I realize that the contents of this thread may enflame the passions of those on all sides of the House. If your sensibilities are easily damaged, you take yourself to seriously, or your humor is wanting, then be warned this may not be the thread for you.
I have been reading with interest a thread on this Board today that is discussing the treatment of US veterans. I have noticed that when such subjects are discussed there is an automatic assumption that those who don the uniforms of their respective nations, they somehow are automatically walking on a higher moral ground.
I find it all the more puzzling that those who cry the loudest for 'special' treatment for soldiers, and by special I mean as compared to the rest of the working masses, seem to be of an Republican bent. I note this as personal rather than community responsibility seems to list high on such peoples priorities, except when it comes to soldiering.
When a person puts on the uniform and agrees to fight for his or her nation, they have taken a personal philosophical position, which means that surely they must take personal responsibility for their actions and choices. This is one reason that I have absolutely no interest in what Mccain survived as POW, he is no more in love with the US than the bus driver on Broadway.
I am not a pacifist, as I think some wars walk on more moral ground than others. It is no secret that I have been opposed to the invasion of Iraq from day one and have never changed my position, which cannot be said for numerous persons on this Board five or six years ago. It is not a war that was ever attached to a position of morality. It is a war that were I American and drafted I would have taken part in, because from my own philosophic and political position it is a war fought for a sinister agenda, to serve the few.
I lost all four of my grandparents on one sunny day in 1944. They were executed by German Soldiers in retaliation for partisan activity which had left an armoured vehicle and its contents dead, but I would have fought in this war only from principle, not from revenge or a hatred of Germany at its people. I recall reading in Susan Brownmiller's classic book on rape, 'Against Our Will', about two Baptist's who refused to take up the draft and head out to Saigon and were imprisoned. One of them was repeatedly raped every day for two years by criminals who thought them 'cowards' and easy targets. When interviewed at the end of his sentence the young man said he would prefer to endure what bhe had for another two years than fight in what he viewed was an immoral war. The criminal actually thought that they had a higher moral ground because they would have taken up arms and fought!
What this young man endured is real courage that matches anything done on a battlefield. I suspect that this young man probably had to pay for his own pyschiatrist. He should be given the Medal Of Honour.
The Armed Forces are a professional body, but no more professional than is doctoring, keeping clean our waters, maintaining our electricity supply, or training air traffic controllers to keep our skies safe.
When soldiers left for Vietnam the same jingoism followed them. When they returned they were often met by disgust from these same people at the fact that they had 'lost' another unfortunate war that was waged morally suspect grounds. Now, just a few people admit to voting for President Bush, very few acknowledge that Viet Nam was anything but a debacle. Surely this stands as a moral example of demanding personal responsibility for our own decisions, especially those that involve life and death.
Why do many of us, and this from all nations, feel that once a person dons a uniform and survives boot camp they are somehow automatically granted a morally superior position in society? Governments make mistakes, often huge mistakes, that should preclude this automatic assumption.
HS
...OUTLAW