For as long as I can remember I’ve been skeptical of the legitimacy of war, and as I’ve grown and read and learned, that skepticism has strengthened.  There may be instances when a group must defend people against another bloodthirsty group.  But violence is venomous, has unintended consequences, and often results in more violence.  And when it comes to wars upon nations, as far as I can determine, it is nearly always for the benefit of the ruling class and the weapons manufacturers, and at the expense and great loss of life of people on both sides of the conflict.  And this war on terrorism, for instance, is breeding more antiAmerican sentiment.  Anyway -

I have a brother and two cousins in the military.  I respect them as I respect many in our armed forces.  I think they believe that they are defending liberty and life against foreign evildoers who wish harm upon us or other innocent people.  They do this with great courage, hard work, and self-sacrifice.

I have another friend who is enlisting.  He sent me a message talking about this quote from Herman Gorring, Hitler’s Reichsmarschall during WW II:

“Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. . . . Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same way in any country.”

I thought I’d share my response to his message:

Hey _____

I was aware that you are enlisting.  This response is not going to be encouraging as to that decision, but since you’ve been honest and open with me, I will attempt the same.

Let me say that I applaud your desire to pursue leadership and wisdom.  We need more people like yourself who are willing to sacrifice their own personal career pursuits and even put their lives on the line in order to step up and help figure out how we can begin to steer this world in a more positive, peaceful, and loving direction.

However, I don’t believe that an experience in the U.S. military right now is actually an effective way to foster leadership and wisdom, for a variety of reasons.  Most importantly – we currently have the largest and most powerful military that has ever existed – we are a massive empire that exists in order to preserve economic interests of the elite and keep global markets functioning properly.  Many soldiers and veterans are well aware that these wars are not in the interest of the citizenry of this country or the world – and I’ll link to a particularly eloquent one at the end of this message.  It seems that if we’re envisioning leaders emerging from military service, many are most definitely Veterans for Peace.

Further, I don’t know why you are anyone else should need military experience in order to “gain a better perspective on how important it is to be careful with our troops” – as one informs themselves of the issues we’re talking about via resources available online – it’s very clear that our government IS NOT being careful.

Besides becoming extremely disillusioned with our government – we can now expect between a quarter and a third of all troops deployed in these wars to come home with depression or PTSD.   “170,000 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had been diagnosed with PTSD just through June 30, 2010.” http://costsofwar.org/article/us-and-allied-wounded

I find it particularly interesting that you use the quote that you do.  I agree that it is about leaders of a country manipulating the people.  But instead of associating it with critics of the Occupy movement, this quote seems especially suited for describing how our leaders have fed us the war on terrorism.  “All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked” – are we not constantly, a decade from 9/11, being warned of impending attacks – as we wreak havoc in the middle east?  We are the attackers!!  “Denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger” – pretty much Republican policy, no?

My dream is that more and more people such as yourself – people eager to put their lives to greater meaning than what is typically offered (go out and make yourself some $!) – begin to see a hidden option.  Perhaps, in this peculiar moment in history-  we should not enlist in the empire’s military.  Perhaps we should not run for office in an absurdly corrupt and broken government.  Perhaps it is time to look outside of the prescribed options, and look beyond illusions.  Perhaps it is time to seek out the truth – and follow it to where the true roots of this imbalance lie.

We might find that if we orient ourselves towards the correct enemy, we’re not given guns and tanks  – we must fight with our minds, and with our voices.  We might find that we’re not given medals of honor, nor will we win official positions in office- in fact we might find ourselves ignored, ridiculed, and even imprisoned.  And the path certainly won’t be laid out before us – we’ll have to lead ourselves through uncertainty and the unknown.  And we might learn that half of the fight of the warrior is battling the darkness and ignorance within oneself.

Best of luck to you.

-Nico

A soldier speaks out against the wars

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