> LETTER FROM RET. MARINE CSM AND RET. MARINE MAJOR
2 September 2004, 00:41
A soldiers ability to think independently, apply his/her morals to situations and to question ones orders (outside of immediate danger) is essential to maintaining a military which functions by the people for the people. Soldier/Citizens is what we ordered, not state owned mercenaries.
I commend your son. I want to see more individuals like him in the military. Soldiers should exemplify our most esteemed and prized beliefs: Liberty, Justice, independent thoughts and compassion.
When one must put the ideology of their "leader" above that of their own conscience through threat of retaliation or loss of freedoms, history implies that they may opt to absolve themselves of any moral responsibility for their actions. One can point upwards and simply state: I was just following orders; I didn’t know any better; they were terrorists/partisans/insurgents without their weapons and dealt with accordingly.
Without moral responsibility extermination becomes "actions"; genocide becomes "relocation"; and human lives waste away through "collateral damage or accepted losses". Thousands of young men, bound to the Nazi death machine through obedience to their “leader destined by God to lead”, found themselves in a similar dilemma. As a result millions of people were “relocated” through “actions” on the order of the leader to “protect the fatherland” for threats perceived by the leader and for the leader.
Are we so blinded by terror that we allow ourselves to fall into the nationalistic mire of hypocrisy and self-denial. Shall we esteem ourselves to be the only true heirs of Liberty’s grace, all others being lesser creatures in the eyes of Justice.
If so, back to my homeland I will go. I want my children to walk freely among their peers; not goose-stepping to the beat of a blind drummers drum.
A soldiers ability to think independently, apply his/her morals to situations and to question ones orders (outside of immediate danger) is essential to maintaining a military which functions by the people for the people. Soldier/Citizens is what we ordered, not state owned mercenaries.
I commend your son. I want to see more individuals like him in the military. Soldiers should exemplify our most esteemed and prized beliefs: Liberty, Justice, independent thoughts and compassion.
When one must put the ideology of their "leader" above that of their own conscience through threat of retaliation or loss of freedoms, history implies that they may opt to absolve themselves of any moral responsibility for their actions. One can point upwards and simply state: I was just following orders; I didn’t know any better; they were terrorists/partisans/insurgents without their weapons and dealt with accordingly.
Without moral responsibility extermination becomes "actions"; genocide becomes "relocation"; and human lives waste away through "collateral damage or accepted losses". Thousands of young men, bound to the Nazi death machine through obedience to their “leader destined by God to lead”, found themselves in a similar dilemma. As a result millions of people were “relocated” through “actions” on the order of the leader to “protect the fatherland” for threats perceived by the leader and for the leader.
Are we so blinded by terror that we allow ourselves to fall into the nationalistic mire of hypocrisy and self-denial. Shall we esteem ourselves to be the only true heirs of Liberty’s grace, all others being lesser creatures in the eyes of Justice.
If so, back to my homeland I will go. I want my children to walk freely among their peers; not goose-stepping to the beat of a blind drummers drum.