Originally posted by J3Vr6
I couldn't disagree with this statement more. Whether people think it's for the advancement of the US or not, you fought and could have died for this country and you should be absolutely proud of serving and others should be proud of you as well. I feel this coming from a family where my father served for this country on several fronts. I can never be more proud him. I see the scars on his back from shrapnel and although it saddens me, I know he did it because there was something he believes in: The USA. And he's not US born, so imagine that.
You know, there's an offical government slogan in North Korea that goes, and I quote :
The Government Decides and the People Act. That is the essence of the modern military, especially in America in the past few decades.
Serving your country is not good or bad by itself, but is based upon what it is that your country is doing. What it roughly comes down it is, is your government waging an offensive war or a defensive war. Otherwise, you are a mindless drone, a worker bee, and simply for doing as ordered, you are some kind of hero. Blind patriotism is not an admirable quality.
And lets face it, since the end of WW2, the US has waged only wars of agression. Pick a war, and there are plenty, and try to justify it outside the context of stopping the spread of Communism, since forcefully stopping an idealogy from taking root essentially amounts to oppossing the right of self-determination.
Someone who served in Vietnam (joined up of their own free will, not drafter) or who is serving in Iraq, they are serving their country, true, but the SS were also serving their country. Serving their country to act as the shock-troops for the subjugation of an entire people, yes. If I had it my way, before being allowed to serve in the Army, every recruit would do a 2-year course in political science, history, sociology and so forth. A soldier without a mind is like a car without a driver; it can cause a lot of damage, but thats all it can do.
War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac
-George Orwell
[there is another quote that I would have liked to put, but I couldn't find it. It goes something like "It is horrible and wrong that people who ordinarily have no quarrell with each other should be made to kill each oteher for their country"]
kara: this has nothing to do with me being Serbian, since I hold it equally true for all people. I just had the good fortune to somehow avoid being indoctrinated with the idea that soldiers are good simply for doing as they are told, regardless of what it is they are actually doing and who it is that they are actually serving. Have my experiences coloured my current perception? Of course they have. But if everyone went through the experience of having bombs drop a few hundred meters away from their grand-parents, no one would ever want to wage war again. Take the most militant, pro-war goonie you can find, and make him live in Bahgdad for a few months, or in Afghanistan, or Kosovo or Haiti and watch them do and about-face.
ford: very well said
