Open Letter to the Government from an AWOL Soldier

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Open Letter to the Government from an AWOL Soldier

By James Circello, Iraq Veterans Against The War

To those Businessmen and women holding seats in Congress,
To the Highest Court of America,
To every Department within the U.S. government,
To the President's Cabinet,
To the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
To the Vice President and President of the United States of America:

My name is James Circello. I am sure some of you already know who I am now that wiretaps and spying on American citizens has been approved.
Or maybe you've heard of me when you saw my name on a comprehensive list of Anti-War activists.
Or maybe you just know of me because I was a Sergeant in the United States Army and served as an Airborne Infantryman for six years, went to Iraq in March 2003 and served until March 2004, remained in the Army a little longer before refusing to take part in the Occupation of the Middle East and went AWOL.

I am writing you today, not asking for forgiveness for what I decided to do, but to give you an idea of what brought me to that decision to leave the Army and speak out against the Occupation. Though some will claim I left for other reasons and will try to force the discussion away from the facts and at the same time attempt to assassinate my character with half truths and out right lies, these are the facts. If later we wish to get into more of my personal life, we can do that: I have no fear of it.

I will first like to say that I am no longer a member of the United States Armed Forces. When I left the military on Easter morning, April 2007, I have officially resigned from service to that military. There are no ties between myself and an oppressive military regime set on occupying groups of impoverished indigenous people.

I am no longer a Sergeant or a paratrooper.

I will not respect an organization that can and does, at its own will, change entire enlistment contracts for the purpose of extending soldiers;

Gives quarterly sexual harassment courses and still allows roughly 30% of women to be sexually assaulted in some way, shape or form;

Openly discriminates against people based on homosexuality, race, gender and ethnic background;

Allows crimes against humanity and peace to occur and covers them up with internal investigations;

Actively recruits young boys and girls from low level income high schools and communities with false promises of health care, school and job experience and fails on all accounts;

Refuses to recognize conscientious objectors (C.O.), and when individuals apply for C.O. status that are administratively "punished" by their chain of command;

I refuse to be a part of a military and Administration that continue to abuse and torture, doesn't recognize the rights of detainees and allows them to be shipped to secret detention facilities for "National Security" purposes; a military that is illegally, based on all U.S. as well as International Law, inside of Iraq; a military that is over extended, under funded in a war with no foreseeable end (because time tables give our enemy a "sense of victory", but how can the enemy have victory when "Mission Accomplished" has been declared?); a military that watches billions of government contracts given to private military outfits, while they run through the streets of Iraq unchecked, and allows soldiers to be poorly equipped and the V.A. poorly funded.; the No Child Left Behind Act and it's policy of making it mandatory for schools to send out the information of all students attending the school to military recruiters, or they are threatened with being cut off from Federal funding (I thought school was a place of
learning, not a place of turning our youth into the:
"(insert Arabic country name here) Veterans Against The War".

This and many other reasons are why I tell you today, I do not recognize any of the warrants that may have been placed upon me. These warrants are merely a way to silence any opposition to this criminal war. I do not support the United States foreign policy and will not be the fool that enforces it.

The United States has a history of using the poor of this country to massacre and oppress the poor of other countries and I say to everyone that is able to read this - I am no longer a member of the United States Armed Forces.

I also say, this by no way makes me Un-American. I love this country and feel very strongly that it can be saved and that it must be saved.

I say this without a growing ego, but my acts as of now are what the Founding Fathers envisioned and wrote about. This is what Democracy looks like.

Dissent isn't Un-American, it is what Patriotism means.
Patriotism is not blindly following a Flag waver, it is Direct Action.

I joined the Army after the towers of New York fell. Swept up in the fervor, I left college to enlist. My country was attacked - I, like many, wanted to defend it.

But here is where a majority of Americans, as well as Politicians have made their largest mistake: Defending your country does not mean destroying other Nations out of and/or for Revenge. But the People bought into the outcry that we must kill to feel better, and the Politicians sang their songs and danced their dances, in an attempt to show who was the most Patriotic of them all!

America stayed fixed to the lies from Fox News (can it really be called "News"?) and we watched the towers fall so many thousands of times until we were all ready to go kill and die for the Eagle and Red, White and Blue.

Though, I will admit, I was angry and young but it didn't take me too long to see that this wasn't about defending America, but creating an entirely new enemy.

It was all there.
It was almost too perfect.

They are of different color.
They speak a different language.
They are a people that have been made to be poor - not a people that are poor; there is a difference.
They follow a strange religion that Americans don't understand! A religion so very similar to Christianity, that - get this - it recognizes almost the same individuals as being Prophets that the Bible does.
They "hate us (you) for our (your) freedom".
They will come here and kill our women and children if we do not go there (and kill their women and children first).

The Administration and all of Its men and women sold it and Americans bought it.

How many people got chills when the American flag was placed there at Ground Zero? Remember when there were so many flags outside of houses, and flag stores ran out of them?

So I went to Iraq and I saw their faces. People that I thought wanted to kill me, and hated me because I was free, brought me into their homes, offered me food and something to drink.

Was the food poisoned? No.

Was it a poor family that could barely afford the food they were offering, but offered it to me without charge or regret? You bet.

I was quickly disillusioned by the military. Senators and Representatives from Congress would come to visit us - and we would be told to get everything clean for the Dog and Pony Show.

We would up the security levels, to make everything look ship-shape. When it was time for the questions and answers portion, we would never be without a question, because the chain of command was always there for us - and thankfully they had come up with the questions we were allowed to ask our Representatives. This is what happens every time someone from D.C. came for a little sight seeing visit. I can only imagine what kinds of shows they put on now.

Long story short, I left Iraq feeling really uncomfortable with America's position in this entire conflict. It didn't feel right. It didn't look right. And after much soul searching and researching, I discovered that it plain out just wasn't right.

It took me a while to finally decide to leave. I wanted to leave prior to invading Iraq, while witnessing the illegal "Shock and Awe" that killed so many innocent people and destroying the infrastructure of the country that we hadn't destroyed from the first bombings in the Gulf War and what wasn't antiquated and useless from the illegal sanctions held over the heads of the every day Iraqi citizen.

I fell for the trap of "don't let your buddies down". And what a well spun web it is. I can not control the conscience of another man. I can only follow mine. And after deciding what I believe in is not consistent with the United States military and learning that "don't let your buddies down" is just a form of domination through guilt, I left my post in Italy to return to America. I began speaking out against this Occupation. I do not fear arrest. I do not stay hidden. I go to all national events and travel the country at my own leisure.

I say this to you Congressional Democrats: you have failed us. I delayed my going AWOL, because when I learned both Houses of the Congress were controlled by Democrats I was confident that the war was finally over. You ran on the platform of ending the war. I told all of my friends to just hang on, it will be over very soon. You funded the war and you continue to fund it. By no means is my hostility solely directed towards the Republican bench of the government. You lied to the American people, and more so, you failed the American people. We are finally awake and more and more are realizing that we don't have a two party system in America, we have a single party that is not representing the will of the People.

Realize this Congressional Democrats, that when you agreed to continue funding the Occupation, this was no longer the President’s war against the Arabs.
You helped buy this Occupation and now you own it as well.
And I will remind you every time that I see your faces.

The People say end the war. Stop funding the Occupation. The Soldiers want to come home. The insane idea of we must stay in Iraq and Afghanistan so that these thousands of soldiers will not have died in vain should never be said again! We tried saying that in Vietnam! The Iraqi people are strong and can defend themselves. They also want us out.

It took years for a G.I. Resistance to begin within the Military during Vietnam, but I am telling you right now - the feeling of resentment is there. The feeling that Politicians and Businesses are profiting off of this Occupation while we suffer through extended tours and battle Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depleted uranium, losing friends and family and losing our lives and limbs through wounds.

We come home and barely have time to adjust to being home before we begin training to leave again.

Families are falling apart.
Iraqis are dying.
For what?
A red, white and blue flag that says, "I'm a Patriot"?
Dissent is Patriotic.

Open discussion is Patriotic (this to Speaker of the House Pelosi who refuses to have an open forum with the people of her district. I believe it is going on just over 2 Years now.)

And I say to you dissent is filling the ranks of the military and it doesn't even need a charismatic figurehead to come forth and say "Dissent; Desert!". They are doing it and will keep doing it.

And the military's attempt to censor free speech will not contain it. Blogs, Youtube, Myspace: these sights, and others, weren't blocked for any reason other than these are the most popular places to find out that the G.I. Resistance Movement is growing daily.

So proud Patriots of America, I ask you today for nothing. You are my Employee, never forget that. My tax dollars pay your salary, never forget that.

I do however have demands for you:

-End the Occupation Now. Not tomorrow.

-Bring home all American troops. Replace them with a true international coalition designed specifically for peace keeping operations, NOT military operations.

-Remove all U.S. contractors from the Middle East that continue to benefit off of the death of the Iraqi and Afghan people and the destruction of their countries.

-Allow the Afghan and Iraq governments the freedom to decide what kind of country they want to be in, not what kind of country we want them to have.

-Allow the Afghan and Iraq governments freedom to choose who is given reconstruction contracts - which none should be American companies, for obvious reasons.

-Fund in full all reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and Iraq: We destroyed their countries, by International Law we must pay. By Moral virtue we must pay.

-Support the Troops means take care of them when they come home, not blindly fund their continued existence in a war zone - Completely fund the V.A. Department!

-Fund the Levees; Do NOT allow another Hurricane Katrina or Rita.

-Oversight on Gulf Region reconstruction (where is it?) - I was just in New Orleans, it is still a disaster area two years later. Fix it now.

-Open Diplomatic negotiations with Iran - Do not allow another war to take place. We have Diplomats that are paid by taxpayers to do just that: to Talk and Discuss. Use Diplomats not Depleted Uranium and Cruise Missiles.

I also want to say this before I close, I wrote it in a letter, just yesterday, to the people of Italy that stand up and actively oppose more U.S. military bases in their country. And it says:

The Iraq war is a War of Aggression, led by a cry of "We Will Never Forget"; the famous quote from September 11, 2001. Well, I have something to say for the people of the World and to the People of this Administration, as well as to the members of the U.S. Congress.

We WILL never forget.

We will never forget that the men who hijacked those aircraft on September 11, 2001 were not Iraqi.

We will never forget that Iraq had no Weapons of Mass Destruction (W.M.D) when we invaded.

We will never forget that the W.M.D's that Iraq did have years before, were sold to them by the U.S. Government.

We will never forget the millions of Iraqi men, women and children who have suffered through the Dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, The Iraq-Iran War, The Gulf War, Depleted Uranium, Years of Illegal Sanctions, Shock and Awe, "Liberation" from a Tyrant only to find a new Tyrant take his place.

We will never forget the 2 million of Iraqi men, women and children who are now displaced refugees within their own country.

We will never forget the 1.5 million refugees in Syria, the 775,000 refugees in Jordan and the nearly 200,000 refugees in Egypt.

We will never forget the 1 million dead Iraqi men, women and children since March 2003.

We will never forget that nearly 100,000 Iraqis flee the country each month since 2003.

We will never forget the widows, widowers and orphans of those dead.

We will never forget the effects of depleted uranium in American ammunition that litters the countries of the Middle East.

We will never forget the increased infant mortality rate. The sewage on the streets. The sectarian violence that was never in the streets of Iraq until we installed a Pro-U.S. Government.

We will never forget the destruction of Shock and Awe that destroyed Iraq's entire infrastructure.

We will never forget Abu Ghraib.

We will never forget the Lost men and women of Guantanamo Bay and other Secret U.S. Detention facilities.

We will never forget the every day Iraqi that is gunned down at a Traffic Control Point by a tired American teenager.

We will never forget the sounds of Improvised Explosive Devices (I.E.D) directed not at the American soldier, but at American Policy.

We will never forget the Women and Children gunned down at random after an I.E.D. explodes, because they were working the vegetable fields and were frightened and began to run.

We will never forget that War is, in fact, Terrorism. And America is the largest State Sponsor of Terrorism.

We will never forget that the Men, Women and Children of the Middle East may be of the same color as Saddam Hussein, but they do not have his face. They are not him. They do not deserve what they have been made to endure.

And we will never forget that corporations are profiting off of the death and destruction.

We will never forget that Blackwater and other private armies, which are in themselves illegal, are running around the Middle East killing at will - and are left unchecked.

We will never forget amazing photo opportunities with the soldiers, whether its walking through a market in Iraq with security all around you and Apaches in the air, or sitting on the deck of a ship under a "Mission Accomplished" banner.

We will never forget that a majority of the American population want the Occupations to end and we will keep repeating it until you do what you are paid to do - and that is, Listen to the People.

The People are United and I know that attempts will be made to have me appear a fool and soon you will have my grade school photographs, my coloring books, a list of every library book I have ever checked out, and whatever other records these incredibly large and over-funded Secret Agencies compile on Activists in America, but I do not fear you.

You have no moral authority over me.
Or any authority at all.
I do not fear you.
Any of you.

We The People,
United within The Struggle,

James Circello; Iraq Veterans Against The War

[Lonestar]

Oh Good, a Deserter.

[Aaron]

This fellow makes some interesting points, although I think he's using his intial opposition to the war and eventual AWOL status to get on a soapbox, as some of the issues he raises (Katrina) seem at best loosely related to the clusterfuck that lead to him buggering off.

I can't fault him for speaking out, however this is quickly going to be drowned out by the fact that he deserted and the eventual shitstorm the Right is going to drag him through.

[Knife]

Meh, wrapping him self in all sorts of contraversies to hide his desertion. While those contravercies have extremely valid points to them, doesn't change the fact he deserted. Nor does it change the fact that involentary extentions are part of his contract he signed.

His odd idea that the US military doesn't have any authority on him will come back and bite him on the ass hard unless he stands on his soap box outside the US while he screams they don't scare him.

[Aaron]

Even if he runs to Canada there's not much hope for him. The Canadian government has rejected refugee claims for these men and their appeals don't look good. But rather than prison I suggest the DoD sue them for breaching their contract and recoup the rather extensive amount spent on their training.

[CmdrWilkens]

As always it comes down to people crying in split milk. You signed the fucking contract and nobody was holding a gun to your head when you did. If you have reasons to object to the uses your service is being sent towards then seek CO status, you won't get it but at least try before running away. In the end it comes down to the fact that if you make a promise to do something then a man follows through even when he actually has to do the hard shit he was hoping he wouldn't have to. When its done then go back and bitch, hell bitch while you are doing it but do what you swore an oath to do and then complain about the assholes who used your oath against your inclinations.

[Keevan_Colton]

So, you dont believe in the principle that if someone lies to you to get you to do something that your obligation to them is nullified? I've always felt that my word is given on the condition that someone is not seeking to abuse my trust in them...or does blindly doing what you're told even if it is obviously based on a lie a virture?

It's also nice that you acknowledge that he wouldnt get CO status...but he should apply anyway...why should he if as you have already stated he wont get it? Is there something to be said for going through the motions even if everyone involved knows that it's bullshit and wont actually accomplish anything?

[Keevan_Colton]

hell bitch while you are doing it but do what you swore an oath to do and then complain about the assholes who used your oath against your inclinations.

As I recall the oath in the US is about defending the constitution and foes foreign and domestic, where exactly does bulldozing orchards and torturing innocent people fall into that again?

The oath is one to defend the principles of the US is it not? Legalistic bullshit to try and turn that around to act against the principles you believed you were swearing to defend is just that, bullshit.

As Asimov once said "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.", if your sense of honour requires you to act in an unethical way then a real man swallows his fucking pride and does the ethical thing you machocockmunch.

[CmdrWilkens]

They never lied to him. The contract and the oath spells out as clear as day that you are enlisting for a term of 8 years (with a given active/inactive number) that during that time you are under the jurisdiciton of the armed forces and subject to recall and assignment according to the needs of the service. The oath embarks you to follow all lawful orders of your commander in chief and his designated subordinates. In no way shape or form has he been lied to or otherwise tricked. Just because you don't like what the CinC is saying doesn;t give you the okay to say no, you owe in language clear as day obediance to lawful orders. We can bitch about how Bush sold the war but Congress went along with it. Bitch about it but nothing in the contract or oath garuntees that the civilian government will use your service in the way you want. Civilian control of the military means the President and the legislature decide and you do, if you don't like it then vote for different members of Congress and a different President but that's all you can do other than shut up and take your medicine.

[Tiriol]

Refuses to recognize conscientious objectors (C.O.), and when individuals apply for C.O. status that are administratively "punished" by their chain of command;

Is this true? If it is, I can see more clearly why the fellow deserted. And so long as he actually understands that he can and will be prosecuted for his desertion and doesn't try to weasle out of it, I can understand other reasons as well. It isn't cowardice, from what I've seen; more about moral outrage and contempt for failed leadership.

[Aaron]

Is this true? If it is, I can see more clearly why the fellow deserted. And so long as he actually understands that he can and will be prosecuted for his desertion and doesn't try to weasle out of it, I can understand other reasons as well. It isn't cowardice, from what I've seen; more about moral outrage and contempt for failed leadership.

C.O. status is a little tricky, it can take up to a year to grant during which time you are still subject to deployments and operations. And it is granted infrequently.

A better idea for the US would simply be to overhaul their entire enlistment contract system so that you can take your release at any time (after a set period like the CF) but you forfeit some pension and education benefits.

[Broomstick]

A better idea for the US would simply be to overhaul their entire enlistment contract system so that you can take your release at any time (after a set period like the CF) but you forfeit some pension and education benefits.

If they did that now, though, I'm not sure they'd have enough personnel left to keep the operation going in Iraq, which is a problem from the viewpoint of the people in control.

[Aaron]

If they did that now, though, I'm not sure they'd have enough personnel left to keep the operation going in Iraq, which is a problem from the viewpoint of the people in control.

You can simply make it effective for people who enlisted after a certain date. New enlistees get the new program while existing soldiers have to fill out their contract. Not exactly fair but lets be honest, with the recruitment and retention issues the US is having right now I doubt this will have much of an impact. The guys who are getting out are the mid-level officers and NCO's who have all done multiple tours and are burned out or simply had enough. The young guys are fresh and will likely stay in awhile. But these recruitment and retention as well as contract issues stem from the mess that is Iraq. If they solve that then the problem will be partially dealt with.

We're having similar issues because of Afghanistan, long wars are both a boon and a curse on volunteer militaries. A boon for the combat experiance which becomes institutional knowledge but a curse because it's hard to keep the men going and even harder to get people to sign up.

[Gil Hamilton]

They never lied to him. The contract and the oath spells out as clear as day that you are enlisting for a term of 8 years (with a given active/inactive number) that during that time you are under the jurisdiciton of the armed forces and subject to recall and assignment according to the needs of the service. The oath embarks you to follow all lawful orders of your commander in chief and his designated subordinates. In no way shape or form has he been lied to or otherwise tricked. Just because you don't like what the CinC is saying doesn;t give you the okay to say no, you owe in language clear as day obediance to lawful orders. We can bitch about how Bush sold the war but Congress went along with it. Bitch about it but nothing in the contract or oath garuntees that the civilian government will use your service in the way you want. Civilian control of the military means the President and the legislature decide and you do, if you don't like it then vote for different members of Congress and a different President but that's all you can do other than shut up and take your medicine.

But doesn't that justify "Befehl ist Befehl" situations? What happens when those lawful orders are morally wrong? Lots of armies get "lawful orders" and I think we all agree that there are plenty of situations where the soldier is obligated to refuse and even to resist. The Nuremburg Trial was full of guys who had legal orders from their lawfully elected government, but we agreed that is no excuse.

Note that I'm not comparing American soldiers to Nazis. However, the point is that there must, therefore, exist a line somewhere where lawful orders are no longer something that soldiers are obliged to obey and the decisions of the legally elected government don't apply.

Thus, depending on where that line is drawn, it is not only permissible to resist lawful orders that cross that line, but morally mandated. Merely saying "Fuck you, you signed a contract, it doesn't matter if your government was wrong" sounds great and macho, but it doesn't realistically work if we are to condemn others who were "just following orders" too.

So your gripe should not be whether or not he was a deserter, but if being a deserter is justified in this case. If the Iraq War and the Bush Administration can be demonstrated to be immoral and thus on the wrong side of the line I described, then you shouldn't be cursing his desertion, you should be applauding it.

[Justforfun000]

Gil Hamilton said:

The Nuremburg Trial was full of guys who had legal orders from their lawfully elected government, but we agreed that is no excuse.

Note that I'm not comparing American soldiers to Nazis. However, the point is that there must, therefore, exist a line somewhere where lawful orders are no longer something that soldiers are obliged to obey and the decisions of the legally elected government don't apply.

This is an excellent point. According to CmdrWilkens, if you sign a contract that spells out unquestioning obediance, and you were fully aware of these terms and conditions, then you should have no recourse to disobey unless granted by a very rare CO dispensation.

First of all, they shouldn't have that kind of blanket control over people in the FIRST place. Obviously it is important to follow orders and in order for unit cohesion to be seamless and effective, obeying commands is expected, but as decribed above, there HAS to be a limit. What if you were given orders to shoot your mother? As highly unlikely as this is, say she was an immigrant from Iraq and while visiting the country she lobbed a bottle at a soldier and you happened to be present and were told to shoot her.

Could you object? Are you saying that you shouldn't have the right to challenge the order?

It's a sticky situation due to the nature of the army and war, but there has to be some moralistic exemptions that you can fall back on. Being employed by the army is essentially only a JOB after all, it's not slavery.

[Spyder]

Unless the CO status can be guaranteed and granted before a soldier will be expected to carry out any orders he considers morally fucked then applying for it is completely pointless. Desertion was the right thing to do.

[Gustav32Vasa]

This is probably a stupid question but why cant he quit?

[Aaron]

This is probably a stupid question but why cant he quit?

Because the US military has a rather anal eight year contract system, in which you either serve all eight as active or part active or part reserve. But regardless of which you choose your stuck for eight years.

[brianeyci]

If the Iraq War and the Bush Administration can be demonstrated to be immoral and thus on the wrong side of the line I described, then you shouldn't be cursing his desertion, you should be applauding it.

Not necessarily. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that war itself is immoral. Sure, you can say that self-defense is moral, but how can any country win a war without attacking into the other's territory and destroying their strategic ability to wage war? Who fired the first shot is not the be all and end all of who was in the right, and in a total war scenario both sides must annihilate the other's ability to wage war or they'll be a perpetual stalemate. I know that the idea of "preemption" has been sullied by the Bush administration, but in certain situations that is the right play.

There is also the dirty truth to war that soldiers must do immoral things. Shooting at civilian infrastructure is often frowned upon, but what is the best way of destroying the enemy's morale than hitting the home front? Water treatment plants, bridges, the entire country becomes fair game when it's a total war. Some would argue that killing is immoral itself, and you cannot seriously tell me that all killings by the US forces are in self-defense. Self-defense generally means someone who poses an immediate threat, but what about murky situations like when a tank commander orders firing on some smoking enemy soldiers? Sometimes you cannot give the enemy a chance to surrender, because he may refuse and immediately respond with hostility.

So it's only some immoral things that we do not tolerate, such as arbitrary killings of civilians for no purpose, torture, genocide. So is the line to be drawn on invasion of another country, for the individual soldier? I do not think so, because any and every war involves invasions.

[CmdrWilkens]

Gil Hamilton said:

The Nuremburg Trial was full of guys who had legal orders from their lawfully elected government, but we agreed that is no excuse.

Note that I'm not comparing American soldiers to Nazis. However, the point is that there must, therefore, exist a line somewhere where lawful orders are no longer something that soldiers are obliged to obey and the decisions of the legally elected government don't apply.

This is an excellent point. According to CmdrWilkens, if you sign a contract that spells out unquestioning obediance, and you were fully aware of these terms and conditions, then you should have no recourse to disobey unless granted by a very rare CO dispensation.

[/quote]

Wow way to completely mischaractarize what I said. Note that I specifically mentioned the need for obediance to LAWFUL orders. So somehow that got transmuted in your mind into goosestepping down the line of history. Would you like to attack something other than a strawman and address my actual position.

First of all, they shouldn't have that kind of blanket control over people in the FIRST place. Obviously it is important to follow orders and in order for unit cohesion to be seamless and effective, obeying commands is expected, but as decribed above, there HAS to be a limit. What if you were given orders to shoot your mother? As highly unlikely as this is, say she was an immigrant from Iraq and while visiting the country she lobbed a bottle at a soldier and you happened to be present and were told to shoot her.

Again you are somehow claiming I have ignored limits which somehow requires you miss the word lawful in my post.

Could you object? Are you saying that you shouldn't have the right to challenge the order?

See above.

It's a sticky situation due to the nature of the army and war, but there has to be some moralistic exemptions that you can fall back on. Being employed by the army is essentially only a JOB after all, it's not slavery.

Wow part three combined with total lack of comprehension of the nature of the armed services. So again I have never claimed that anything compels you to follow illegal orders HOWEVER the requirement to deploy is a fully legal order and carries no negative moral lines. Moreover if you feel an order was unlawful then you should object and willingly stand before a duly appointed adjudication which will determine if that was the case.There has never been nor, you will note I have never advocated, total obediance but rather an understanding that your contract does not garuntee that the missions you will be ordered to undertake agree with your political leanings. By placing yourself under control of the cvilian government you are required to accept the decisions of the political majority unless they are illegal.

--

On a seperate note:

As to it being just a job I honestly don't know of too many jobs where you spend the first 20 weeks living in communcal barracks eating, exercising, and trianing with your co-workers before going through the next 4 years in group living arrangements where meals are communal and the company moves you about the world based on the needs of the nation as determined by its politcal leaders. Honestly if you can find another JOB that is close to that well you won't.

[Sidewinder]

The guy makes some good points, but others... I have my doubts about whether or not he is what he claims to be, namely, "a Sergeant in the United States Army and served as an Airborne Infantryman for six years, went to Iraq in March 2003 and served until March 2004, remained in the Army a little longer before refusing to take part in the Occupation of the Middle East and went AWOL." Soldiers who express the opinions he expressed in this letter will not be promoted to a leadership position, i.e., the rank of Sergeant and above.

Considering that Iraq Veterans Against the War has been burned by a poser-- see Jesse Macbeth-- I think it's best to wait until further info on James Circello becomes available.

[ArchMage]

I wonder if the 'signed a contract, so stay in no matter what the army does" idea would of worked for the germans after WWII.

[Jadeite]

I wonder if the 'signed a contract, so stay in no matter what the army does" idea would of worked for the germans after WWII.

Considering how many high ranking officers ended up in the West Germany army, I'd say it worked out pretty well for them.

[Wanderer]

I wonder if the 'signed a contract, so stay in no matter what the army does" idea would of worked for the germans after WWII.

Considering how many high ranking officers ended up in the West Germany army, I'd say it worked out pretty well for them.

Only because the Allies dropped the ball on prosecuting them for their crimes.

Still, they managed to nab several thousand.

[ray245]

I wonder if the 'signed a contract, so stay in no matter what the army does" idea would of worked for the germans after WWII.

Considering how many high ranking officers ended up in the West Germany army, I'd say it worked out pretty well for them.

Only because the Allies dropped the ball on prosecuting them for their crimes.

Still, they managed to nab several thousand.

Didn't the allies just ignore some people's actions in ww2 because they have some vital information and etc. Like the scientist in Japan's germ program or something...where they used plenty of humans as live subjects and they got away without any charges due to US wanting some germ program intel as well?