Reply #200: questions from panther

[monicab]

My questions/comments:


OK it's clear to me atrocities and gross human rights violations are happening in the Middle East and wherever else Americans are.... kids are being shot,and there torture and all sorts of other awful things being done in Afghanistan/Iraq to the people there.I think these "insurgents" are for the most part decent people defending their country and culture from invading robber baron colonists,posing as a military,so thoroughly this lie is that the grunts don't have a clue they are being exploited....

How long until this becomes blow back?

Answer: I feel there are a lot of soldiers that are becoming aware of just how they are being used, it may seem like it should be obvious and it is in a way but sometime people have a hard time realizing that someone that is supposed to be your friend and your support is not what they have been preaching. If you rely on someone that you felt was in your corner and you think that they would not put you in the position to commit illegal acts then it is hard to admit it to yourself, it's like your brother or some other family member doing something to you that you never in a million years thought they would do to you.
I feel that a lot of soldiers feel let down by the very people that are supposed to safeguard the ideals that led them to join the military in the first place. There are no angels in the military but on the other hand, for the most, the people that are serving are in the middle of the extreme. There are some that will do whatever they are told no matter what but they are not the majority. I think that it boils down to this; it is hard to admit that you have been duped and that is the case with more than just military. No one wants to admit that to themselves and I know that this situation is much more deadly than most but the people that are in the military are just that; people, and sometimes people make mistakes that are hard to admit and are hard to rectify. I don't want to seem like I am oversimplifying this, but I feel that sometimes, it seems that people that have not been in the military think that somehow the people that have are supposed to be some kind of super human that can do all the right things all the time, but when you cut through all of the hype, all you have are individuals that are in the most insane thing anyone can be involved in trying to do what is best and unfortunately what happens isn't always the best thing. That is why after seeing for myself what war really is without the Hollywood hype, I have now come the most sensible conclusion for myself, and that is to help people understand the truth about it.


QUESTION: In one Response a soldier wrote and said the soldiers around him bragged about how loyal and obedient they were to their commanders.That they'd shoot their own sister if they were ordered to. This is scary. What percent in your observation of soldiers have that kind of blind loyalty? How many routinely don't ask questions of their superiors or their orders and fail think about what they do when they do wrong and KNOW it is wrong?
This cultivation of sociopaths in soldiers is what scares me not only about the military but for the American people.

How to we stop the authoritarian climate that fosters bullying and the very notion of a chain of command designed to absolve an individual soldier of feeling the weight off his own choices and conscience in combat situations when ordered to commit atrocities, while it excuses the order givers at the same time.

It's like the military is..at least for some soldiers ..almost like one big huge ongoing Stanford experiment.

ANSWER: I cannot speak for the entire military, I can speak about the soldiers that I have contact with and out of those I can say that only a small percentage have the type of attitude that you speak of.
The way to stop the climate of bullying tactics is to raise the awareness level of people around you and in your circle of friends and acquaintances, education is the key to this I believe, and to get the apathy out of the way people look at things wouild also be very helpful. My father used to tell me that at the town meeting discussing apathy only two people bothered to show up and one of them was sleeping during the meeting. I don't know if I have all the answers but I know that this is something that we need to address as an entire nation, apathy is something that more and more is letting this type of thing happen in the first place, whenever the general population doesn't pay attention to what their government is doing these are the results you wind up with.


QUESTION: I fear alot of soldiers get traumatized ,and suffer and do it with silence until their conscience gets submerged.This is deliberate.
This Breaking down of a recruit and reprogramming him is what makes and efficient killing machine out of a human being.

For the American people I see a similar and milder/slower form of the same sorts of mind manipulations and threats etc going on, because it's clear to me this push for father figures,discipline,obedience and loyalty to symbolic authority still overrides citizen conscience, self interest and common sense for far too many citizens.

Any thoughts on this.

ANSWER: We as a people have to have some type of law that guides us in our daily life or else we would break down to total anarchy. That is not good if we are to be a people with a common goal of peace and security to us and our children.

I think that the way the constitution is written gives us the ultimate authority to govern ourselves but the general population has abdictated their responsiblity to ensure the the government does not get out of control. I feel that too many of us look to the government for far too many things, we want to have the security that it provides so we look the other way when they do something we may not agree with and we only get upset when it does something that affects us directly.
I feel that we as citizens in this country and the way the constitution was written gives us the responsiblity as well as the rights to be citizens and we have to take it seriously and start holding up our end of the bargain and stop saying it is the big bad government's fault for things we let happen.

I know you had one more questions and I will answer them but now my dogs need attention as they are requesting a trip out doors and I will come back after this scheduled morning ritual.

Thanks for making me think, it is good brain exercise.

Kevin