Sorry pal, that's not the way an Army works.Antares wrote:But i can agree with him, when he says, that he wont fight in a war that is not considered legal in most parts of the world.
Yes, so why are you objecting?A soldier has to obey orders, even if he doesnt like them, otherwise the hole army would fall apart.
Disclaimer: I do not particularly support the war in Iraq. I actually smile every time I hear on the local news that the US had failed to find substantive evidence of Chems and Bios yet again."Fight the enemies of whom we decided, that they are threatening our country but the whole world isnt supporting this point of view"
Hmm....
Your nation, in principle at least, has its own specific interests. Sometimes, specific interests don't match with global interests. You are serving your country, not the world.
That's just the EXACT same scenario as above. You just added natural war consequences. While Iraq isn't great right now, the devastation in a war could be much worse. Dresden, Hiroshima, and so on are testimony."Fight the enemies of whom we decided, that they are threatening
It seems to be only in these past 10-15 years that people have gotten so sensitive to every casualty. Before, people actually understand that war means deaths, planes downed and cities burned. Now, every bomb that happens to miss gets an article. Every dead soldier gets an article (in Vietnam, AFAIK they'd be lucky to get a one line slot in a little corner somewhere in a newspaper.)
I'm terribly sorry. But in the Army, you are expected to lay all that aside and act as a professional. ESPECIALLY if you volunteered.But where's the border from which point on someone can no longer justify his own deeds? Would somebody who got a lot of friends in a country suddenly without any doubts fight this very country even if he knows that his friends will be on the others side?
This may sound cruel, but here's the truth. You joined to defend against 'all enemies, foreign and domestic.' (Different nations would have slightly different stuff but the basic cream would probably be similar.) The definition of enemy is always defined by your superiors and ultimately the government. Ultimately, Your only means of Defense is to Destroy.
There are really only two orders in an Army: "Destroy" and "Prepare to Destroy." A possible third would be "Preserve Ability to Destroy" (but that may just be a variant of the Preparation order) Every other order is some kind of variant of those two. These orders are issued by your superiors, who in turn had received more general, broad-reaching versions of those orders from his superiors.
When a subordinate's views disagree with a superior, ultimately, the subordinate must assume the superior knows better. While a good trooper should not create atrocities himself, in THEORY, a good trooper has to execute any order, up to and including an atrocity.
The only exception is when a superior of your superior has given you contradicting orders. In that case, follow the higher authority's orders to the best of your judgment and ability. That's ultimately why some orders are illegal.
If you aren't prepared to do that for your entire service period, don't volunteer. Especially don't volunteer just to get $50000, that's not even a step up from being a soldier for the pay.
That, as I understand it, is the basics of soldiering. It ain't pretty, but there it is.
