If you have children or grandchildren who are at the age when the military is a career option, have them read this. From Casey Carlisle at antiwar.com:
I had hoped to speak to high-schoolers – I still do – but the six high schools nearest me either ignored my offer to speak or declined it. “Do it for the kids,” they say when asking to raise your property taxes, but it’s beyond the pale to dissuade those very same kids from needlessly putting themselves in harm’s way? Parents might have a different opinion, so here’s my speech:
Before we get into this, let’s discuss what most would label “a hypothetical.” Tonight, I’m going to break into your home, point a gun at you, and rob you – all the while claiming that I’m not your enemy. Your enemy, I’ll say, is elsewhere, and I don’t mean across the street but in a different country. What will you do? By a show of hands, will you fight back and protect those in your home by evicting me or even by killing me? By a show of hands, who will thank me and travel to said country in search of the enemy, leaving those in your home vulnerable to me? Anyone? Nobody? It sounds absurd, but for reasons that I’ll soon explain, you’ll understand that it’s more real than hypothetical.
Hello, I’m Casey Carlisle. I’m a West Point graduate, and I spent five years in the Army, including 11 months in Afghanistan. Some of you are thinking about serving your country, and most of you are asking yourselves, “Why am I listening to this guy?” I’m glad that both of these groups are here, and I promise that my remarks will cause both groups to think differently about military service.
I was in the Marine Corps from 1968 to 1972 (Vietnam era) and discovered the same thing. While America pointed out the criminal acts of the communists we were fighting the same techniques were employed by the ‘allies’ and the government of South Vietnam who fought the communists.
The Taliban have many faults and immoralities, they were brought to power by Jimmy Carter (president at the time) and financed and given arms, they still receive ‘foreign aid’ even after the failure of America to instill democracy by killing people in a foreign land. As the Americans were withdrawing and the failure was on the news one reporter asked the Biden administration if America would continue to send the Taliban money (foreign aid), the advisor sidestepped the question and stated that they would certainly have to look into it, the aid continues.
The connections between governments that claim to be rivals are often misleading as they cooperate to achieve their own ends which are not the same as those employed to do the actual killing and destroying. Each competing government has its own ends which are not the same as those who believe they are defending innocence and protecting the plundered.
What I decided because of what I learned is that no government will ever employ me again to do its killing or destroying of others. I do not trust its motives which are hidden behind patriotic bromides used to convince those it controls, taxes and convinces its citizens that it is only doing what is moral and will protect those it destroys.