[lbo-talk] We can lose, or we can just lose later

Louis Kontos Louis.Kontos at liu.edu
Fri Nov 25 15:32:13 PST 2005


If you have genuine respect for military personnel, for whatever reason, then it makes sense to speak honestly with and about them. Thanking them for a military adventure that you yourself call unjust seems rather hypocritical -- and condescending -- to me. I feel no need to thank anybody for doing something I consider unjust, notwithstanding everything you said about the military code. While you seem to appreciate the military code (at least those parts of it that mandate obedience and sacrifice, not anything else), you seem to lack an understanding of hypocrisy.


> I thank soldier in uniform (active duty) and people I know to have
> recently served, just as I would thank firefighters who had recently
> fought a fire in my neighborhood. And, by the way, we are pretty good
> to our firefighters in this country.
>
> One of the main reasons to single out active-duty military is not just
> what they must risk, but what they must do. I don't assume that
> soldiers like to kill people or be part of an enterprise that kills
> and destroys. In fact I know that it is a terribly disheartening thing
> to do. As a person who disagrees with their mission and wants to throw
> out their command, I want them to understand that I appreciate the
> difficulty of maintaining good order and discipline, motivation, and
> even sanity in such a violent, destructive enterprise - especially
> when people are questioning the entire structure and purpose of what
> you're doing. No firefighter has to question whether he is doing the
> right thing and every soldier does.
>
> Are there guys in Iraq who are both doing the wrong thing and doing it
> for the wrong reasons? Sure, but I don't assume this of soldiers and,
> as I say, it has not been my experience. So, I do think they deserve
> to be singled out for thanks. And I think it's very important for the
> Left to show we understand that this is OUR military and WE are just
> as responsible for them as the Right.
>
> I don't know of a socialist government that has not respected
> soldiers, so why should we on the Left?
>
> boddi
>
>
> On 11/24/05, Gar Lipow <the.typo.boy at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 11/24/05, boddi satva <lbo.boddi at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Yes, many Nazi soldiers were draftees and we prosecuted realtively few
>>> people of lower rank (compared to their overall numbers). There were
>>> even Nazi draftees and officers who rejected their orders at times as
>>> illegal. I don't think the fact that there were Nazi draftees does
>>> anything but strengthen my point. Voluntary participation in war for
>>> one's society has been expected from citizens at least since the days
>>> of Greece and Rome.
>>>
>>
>> Your original argument was one of expressing "gratitude" to members of
>> the military on every conceivable occassion. Do you take the same
>> opportunity with firefighters who face much greater risks than the
>> military (compare occupation death rates) and who protect from far
>> greater dangers? Also firefighters, (unlike our military) are not
>> primarily instruments of agression; our military protects us only as a
>> side affect of agression if it protects us at all. I have great
>> sympathy for our young people in the military; I have none for their
>> mission, though I understand my view of what that mission is , is
>> drastically different from theirs.
>>
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>
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