Dunno what to call this one...

As I’ve said before, I’m a daily reader of Daily Kos thanks to my mother. And a gentleperson who goes by the name of leisure on that blogsite said an interesting thing today. “You want to end this war soldier? Put down your gun and end it yourself.” The idea of that intrigued me to no end. What would happen if every single soldier in Iraq just simply said “no farther” and dropped their weapons? What would happen if they just sat down and refused to fight? Congress and the so-called president continue to drag their heels and fail to pass legislation to at least try and set a time table for pulling out troops out, so why not take matters into your own hands?

There are some foreseeable snafus with this plan. First of all, there has got to be at least one or two troops who are all for killing Iraqis and buy the right wing republican line hook, line and sinker. They’re not exactly likely to drop their weapons and join a sit in against the war. Another problem with this action taking place is the war itself. It is a war after all, and if an actual “insurgent” comes across an entire battalion or platoon of American soldiers “putting down their guns and ending it themselves” it would be difficult for said insurgent to not kill the hell out of them.

Thirdly, and this is the one I place the most stock in, you have to take boot camp into consideration. It has been my firmly held belief for quite some time now that the purpose of boot camp is not to train new recruits but to stamp out any touch of individuality these men and women have in order to turn them into mindless, faceless drones devoted to fighting (and fucking if you believe the stories my Navy and Marine friends have told me lol). And no matter how much individuality they gain back once they’re done with boot camp, it’s hard to turn off the “follow orders” directive once it’s been Pavlovianly instilled deep in your subconscious. My husband has been out of the Army for a good 10 years or more and he still can’t quite get over the “follow orders” directive. And even if they can overcome the directive, they risk getting arrested for dereliction of duty and getting thrown in the stockade. And I’m pretty sure the military is one organization you can count on to punish every single rule breaker, regardless of how many rule breakers there are. Which would then call for more troops to be deployed, which would probably reinstitute the draft…snowball, anyone?

It’s really easy for someone not in the military or with no military experience to sit back and tell the troops to ignore their orders because “they know it’s wrong.” It’s really easy to sit back and call them enablers and blame them just as much for this insane war as we blame the Bush presidency. But you have to be able to look at it from the soldier’s perspective. They’ve been taught since day one of basic training to love their country right or wrong, and to defend their country to the death. They might not agree with why, but you show them an enemy and they’ll kill said enemy. So no, leisure, they can’t just “put their guns down and end it themselves.” I dare say they are able to do that, but I don’t think they’re capable of doing it. It’s a fine distinction, but a distinction none the less.

Mind you, I do agree that it would be perfectly wonderful if they tried it, and if it succeeded because, in theory, if there are no soldiers to fight it then there can be no war to fight.

I don’t mean to sound like I’m a conservative or anything…I’m most definitely a bleeding heart liberal through and through. I just can’t and don’t agree with anyone who tries to blame the collective military of the USA for this bullshit war. Too many members of my family, and too many of my friends as well, have been or currently are soldiers for me to blame them for the continuance of the bullshit war. The blame rests squarely with a so-called president who abuses his power and a Congress who continues to abstain from making him stop.