Worshipping Soldiers

"A government is like fire, a handy servant, but a dangerous master." George Washington

On October 15 I wrote about a teacher who taught students to praise soldiers.
http://f4u.blogspot.com/2007/10/teaching-students-to-praise-soldiers.html

Today I received on a yahoo group other messages asking for us to support our troops.

The Group Moderator wrote- D N forwarded a request to acknowledge our thanks to wounded vets by mailing letters to Walter Reed Army Hospital,by addressing them to a Recovering American soldier.

BUT... the Walter Reed Hospital website (http://tinyurl.com/32clw3) says such mail will not be delivered.

Instead, the website urges you to:

...consider making a donation to one of the more than 300 nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping our troops and their families listed on the "America Supports You" website:

http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/

Other organizations that offer means of showing your support for our troops or assisting wounded service members and their families include:

http://www.usocares.org/http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/tooursoldiers/http://www.redcross.org/
Three hundred organizations to support our troops! I checked one out and who the sponsors were. One of the sponsors was a networking company.

I suspect many of these companies are in the war racket and need Pentagon contracts. Keeping up the moral of the troops is helpful if you want a pentagon contract.

People who worship soldiers should realize soldiers only follow orders. Soldiers throughout history have turned on their own citizenry. Soldiers under Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, and recently Myanmar and Pakistani, were just following orders and arresting those who dissent. Even young Japanese men volunteered to fight for the U.S. during World War Two as their parents were sent to internment camps.

You don't think it could happen here! When I was a young soldier following orders and had been asked to arrest my family I would have said no. Had I been asked to arrest a family I did not know, I would have followed orders.

The members of an all volunteer army are looking out for their best interest. They are mercenaries. If the army was made up of draftees it would be different, though still dangerous. Force is good if it is used to protect me, but evil when it is turned on me in order to do good. All soldiers following orders and using their force believe they are doing good.

Soldiers and civilians do what is in their best interest. Using force to do good will justify any action. Power does not corrupt our souls, it unleashes the corruption that already existed. If you don't believe you would follow orders you should study the Stanley Milgram experiment on obedience. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment I saw the old black and white films. It is frightening to know that your friends and neighbors who you admire and trust could turn on you.

We should worship the commercial fishermen who put food on our table. They volunteer to do this and have one of the highest occupation fatality rates of any occupation. Another group we should worship are construction workers who provide us shelter. They also have a high occupation fatality rate. Another group who volunteers to provide us with a healthy place to live is the garbage collectors. How about the plumbers and sewer workers? These are the people we should worship.

When the British army was fighting - and beating - the French, the Duke of Wellington described his troops as "the scum of the earth, and men who have enlisted for drink".

The Duke of Wellington is one of my favorite generals. He never lost a battle, even using the scum and drunks as soldiers.

Charles Tolleson

Lyrics, "Universal Soldier", written by Buffy St Marie

he's 5'2 and he's 6'4,he fights with missiles and with spears.
he's all of 31 and he's only 17,
he's been a soldier for a thousand years.
he's a catholic, a hindu, an athiest, a jain,
a buddhist and a baptist and a jew
and he knows he shouldnt kill
and he knows he always will kill
you for me, my friend and me, for you
and he's fighting for canada,
he's fighting for france,
he's fighting for the USA
and he's fighting for the russians
and he's fighting for japan,
and he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
and he's fighting for democracy
and fighting for the reds,
he says it's for the peace of all.
he's the one who must decide
who's to live and who's to die,
and he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him, how would Hitler
Have condemned him, at Dachau?
Without him Cesar would have stood alone,
He's the one, who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him always killing cant go on.
he's the universal soldier and he really is to blame,
his orders come from far away no more.
they come from him
and you and me and brothers, cant you see?
this is not the way we put an end to war