A few brief notes on Thomas Knapp’s reply to my carping. Knapp writes:
I pay more attention to American deaths, because my goal is to influence the opinions of Americans. Americans are the ones who can bring this debacle to an end.
Understood. I have a different goal: to destroy nationalism. Here’s to our mutual success.
I know of no one who volunteers to be a “slave” when joining the US military. Doing so entails a time-delimited contractual obligation, not involuntary servitude (the contract even includes the specific provisions under which one’s enlistment may be “involuntarily” extended).
Throughout history slavery has not been a singular institution. It has sometimes been time limited. Wikipedia (emphasis added):
The 1926 Slavery Convention described slavery as “…the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised…” Therefore a slave is someone who cannot leave an owner or employer without explicit permission, and who will be returned if they escape. Control may be accomplished through official or tacit arrangements with local authorities by masters who have some influence because of their status.
Perhaps calling soldiers slaves is a bit of a stretch, perhaps not. Soldiers are not free humans in any case.
Knapp again:
Furthermore, not only do enlistees not volunteer to be murderers, but their oath of enlistment is very specific in that it binds them to “defend and protect the Constitution of the United States,” not to randomly or non-randomly kill individuals without legitimate cause to do so.
Where defending and protecting is a tremendous stretch and includes engaging in mass murder.
And, if they realize they are being misused, it takes some big-time guts to stand up and say “no, this isn’t in my contract, no that order is not lawful, and no, I’m not going to obey it.”
I have two sets of heroes. The smart or lucky ones: draft dodgers. The stupid or unlucky ones: deserters.
But don’t fuck the kids who are dribbling their blood into the sand because they were naive enough to believe that their country would not ask them to do evil things. They’re victims in this thing as much anyone else. You can’t put someone in an insane situation and then expect sane conduct. It doesn’t work that way.
They weren’t put in an insane situation, they volunteered. Granted, many of them don’t have significant ability to think ahead. Given that lame excuse, in lieu of saying “fuck the U.S. troops” I hereby nominate the 1844 killed so far (17 additional winners since your Sunday post) for a collective darwin award.
[…] On this Memorial Day (U.S.) I honor draft dodgers, deserters and others not stupid enough to be darwinized at the command of their parentlandjurisdiction’s politicians. […]
Good god man! I cannot believe that anyone would be that hateful to viciously attack and deride soldiers who died in action. I just love it what wimpy little bleeding hearts take their 5th Amendment rights to the utter limit by disparaging those individuals who fight to protect that freedom. It is the worst kind of sophistry to condemn soldiers that fight in a war you don’t personally agree with, while either exercising rights assured by soldiers of a past war, or celebrating the soldiers of yesteryear.
To say that a soldier in an unpopular war is any less a patriot than a soldier that fought in the Revolutionary War is simple stupidity. How might that work in real life? Soldiers who sign up for the military make a stipulation on their application that any war that starts during their enlistment must be favorable in public opinion or they will not fight?
It is so incredibly irritating when rabidity collides headfirst with ignorance and stupidity as it has on this vomitous excuse for a blog. According to “Mike”, no person should ever enlist in the military. Ok. If no one enlists, then a country will do what that nation must (as many foreign countries still do) and that is demand compulsory military service. Many countries require that when a man (and some countries also include women) reaches a certain age, they must give the military two years of their life. Now, Mike would have us all doing compulsory military service, which means that MIKE would be “serving” (if one could call it that) as well. Now, would Mike then be a candidate for a Darwin award? Yes, because his claptrap actually caused his OWN ass to serve. What a dunce.
When anyone sits on the sidelines and exercises rights HE DID NOT SECURE, then the gentlemanly thing to do is simply to offer your thanks and SHUT YOUR STUPID MOUTH. It is one thing to crack on a president, or even to deride the reasoning for or execution of a particular war, it is quite another to actually insult the men who have died serving their country because YOU believe that cause is wrong.
It’s all fine for Mike to sit on the bench, with that silver spoon in his mouth, insulting people who either serve out of patriotism or because they have few other options, unlike Mike who looks down his haughty nose at them. Mike, after all, is these men’s better. Mike is “above all” that silly patriotism, and stupid notions such as love of country, and courage, and honor. Hahaha, what absurd ideals, I Mike am GREATER than everyone else and I DESERVE the right of free speech! Men should have fought to secure me the right to deride fallen American soldiers, because I am superior to them, I am surviving because I am fitter, I am the fittest.
No, Mike. What you are is an arrogant gasbag who doesn’t DESERVE the rights that you so blithely stretch to the limit. Only an ungrateful ASS would have the temerity to disrespect the very men who gave you those rights. No Mike, it is YOU who should have the decency to remove yourself from the gene pool of the U.S.A. (or the world for that matter), so that no future generation might be infected with your yellow-bellied cowardice and immeasurable stupidity. Or maybe… we should just let you change the enlistment forms for the military. You could put a clause in there that a soldier cannot be made to fight in any war that MIKE believes isn’t a good one. Then we’ll all just ask Mike if it would be ok if we fight terrorism. But just make sure to add the clause that IF Mike chooses that the soldiers don’t fight, then he must serve at the most terrorist-prone attack zone.
Yea, tell me Mike, what would you have done after 9/11? Told them that that was an unpopular thing to do and you are nominating them for a Darwin award? Yea, right. Tell you what; I DARE you to say that to their face, I DARE you to say what you did about the soldiers to their face. No, I didn’t think that would happen, because you are a coward, denigrating the lives of the very men who have given you the right to do what you do. Here’s hoping that we do institute compulsory service and you are the FIRST one to go and DIE, then we can nominate you for a Darwin award and rest peacefully at night.
[…] Again this Memorial Day (U.S.), I honor draft dodgers, deserters and others not stupid enough to be darwinized at the command of their parentland jurisdiction’s […]
I don’t recall if MIke has said in any detail what he’d have done after 9/11 if he were emperor, but I liked Joshua Burton’s suggestion, a way to bring down the Taliban without a single shot: encourage Monsanto to develop a cheap synthetic heroin.