I found this video called Why I Do Not Support the Troops on Youtube today. It was linked to by a family member whose husband is in the military and she obviously didn't like this woman's message. Neither did most people judging by the many responses telling her to shut up and calling her a bitch. I for one couldn't agree more with everything she said. She took the words right out of my mouth. Of course, this has been my view for years.
One of the things she said that I agree with is how people adore these men and women and kiss their asses (I love how she phrased that. It's so true.) and act as if they're heroes. No, they're not. They're murderers who are blindly, or willingly, aiding in advancing the ever increasing expansion of power and influence of the U.S. government and big corporations.
Because I am an amputee, ever since the war started ten years ago, I have had more and more people come up to me and literally put their arms around me and thank me. Often they have this gleam in their eye, this look of admiration as they reach out to shake my hand or put their hand on my shoulder. I can't tell you how offensive that is to me. I don't want to be rude to a complete stranger so I put on a fake smile and kindly tell them that I'm not in the military and that I lost my leg due to a staph infection after birth.
It gets under my skin that these people just assume that I am one of these unethical assholes going to another country killing people. I take great offense when people associate me with the troops. It offends me more that they automatically assume instead of asking me first before they virtually fall all over me. It's sickening. It both angers and saddens me that there are so many people who buy into the government's propaganda and support the actions of these people, the government, and big corporations.
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We live in a democracy. That means that the people are responsible for the actions of our elected leaders, whether each of us as an individual agrees or not. People sign up for the military, by and large, out of a sense of duty to their country, not by proclivity to thuggery. They are significantly better educated than the public at large and they receive a lot of training, especially in the lawful application of force. No one asks them whether we should go to war. That decision is the job of our elected, civilian representatives. The members of the military are the first-line victims of any bad decisions that those representatives make. They deserve our respect for their loyalty, sacrifice, and sense of duty. If anyone has a gripe about our country's application of military force (and they certainly ought to, in my view), then they should take that up with those responsible, their elected representatives. There is no logic to blaming individuals in the military for doing their duty according to the constitution and laws of our nation.
ReplyDelete”That means that the people are responsible for the actions of our elected leaders, whether each of us as an individual agrees or not.”
ReplyDeleteThis is complete and utter nonsense. If I did not even elect someone I cannot be responsible for their actions. Even if I did elect someone and (as usually what happens) they do something bad it falls on the person who did it. The fact is politicians get elected by lying to people, by telling them what they want to hear. Take Obama for instance. He said he'd close Guantanamo but he didn't. He (I believe) said he'd hold those responsible from the previous administration for their war crimes and torture, but he did nothing. He bailed out his buddies on Wall Street while allowing the people to suffer.
”People sign up for the military, by and large, out of a sense of duty to their country, not by proclivity to thuggery.”
In that persons' eyes that might be why they joined but when looked at on a deeper level, they are supporting murder and conquest. In many cases they do the murdering themselves.
”They are significantly better educated than the public at large and they receive a lot of training, especially in the lawful application of force.”
Yeah right. Tell that to the people in the Military Murders video, or to the victims' families whose daughter or son was either raped or killed for no reason. Tell that to the bombers who kill innocent civilians.
”They deserve our respect for their loyalty, sacrifice, and sense of duty.”
Complete and utter nonsense. Their “loyalty” to execute the more often than not immoral commands of those in charge is what was at issue here and that is what is disgusting. Do these men and women have any principles?! If they do they are sheepish automatons who will do whatever their authorities tell them without question. That's what they're trained to do and it's unfortunate that most people in the military are like this. Luckily not all are, like Bradley Manning
”There is no logic to blaming individuals in the military for doing their duty according to the constitution and laws of our nation.”
It's entirely logical if they have a conscience and morality. Most people do unless they're psychopaths, and since those people are such a small percentage of the population that means most people in the military do have a conscience and morality, which means they know what they're doing is wrong and could refuse their orders if they wanted. They are not doing anything according to their constitution or laws of any country (unless maybe it's a dictatorship) because they abuse the rights of innocent people and take over peoples' countries all at the behest of their government.
You offend me and deeply, while we live in a free country but I do not have to agree with your views. Why don't you move to ah another country. You do not have a clue about the US military. I turn my back on you. I urge other people to ignore you.
ReplyDeleteI am pleased you won't post here again because you offend me with your ignorance. But if you do decide to post here again please back up your assertions with evidence because your comment sounded a lot like propaganda (your comments about defending the constitution and all that nonsense). The fact is that the military and government defy the laws and constitution. The murder of american citizen Anwar al-Awlaki was carried out by a drone strike without due process, in exact defiance of our laws and constitution. This is just a single example of this taking place.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am happy you plan on not coming back, on the other hand, I find it depressing that you'd rather choose to put your head in the sand and ignore what I have to say instead of engaging intelligently with the facts I present. At least people who choose to defend their nonsense and engage the facts on my blog aren't afraid of reading the truth.
I am not even going to try to argue with you. You obviously spend a lot of time writing, you can articulate very well and it would be pointless for me to try.
ReplyDeleteWhat I will say is that you do seem fairly, if not, very intelligent...So why associate yourself with this individual? She is clearly a misguided nitwit, who has spent too much time reading conspiracy propaganda on the Internet. You on the other hand actually have well rounded researched thoughts/ideas/beliefs. I am sure because of your disability; you have plenty of time to research topics, formulate intelligent ideas and basically evolve a little better than others in this world of words. It's a good thing.
Don't get me wrong, I disagree with everything I have read so far on your page. Just puzzles me, why you would promote this empty skull cavity on your site. I truly believe it discredits you.
I am a Disabled Veteran. You can call me a murderer all you would like. That's fine. You don't make the rules. I have many citations that do say I am a hero. And until this government is overturned,(Which I don't see happening anytime soon.)You will continue to be the outcast; while I am respected.
SO..I wouldn't even respond back, I won’t read it. I am not part of your interest group, I am not interested in a debate, and honestly I don't care. You see, I know people like you do. That's why I took the time to write this, because I know it will get under your skin. Maybe just a little, but I know it will.
-Side note (you're gonna love this) I worked for a red light company after getting out of the military. A nationwide one. Was employed with them at the same time that guy got killed, by some old man pissed off about Arizona's freeway speeding camera. Remember that story? The employee was sitting in the van doing evaluations and a disgruntled old man opened up on the van, killing the individual inside... crazy huh. Talking to his wife at the time.. Now, that is a murderer. I am sure your will cleverly associate that guy with me, but whatever. See my earlier point.
Wouldn't it be a trip if your blog set him off the deep end? Wow. I know I would feel like a complete dick..
Anyways back to the point, OF COURSE it is about money, duh. Money for the company and for the local agency. The safety aspect was just an added bonus. Made an awesome sales pitch. The problem was with the judges.. they would lower fines and that screwed profits for the local governments. Ironically enough, the private company would still get paid. SO the tax payers would ultimately get the bill. Operation would then be shut down or moved.. some PR spin would be thrown on it and that was that.
What really hurt though, is when people didn't break the law.. people would come up to me on the street, asking how to get out of the ticket. I would always say the same thing... Don't run the red light. OH and before you bring up that yellow light duration thing.. we had to deal with that also. One of the cities I worked with that was involved in that same issue, throughout $40k worth of tickets and went and adjusted the duration. Turns out, the programmers on older intersections were wrong since the get-go, or they had lane/speed changes but changing the duration was overlooked. Human error. And no, we never touched the programmers during an installation. You can bet after all of that, it became a checklist item on all installs...
OK,last point.. Back in January this comment was posted and you didn't respond..
"Honestly, war itself incites to brutality. The marines, beloved men and women, are KILLERS, to be keen, yet they are sanctioned killers. It is their job and duty to murder …if anything, remember that a warrior is but a means of deliverance, a bullet in a barrel, aimed and fired by the politicians."
Why is that? (I know asking a question implies a contradiction to my statement of not returning, it's rhetorical)
P.S. Did you know there is a character limit on comments? I had to cut some out-
Viceroy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. The first half anyway. The second half seems to derail and sounds more like senseless rambling. But I will address your claims.
I probably should make a few things clear. I'm guessing many people – yourself included – believe that many of the cases of murder and whatnot she gives as examples are “conspiracy propaganda.” From my reading I'd say the majority of what she says is entirely accurate.
However, here are a few questionable things that may or may not be true. I couldn't find anything about someone getting a badge of honor for “stabbing someone to death.” Nor could I find anything about someone chopping off someone's head. Or shooting a child in the face.
However, it appears that everything else she says is true. The figure for a 90% civilian death rate was taken from a government run agency,
UNICEF, for this information. There have also been an approximate 113,097 civilian deaths in the Iraq war alone.
Other than the above questionable events the woman mentioned, it appears everything else is accurate.
Someone's head may not have been chopped off, but there is a recent case of a man in the military who murdered innocent civilians and cut off body parts for souvenirs. I'd say this is about as horrible as her story. Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who was found guilty “of murdering Afghan villagers, planting weapons on them and cutting body parts off to keep as war trophies. Seven other soldiers were charged with lesser crimes such as intimidating a fellow soldier not to speak out against the platoon's alleged killings and rampant illegal drug use.” The “Collateral Damage” video is another horrible example. The rape of a 14-year old girl by James Barker that she related I also confirmed.
Other than a few stories she relates that may be questionable I do agree with everything she says. And to be clear, I don't think every single person is an actual murderer who goes into the military and kills innocent people. Some people are just operators who never even see a battlefield. However, I do agree that people who join the military are essentially supporting an organization who does murder innocent people and is the government's police force for invading other countries in order to expand their profits, power, and influence. They are essentially accomplices in murder.
Hopefully that will clear some things up.
Cont.
As far as you being “respected,” as the woman says in the video, I don't respect you, sorry. And it doesn't get under my skin. I just feel sorry for people who “respect” people who actually kill innocents or join and support an organization who does. I just see them as brainwashed, just like religious individuals. I also find it pathetic that you take pride in that. Maybe the woman is right about you wanting people to kiss your ass...assuming yours wasn't blown off in some pointless war of course.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if your post is getting more and more off the deep end. The man who accidentally killed the speed camera operator did not know there was a man inside. I guess you didn't read that part of the story. Even I thought they were unmanned so I wouldn't call him a murderer per se. More accurately it would be called man slaughter since it was unintentional. The difference between the military and that guy is that incident was unintentional while the murders by the military are purely intentional. There's a huge difference.
Did my blog incite that man to violence? Nice jab below the belt but it's an entirely unfounded and especially pathetic accusation. I do not condone violence on my blog, unless it's in self-defense. And my blog isn't that well-known so I seriously doubt he even saw my blog.
I don't know why the red-light camera subject was brought up but yellow-light times were tampered with in several cities. And some camera companies were implicated in these actions. Link.
I don't recall the next comment ever being posted, but it's pure nonsense.
"Honestly, war itself incites to brutality. The marines, beloved men and women, are KILLERS, to be keen, yet they are sanctioned killers. It is their job and duty to murder …if anything, remember that a warrior is but a means of deliverance, a bullet in a barrel, aimed and fired by the politicians."
It appears you support the murder of people and it appears you wish to place blame on others instead of the actual people who pulled the triggers. That's a common method of disassociating yourself from the people you've killed by blaming someone else (read On Killing, by Dave Grossman). Of course, the fact is that it was the ones who pulled the triggers who are the real murderers. They could have listened to their conscience (if they even have one) and left the battlefield and refused to kill, but they didn't. I find that final statement of yours to be morally reprehensible and sickening. You can defend and deflect your actions all you want but if you pushed the button or pulled the trigger you are a murderer.
Applause. While I don't think all people in the military are killers or stupid, one thing I do see (as someone who lives in a city with many bases), is a sense of entitlement when it comes to ass-kissing and military discounts. I take issue with the word ''hero'' being thrown around. One of my closest friends is in the military and had to go overseas. I did not support her decision to enlist and to participate in an unjust war, but I did support her as my friend. I wish no harm to anyone, military included.
ReplyDelete(Sorry, I left this part off) Also, I take issue with the rape culture military perpetuates -- the way it sweeps rape under the rug. The sexism is ridiculous. Most military supporters will claim that the occurrences of rape in the military are consistent in what is seen in the rest of the U.S., as if that is something to be proud of. It is pretty disgusting. Military culture also lends itself to homophobia. Hoo-raah, right?
ReplyDeleteHi Mr./Ms. Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment and thank you very much for the support. Yes, I've heard about this rape culture from an independent news program I watch. Not too long ago they featured a documentary about the large incidences of rape in the military. It's called The Invisible War. The stories I heard from clips from the movie and the very existence of this sexism and their sweeping of such disgusting acts under the rug repulses me.
I'm glad people like Kirby Dick (the director of the film) are around to help make people more knowledgeable about this.