I'm stupid
Wednesday, 8 June 2005 08:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI suspect that I am a bit stupid. I've in the past said some intolerant things about the military. Yesterday I read the anguish felt by a sibling of someone sent to fight in Iraq. I felt through her writing what it must feel like and it was awful.
I had realised, intellectually, before that these people sent to fight there had to follow orders. They had no real choice in the matter. It is well-nigh impossible to buck the system; that is how it is set up. But somehow I rationalised that once sent to an unjust war that we washed our hands of them; that they somehow deserved to reap what they sowed. But that's plain stupid! They're caught up in a system that works hard to remove responsibility for their actions. How can anyone justify thinking that they suddenly do bear the responsibility for decisions taken by others far away from their realm of influence?
I know there is some proportion of soldiers who really get a hard-on at the prospect of shooting up a bunch of "towel-heads" or "pinkos" or "wogs" or "slants" or whoever are the hate target of the day, but even their families don't deserve the fear and anguish. And we should be protecting bullet heads from themselves instead of inflicting them upon a hapless population. A sane military should have nothing to do with such mentality. Even these, frankly repellent, people don't deserve to be killed or maimed. They are broken and need to be fixed, not broken more.
We all know where the responsibility lies. It is in the so-called "leaders". The political and military "leaders". Our current crop is the most irresponsible I've seen.
I had realised, intellectually, before that these people sent to fight there had to follow orders. They had no real choice in the matter. It is well-nigh impossible to buck the system; that is how it is set up. But somehow I rationalised that once sent to an unjust war that we washed our hands of them; that they somehow deserved to reap what they sowed. But that's plain stupid! They're caught up in a system that works hard to remove responsibility for their actions. How can anyone justify thinking that they suddenly do bear the responsibility for decisions taken by others far away from their realm of influence?
I know there is some proportion of soldiers who really get a hard-on at the prospect of shooting up a bunch of "towel-heads" or "pinkos" or "wogs" or "slants" or whoever are the hate target of the day, but even their families don't deserve the fear and anguish. And we should be protecting bullet heads from themselves instead of inflicting them upon a hapless population. A sane military should have nothing to do with such mentality. Even these, frankly repellent, people don't deserve to be killed or maimed. They are broken and need to be fixed, not broken more.
We all know where the responsibility lies. It is in the so-called "leaders". The political and military "leaders". Our current crop is the most irresponsible I've seen.
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Grunts in Iraq
Date: 2005-06-15 07:47 am (UTC)Some folks over there let him know the situation. The trucks go in convoys. *Every* convoy is attacked. We're worried for him.
They sure aren't telling us that on the news.
Re: Grunts in Iraq
Date: 2005-06-15 10:04 pm (UTC)Wow. Talk about waste!
I've always thought that weaponry is an incredible waste. I mean you have all this money and skill and time tied up in objects which are either stockpiled somewhere, sitting unused, or else destroyed. Doesn't sound very smart does it. But the human waste is incalculable. Losing a good engineer so that trucks can be driven... as part of an illegal invasion and occupation of another country. That is just wrong on so many levels.