I have extremely mixed feelings about the military. The men and women who serve in uniform defend our country, but they are also tools of each succeeding administration’s foreign policy no matter how whacked.
They are trained to follow orders without thinking too much about “what if” they didn’t obey orders that result in killing civilians regarded as collateral damage. Not to obey means dishonor, incarceration, and even (in times of war) execution for treason.
None of this diminishes their personal bravery. It takes a special kind of person to go willingly into harm’s way. Each and every service man and woman deserves our respect for that at the very least. We admire not only their courage but their devotion.
The problem arises when we have an insane administration whose foreign policy willfully devastates more and more of our national integrity for the sake of power and greed. Then these brave men and women become puppets and pawns whose sole purpose is simply to destroy more of the enemy than the enemy can destroy of us, regardless of whoever the enemy is determined to be by those in authority at any given time.
Complicating things further, we know that some service branches build bonding and camaraderie through rituals that could be called sado-masochistic. We also know that many in uniform return from combat with PTSD — post-traumatic stress disorder — and need support if not sympathy.
So this is my dilemma: I honor the service of soldiers, sailors, and marines, but not always what they are trained to do.
Here are a few faces of the military. Keep in mind, behind these young faces we see as admirable, courageous, or hot, there are minds that have been trained to kill.
“An age is called dark not because light fails to shine but because people refuse to see.”
UPDATE — Just read this report about the latest innovation in the way Iraqis are murdering gays. According to the Arab news service, Alarabiya.net, Iraqi militias have deployed an unprecedented form of torture against homosexuals by using a very strong glue that will close their anus. The new substance is known as the American hum, which is an Iranian-manufactured glue that if applied to the skin, sticks to it and can only be removed by surgery. After they glue the anuses of homosexuals, they give them a drink that causes diarrhea. Since the anus is closed, the diarrhea causes death. Videos of this form of torture are being distributed on mobile cellphones in
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/21/iraqi-gays-suffer-atrocit_n_189732.html
P.S. Not that it has anything to do with this now pretty political post, but you never know where the freaks are making money that helps them carry out their hate campaigns, e.g., Rockstar Energy Drink was co-founded by Michael Savage…
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