>Doug:
>> No. They're trained killers who follow orders without question. Yeah,
>> I know all about the pressures that make people join, but they are,
>> in the final analysis, volunteers. And yeah, it's nasty risky work,
>> but they signed on the dotted line. I don't owe them any gratitude.
>>
>> And, as we learned at Nuremburg, following orders is no excuse.
>
>I am certainly sympathetic to this line of reasoning, but I also spent
>enough time among the GIs to believe that things are that simple. Yes, they
>do voluntarily sign the dotted line, but they are not necessarily trained
>killers who follow orders without question. More likely, they become such
>killers as a result of the circumstances - as for example superbly portrayed
>in the film _A full metal jacket_.
>
>I think there is a lot of middle ground and shadows of grey between
>gratitude and condemnation.
I saw John Crawford, who's written what may be the first novel of the Iraq war, reading with Chrstian Parenti the other week. Christian pretty much discovered him on one of his visits to Iraq, and put him together with an agent. Now he's got a best-selling novel. Crawford's a smart guy, but he made it very clear that he's an army man, as were his colleagues. They do/did as they're told, and don't think or talk about politics. As Christian pointed out, in this they're good Americans, who in civilian life don't think much about politics either. But even though these guys have gotten fucked over by a lying administration who sent them, under-equipped, into a hideous and pointless war, they don't seem to mind. Deserters like the wonderful Camilo Majia are rare indeed.
Doug