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Christianity was supposed to be about becoming like Jesus. | |
We went in the wrong direction. |
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Christian Pioneer - eBook for Cell Phone Everything you Know is Wrong |
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| Military Service An enforcer for the mob. Mag. General Smedley Butler wrote a book “War is a Racket” citing his experience in what were called the “banana wars” (military intervention in the Caribbean to pacify unrest to the advantage of US corporations). Most military activity is in support of combat troops who are the leading edge of force to be applied to opponents. If a collective can be seen as a giant robot, the military might be seen as a giant robot with a gun. In trying to see behind all that is false in the world, it can help to de-mystify many of the things we have come to rely on. In dealing with others we can get them to agree with us (political deal), threaten them with a consequence, or we can kill them so that their objections no longer matter. If one looks at history, these dynamics are played out from street gangs to kingdoms. In Medieval times any thug could declare himself to be in charge of a county (usually the distance one could cover by horseback in a day). If anyone else wanted to be in charge, they would fight to the death for it.  The two uses of force were to defend against somebody who wanted to take away your control of your county or to be used to take control of someone else’s county. To maintain the ability to apply force, one kept some knights on hand to use to attack or defend against the knights of others. The balance of power lay in the willingness to use violence to get what you wanted. The clergy even began to advocate for a code of chivalry to limit the violence that these “leaders” would inflict on each other. As nations began to grow out of these local contentions, so did the size of military forces and the logistics to support them. This costly enterprise was often cloaked in moral terms such as with the crusades.  When one-sided technology provided the ability for colonialism, the “us versus them” dynamic was often cloaked in the vocabulary of how they are being “helped”. In the present day, military service is often presented in patriotic terms, but still has the function of being used by the worst sort of vain, self-serving scoundrels one can imagine. There can be deep feelings of sacrifice and suffering associated with military service. However, it can be beneficial not to allow that as a cover for the unscrupulous to waste the lives of our youth. If we consider the US involvement in Viet Nam, one can see politics at work. Truman gave some support to the French in their colony in Indo China in an attempt to prevent France from going Communist after WWII and consistent with his view of containment. Ho Chi Minh had already been fighting for independence for decades. President Johnson, perhaps mindful of the trouncing the Democratic party took in 1952 because they appeared soft on Communism, may have felt that there was political advantage in being “tough on Communism” and so escalated the US role in the Viet Nam war. If one thinks of the military as a weapon, it can be tempting to use it (or misuse it). Beyond just defense, the opportunity it seems to offer in nation building and being a threat used to bully others into doing what you want is often too tempting to resist.  Seeing truth requires us to set aside those images we may hold dear. No one wants to think the lives of their children were wasted. No one wants to think that those who have been crippled live lives of unnecessary difficulty for no reason. However millions dead and wounded are undeniable facts. That it was done to make France feel good or a political party appear in a good light seems tragically stupid. That those who make these decisions do so with apparently little regard for the lives that are wasted, is a testimony to the need to expose to the light of truth that which the powerful wish to remain hidden. |
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