like to be ignored, shunned, and even mocked for doing what was asked of them. They didn't want other servicemen and women to suffer the same humiliation when they returned home. So thank you for your service and Semper Fi, Tarheeler.
[/QUOTE]
Much of this was inspired by the Viet Nam veterans that knew first-hand what it was like to be ignored, shunned, and even mocked for doing what was asked of them. They didn't want other servicemen and women to suffer the same humiliation when they returned home. So thank you for your service and Semper Fi, Tarheeler.
BSM1
What? Me worry?
Of course there are always horrors in every conflict, but you are talking in historic generalities. Not arguing the right or wrong of the situations, but the common soldier did not sit and plan these atrocities the night before; they followed orders. I am not trying to justify what later turns out to be bad choices, but hindsight is always 20/20. You are painting the entire organization with the mistakes of a few. To expand this thinking you should condemn every Japanese citizen for Pearl Harbor, or every German citizen for the Holocaust, or every Spaniard for Guernica...you get the picture.
averageJOE
zombie
I take it you throw Police into that pool of generalizations?
I'm not talking about individual atrocities. I'm saying the military's whole purpose and, especially, its methodology is immoral. In that sense it's a criminal organization, so what would that make its agents?
As for blaming every Japanese for Pearl Harbor, isn't that exactly what the US did? What's worse, the US military punished millions of those innocent civilians with death and destruction. How is deliberately punishing the innocent not immoral?
What gives a state government the authority to order the execution of someone from another state; someone the state itself acknowledges is guilty of no crime and behaving properly -- even in his endeavor to kill the agents of the first state?
If I told you to shoot my landlord, would it be moral for you to do so?
If a Mafia don ordered one of his 'soldiers' so shoot a rival gang member, would that not be a crime?
If my city council ordered me to kill a resident of another city?
At what point does authority to override morality appear, and when does individual responsibility for one's actions dissolve? Isn't it immoral to follow an immoral order, regardless its source?
It's incumbent on the common soldier to question the morality of every order and to refuse to execute if he judges the order to violate a moral principle. "Just following orders" doesn't cut it.