I really don’t know what to think about soldiers. The obvious patriotic answer would be to say I support them and then do nothing about it. The accepted liberal answer is to say they’re doing a shitty thing but it’s the administration’s fault. My problem is that I tend to firmly believe that there comes a point when you have to hold people accountable for their decisions. Take the Milgram Experiment , which found that people who are otherwise genuinely good and caring, are more than happy to murder strangers to appease authority. Is this not a flaw worth condemning? The oddity of the warrior class is that they necessitate their own existence. If one were to ask "Why do we need soldiers?" the answer is invariably "because they have soldiers." I think all of us would prefer to live in a world devoid of soldiery.
There is no question that soldiers tend to be brave. I also don’t doubt that most of them are generally well meaning people with qualities that can represent some of the very best of humanity. Yet, on the other hand, they’ve made an almost criminal surrender of their moral agency. In John Steinbeck’s "Grapes of Wrath" one of the most haunting themes was that of the Bank Monster. Families would be evicted, unions busted, and people murdered but the people who actually performed these actions would claim "I’m just doing my job; it’s the bank’s fault". Of course the bank has no representative to chastise, and Steinbeck’s argument, which I’m making now, can be put shortly: "Bullshit, you’re responsible for what you do."
I don’t think this is a new idea, but it also serves us well to be reminded, soldiers may be our first defense, but they have also historically been the pillars of oppression, genocide, and immeasurable cruelty. The fact is, while the soldiers may serve a good purpose or bad, their almost insane willingness to do what their told without question has always been a major threat to society. At this point, I am to be reminded that soldiers defend my freedom, and that this very fact should make them immune to my disparaging of them. However, the soldiers don’t defend my freedom. They do what their told, which may or may not happen to defend my freedom. I might argue that this is a liability. Unlike the patriot minutemen and militias of the revolutionary war, and the rugged world war 2 grunts who heroically signed up to defend our freedoms from a clear threat, these soldiers didn’t sign up for any such specific purpose. They signed on to a void, with no set mission, and they agreed to follow orders whatever they may be. Some of them signed on after 9/11 to fight terrorism, but they did so before a clear mission or enemy had been laid down. They may have wanted to fight the vaporous concept of "Terrorism", but they signed away their right to make decisions and got sent to launder tax payer dollars into corporate dollars in Iraq. Still some signed up after Iraq, these soldiers may believe that they are doing the right thing to defend their country, and many may be highly discerning individuals of immense integrity. I salute these soldiers, for they are doing what they think is right, but they are still wrong.
What really chaps my ass about this indiscriminate soldier love is the way in which it is designed to make me a victim. The army defends my freedom? I am some poor sheep that needs protection? You show me the approaching hordes and I’ll pick up my gun (or pen) to defend my freedoms as vigorously as you claim to be doing right now. The very second an enemy army lands on the beaches of my country me and many of my fellow Americans will stand up to defend our country, and I resent the claim that my freedoms are being looked after for me. I’m sorry, but that’s horse shit.
I don’t hate soldiers. I don’t even dislike them. I don’t encourage other people to dislike them, and I do believe they are all brave men. I hope they all live through their current quagmire, and wish the best for their families, but I refuse to allow you to tell me that they are defending what is mine. I am not a coddled civilian to be "looked after". I am a proud American in a long line of Americans who have stood up for themselves, and while I may be green, I can and will stand up for myself when I see a clear threat, whether it be a foreign nation, or a malicious presidency.
You can stop telling me you're protecting me now. We can protect ourselves, as we've done for the last 200 plus years.