It is an understandable, and even encouraging view that the men and women in uniform in North America are viewed as giants compared to political leaders. People lionize soldiers because many "public" officials are corrupt, self-serving demagogues with zero integrity, who have the audacity to fear-monger about national enemies, and vote for immoral wars that soldiers fight, and die in.
But does the Canadian and American military deserve such high praise? Shouldn't support be earned? At the very least, the military's grandeur should be questioned because of the mass suffering they have caused in Afghanistan, and Iraq. Any respectable institution would have seen through these fraudulent, and evil wars by now, and terminated their role in them. Men of righteous conduct do not submit their souls to military orders that result in the daily slaughter of innocent people. "Heroes," writes William J. Astore, "don’t commit atrocities." They try to stop them.
In modern history, wars have not made heroes. Most wars have been indefensible bloodbaths, and purely money-making enterprises that produced mass death. Unknown soldiers have given their lives for the unknown profits of unknown rulers, and for unknown ends.
The heroes of this era are not obedient soldiers, but war resisters, revolutionaries, truth-tellers, whistleblowers, and soldiers with conscience who refuse to be used as pawns in immoral wars. Philosopher Alexander Moseley writes in his essay, 'The Ethical Warrior' that soldiers can not excuse their participation in immoral actions by simply claiming that they were just following orders. He also says that the hierarchical model of the current military, where life and death decisions are made at the very top, should be replaced by a system that teaches every single soldier to discern between right and wrong, and allow him or her to decide on the righteousness of a particular act, or war in question. Moseley:
"Hierarchical organization works on the principle of top-down control systems, so that soldiers' jurisdictions or degrees of freedom in action in the lower strata become increasingly restrictive. Characteristically for military thinking, Sun Tzu noted that the 'management of a large force is the same as management of a few men. It is a matter of organization' (Tzu 1993). Accordingly, the possibility for philosophical examination of war is supposed to diminish in the lower ranks. But why should this be so? Ethically, the renunciation of responsibility in civilian life is traditionally (legally, customarily) a highly questionable act: it barely amounts to an excuse should I burden guilt on other people to whom I defer (with or without their knowledge). Analogously, we can say the same of those who refuse to raise their minds to a more philosophical outlook, preferring others to think for them. Indeed, when an individual renounces his or her understanding and capacity to judge, he or she abdicates not only philosophical but also ethical being -- that is, an existence of authentically initiated and sincerely, independently motivated action, which is the hallmark of morality. In effect the unthinking agent becomes a proverbial robot and putatively amoral, which some may desire to avoid personal responsibility but, ontologically, morality cannot be separated from choice, even if the individual declares a personal absolution.The ethical warrior acts according to the commands of his own conscience, the safety of his country that he swore to protect, and God; the true authorities of this world. Government is not a close fourth, it is not even on the list. By contrast, the robotic killing machine mindlessly follows orders, and buys into government propaganda, falsely believing that he is always in the right irregardless of the destruction he authors.
The hierarchical model of the modern army effects a diminishing sphere of morality that would, in civilian conduct, be unacceptable: the plea of 'just following orders' is, moreover, in light of twentieth century exegesis of culpability, sufficiently tenuous to warrant a thorough critical revision of military preconceptions of the good soldier. So, contrary to hierarchical notions of virtue and responsibility, a more egalitarian vision of responsibility should be encouraged, even if the choice is to agree to obeying a superior. Authenticity demands nothing less, and while ethical accountability is easily understood, so too should philosophical accountability: each soldier is responsible for his or her role in the wars or actions in which he or she is employed to fight," (From the book Ethics Education For Irregular Warfare, edited by Don Carrick, James Connelly, and Paul Robinson).
The security of civilized values, and the blessings of liberty depend on whether or not men decide to be ethical warriors, or robotic killing machines.
Sometimes, wars must be fought. The warrior spirit can't be dismissed solely as a legacy of mankind's barbaric age, it has to be preserved, and dedicated to the defense of freedom, and other civilized values. If a war is to be fought, definitive evidence of the enemy's danger must be established, and a clear outline for victory must be thought out, otherwise, it is not a war, and it must not be waged.
Paraphrasing Socrates, Moseley says, "the unexamined war is not worth fighting." This maxim should be printed on the cover of every army field manual, and taught in every military establishment. Soldiers should be armed with knowledge before they are given guns. Teaching the real history of war in military training schools is mandatory if we as a society want to be blessed with honorable soldiers. And all soldiers must see themselves as individuals, and secondarily as members of a group. As Moseley says, every warrior is born with a free will; every man and woman is responsible for his or her own actions in this life. Moseley:
"The ethical warrior is one who is taught to be mindful of his or her agency in military action and to be aware of choices that may present themselves and to choose an appropriate justifiable path. Easier said than done, of course, which is why it becomes so critical to raise minds to a higher plane to provide the individual with a better intellectual tool-kit to question, to examine and analyse, and to draw his or her own conclusions: he or she is presumed to be a free agent who joins the armed services to defend the morally defensible. So if the teachers take the solider out of his or her comfortable realm of thinking, a better solider may be produced -- or one who sees his country's role as incompatible with civil values and rightfully resigns."The ethical elevation of soldiers has trailed behind their physical elevation. In modern warfare, soldiers are entrusted with the ability to kill off entire villages through the use of highly-advanced war planes, but they are denied critical thinking skills in military training, so they can't see through the political propaganda that they are immersed in. They are taught to justify the slaughter of innocent human beings, and told to cover-up their bloody mistakes.
Using war planes to destroy the homes of innocent people does not make you a warrior, but a murderer, and not even a regular murderer, but the worst kind; the kind of murderer that literally can't feel the blood of his victims on his hands. The men who employ such weapons are weaklings and cowards. Tom Engelhardt has more to say about drone warfare, and the blood-soaked bureaucrats that operate them in his essay, "Gods and Monsters: Fighting American Wars From On High":
"Whether in the skies or patrolling on the ground, Americans know next to nothing of the worlds they are passing above or through. This is, of course, even more true of the “pilots” who fly our latest wonder weapons, the Predators, Reapers, and other unmanned drones over American battle zones, while sitting at consoles somewhere in the United States. They are clearly engaged in the most literal of video-game wars, while living the most prosaic of god-like lives. A sign at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada warns such a drone pilot to "drive carefully" on leaving the base after a work shift “in” Afghanistan or Iraq. This, it says, is “the most dangerous part of your day."Such monsters can't tell the difference between Iraqis, Afghans, and yes, even Americans. All they know are "civilian," and "military." And the predator drones that cause carnage and mass trauma in the Middle East may soon be used on American citizens if they decide to resist the new world order. That is the present danger that all freedom fighters face. We are dealing with arrogant monsters who only know how to follow the orders of their military superiors. They are spiritually deformed men. The good men in the military, the ones who have retained their conscience, and understand the historical situation, must rise up now. The mass slaughter in the Middle East must end, and mankind's God-given liberties must be defended. The time for meekness has come to an end. I will do everything in my power, short of violence, to achieve these two objectives.One instructor of drone pilots has described this form of warfare vividly: "Flying a Predator is like a chess game... Because you have a God's-eye perspective, you need to think a few moves ahead." However much you may “think ahead,” though, the tiny, barely distinguishable creatures you’re deciding whether to eradicate certainly don’t inhabit the same universe as you, with your looming needs, troubles, and concerns."
Seven years ago, Jacob Hornberger said that "the time to stop tyranny is at its inception, not later. Just ask any German. " We have failed to do that. We have allowed the new world order to blossom, and now it will take personal sacrifices to end this tyranny. Luckily, the public has begun to doubt all the political propaganda, mythology, and deceptions of this age. The situation is critical, but not hopeless. But, the American military must be on the side of the American people, of the Constitution, and of righteousness if there is to be a free world in this new century. And the same applies to the Canadian military, the British military, and every other military threatened by the power of the new world order.
The reason why Germany came under the power of the Nazis is because many members of the German military bended their will for Hitler's deigns, and surrendered their moral judgment. In the book, "The Germans," historian Gordon A. Craig gives a great account of how the military leadership lost track of the welfare of the German people, and restricted its role to sheepishly carrying out the will of the dictator:
"In the first weeks of 1933, when it became clear that Hitler was at the gates, there were many people in Germany who believed that the army would not tolerate the accession to power of this dangerous political adventurer. But, after all of their frenetic and misguided political meddling, the army chiefs now adopted an elaborate pose of neutrality, and by doing so assumed a significant share of the responsibility for having delivered Germany into the hands of National Socialism.For America to survive as a nation, with its full liberties intact, then it will require heroic action by individuals in the military. They cannot make the same mistakes as the German military in Hitler's time. Officers need to voice their real opinion of the fraudulent War on Terrorism, and the corrupt agenda for a new world government. They must help preserve America by standing beside the Constitution, and the American people. America is too precious a country to walk away from at this painful moment in history. It still represents the last, best hope for mankind, because its founders established a good legal foundation. As I wrote in a previous blog post, "A Generation of George Washingtons":
Nor did their responsibility end there. It can be fairly said that the army was culpable for much of the horror that followed. It was in a real sense an accomplice of Hitler's in the bloody events of June 30, 1934, in which the SS, using army equipment, killed dissident elements in the SA and, at the same time, deliberately murdered some old enemies of the Fuhrer, and its participation in this operation--and its willingness to pledge its fealty to Adolf Hitler in a public oath a few weeks later, despite the fact that two prominent officers, Generals Kurt von Schleicher and Kurt von Bredow, were victims of that Night of the Long Knives--marked the beginning of a total capitulation to the will of the dictator. This had a shameful culmination in February 1938, when the officer corps stood mutely by while Hitler contemptuously dismissed their highest commander, after bringing spurious charges of sexual misconduct against him, and assumed personal command of the Wehrmacht.
There were soldiers who regarded this lack of resistance as a disgrace and who sought to remind their fellows of an older tradition of honor and responsibility to their country. In 1938, when it became apparent that Hitler's course was bent on war, a group of officers led by General Ludwig Beck, the chief of the General Staff, sought to organize opposition to a policy that, in their view, was tantamount to national suicide. Beck believed that precisely because the German people had always had a kind of pietas for the army, it was the soldiers' responsibility now to protect it from destruction. "History," he wrote, "will burden these leaders with blood-guilt if they do not act in accordance with their professional and political knowledge and conscience. . . . It shows a lack of greatness and of understanding of his task when a soldier of the highest rank in times like these sees his duty and task only in the restricted area of his military assignment, without taking note of his overriding responsibility to his whole people," (Craig, The Germans, pg. 241).
"The skills, expertise, and prestige of the brave men and women who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are needed in the United States, where liberty is in dire straits. These war veterans are proven patriotic fighters, but they also have a responsibility to be citizens and being an American citizen today means withdrawing your support from the tyrannical federal government in Washington D.C.Resisting the corrupt, and arrogant rulers of America sounds romantic, but that is not my intent. Any form of resistance will require heavy sacrifices, and I don't view myself as a revolutionary, and never will, but I don't want to live under a dictatorial world state, so what choice do I, or do any of us have? The fact that women and children are being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan is reflective of the current rulers' respect for human life, and human dignity. They are bloody monsters, and I don't want this world to be poisoned and controlled by them any longer. And do you honesty think that they will be reserved towards us in the West? Will they show us mercy? I think not. To them, everything is permitted. They are committed revolutionary, power-hungry psychopaths. They are not motivated by the eternal good. The truth means nothing to them. Justice is not in their vocabulary. Peace is not in their plans. They are destroyers.
The U.S. military, unlike the Congress and the White House, has retained the kind of authority in the minds of the people that still commands respect, and that authority should be used wisely and conservatively in a period of national crisis. At the end of the day, the government must fall under the weight of the people, and civilian authority, but the military has a role to play in any national crisis. It is its job to assist Americans, and keep the country free from danger and despotism. That of course will not be possible unless a sufficient amount of soldiers wake up to the reality of the present situation, and withdraw their support from the totalitarian police state.
Unlike politicians, soldiers don't need to be reminded whose interests they serve, they have fought, bled, and died for their country, and its liberties. Whether or not America's present wars are international crimes does not apply to the commitment that the Armed Forces made to protecting the Constitution and the country, because American soldiers have fought under the assumption that United States was attacked by Arab terrorists. Of course, that assumption is not true, and is no longer believed in by millions of people in America and in the world. A great number of people have accurately identified the real perpetrators of 9/11, and America's enemies, and most of them are still in control of the United States government, media and economy, a fact that has not went unnoticed by some intelligent military minds.
But just in case American soldiers do need a reminder of their allegiance, the Oath Keepers organization is providing a good platform for active and former soldiers, as well as police officers, to retake their oath to the Constitution. Citizens should also take the oath, because Americans must be united to defeat tyranny. And it is an oath that must be kept. The "Preservation Generation" can not let down humanity and history."
And their time has run out. It is our turn to show them the other side of the universe, the side that aims for the preservation of the rights of man, that does not destroy the Earth's environment, and that treats every human being with respect. Will you resist? Will you emulate the spirit of the founding fathers of the United States of America, and the spirit of all great men? I pray that you do; pray that I do as well.
