You are not required to obey an unlawful order.
You are required to disobey an unlawful order.
I want all of my National Guard and USA-ROTC students, several of whom have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, back in class next semester! Registration starts in two weeks, and you can do it on the Internet! If the servers are slow, send me e-mail via Telnet or SSH, and I can get it done for you!
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Professor, muy buenas dias,
You say you would like to see all your students return from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Are they superior, as humans, to the Iraqui and Afghan people?
Why are they going overseas with guns and ammunition? What right have they to kill Arabs?
Why are the Iraqui people killing American soldiers? How many Iraquis have come to america, killing and raping?
Knowing your appreciation of poetry, here is an Iraqui re-working of a Leonard Cohen classic.
Les americains étaient chez moi,
ils me disent, “résigne toi,”
mais je n’ai pas peur;
j’ai repris mon arme.
J’ai changé cent fois de nom,
j’ai perdu femme et enfants
mais j’ai tant d’amis;
j’ai l’Irak entièr.
Un vieil homme dans un grenier
pour la nuit nous a caché,
les Americains l’ont pris;
il est mort sans surprise.
The soldiers who come to Iraq are servants of Bush.
Check this link;
http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/104405
If the war is illegal, then the soldiers should turn on those who called for war, and arrest them.
Just a thought, but if anyone should have to die in this gruesome war, then let it be the americans. Every single last one of them has chosen, of their own free will, to enter into battle.
The Iraqui people never asked for war. We would all prefer peace, but if ever a military force deserved to be completely destroyed , then it is now, and it is the american military that needs to be wiped from the planet, like a malodorous stain.
They have killed, raped and tortured their way across the world, and in doing so, have dragged the american people into their whorehouse of murder and lust.
Patriotism can be a trap, which when sprung, robs people of their humanity, and clouds their moral judgement.
Paz, e espero que no le he ofendido. Pero en tiempo de guerra, sentirse sobre el muro, puede ser peligroso.
Landsker.
Are they superior, as humans, to the Iraqui and Afghan people?
Landsker, I never said or implied this. You’re trying to put words into my mouth.
The soldiers who come to Iraq are servants of Bush.
Try slaves, landsker. I’ve got returnees who have been court-martialed for disobedience, attempted suicide while there, etc.
If you want to be abusive and condescending to an American, try writing Bush, not me.
To Europeans in general, since I’ve gotten more than one comment like landsker’s from Europe: I welcome conversation, but not abuse. You are not superior to anyone, and you are not more intelligent or more knowledgeable just because you are European. (I, for example, have probably read more European literature by now than many of you.) Your record on colonialism, imperialism, torture, etc., is not very good. Many U.S. practices you now condemn, you and yours instituted in the Americas in the first place, and held in place directly as long as 400 years — and indirectly, for longer. You built your intellectual civilization from the Renaissance onward while financing yourselves with gold, silver, and more from the Americas and elsewhere, reserving ‘humanity’, ‘rationality’ and so on for your people at home. Please look at yourselves, and look at your speech, before you bring belligerence to this site.
Landsker, one of the things the U.S. media won’t tell you is that military units have mutinied, both in Iraq and in the United States before being shipped there, because they didn’t want to be making war in Iraq. The wussy U.S. news media also doesn’t mention the sudden changes in the rules that have forced reservists and National Guard members to go to Iraq, even though their units aren’t supposed to be used that way unless the United States itself is being attacked. There’ve been other rule changes of that sort as well.
These are human beings, as diverse as any other group of human beings elsewhere in the world. Calling for uniform judgements is counterproductive. They are not uniformly anything, and they’re certainly not uniformly guilty.
You want things to change? Write to your own government. Tell them to have the UN come in and monitor our elections to see that they’re honest. That’s something we could really use.
Teresa,
Thankyou for the news of mutinies, I had known of some individual refusals to serve, and also of some desertions.
It is good news. Perhaps my comment was somewhat overly comdemnative of the individual soldier. However, the actions of individuals contribute to the action of the state, do they not?
Many genuinely think they are serving America, my comment was intended to provoke thought, and contemplation.
As Profacero opines, they are slaves not servants.
Which got me to realise that perhaps these soldiers signed up as teenagers, or young adults.
Tempted perhaps by the notion of a paycheck, a clean bed and regular hot food. Many U.K soldiers come from extremely low-income families.
Is it the same trend with the u.s. ?
I have written (politely) to the white house, and the pentagon, no response from the white house, from the pentagon, an image of a missile with a few puerile phrases.
It might enlighten you to hear that I also wrote to , telephoned, and on several occasions met directly with officials within the British government.
Their comments led me to believe that they too understood that the american people had become victims of the “Neocons”, and their “Plan for the new american century”.
To paraphrase the stance mooted by the British Government: [“Unofficial” /”Unauthorised”/”Anonymous”]
“U.K. forces are not of a sufficient strength to invade and disarm the madness that is now Washington. This can only be considered by the Americans themselves.”
As for the U.N. overseeing the forthcoming elections…… no comment.
Finally, as I said in Spanish, ” I hope I have not offended you, but to sit on the wall in times of war can be dangerous.”
Peace, Landsker.
Hi Landsker –
1. I don’t think anyone’s sitting on the fence here, or waving the American flag. 2. The Pentagon actually have their letterhead decorated with a missile?! Ay ay. 3. Very interesting that the British government now refers to ‘the madness that is now Washington’. I thought the UK had been the only major force that was complicit in this whole madness. Have I not been watching the news fully enough, and/or has something changed? 4. On soldiers coming from low income families, and signing up when very young, yes. Recruiters target secondary schools. And if you live in a place that resembles a wasteland, and you have financial pressures (for example, an ill parent who is among the many uninsured), it can look like an option. The National Guard, in particular, are not supposed to be used in foreign wars. It is easy to say ‘they should know better’, but many did not have the access to information you and I have. 5. Finally, on this: “my comment was intended to provoke thought, and contemplation” – I know, and it’s OK. But, for the various Europeans and U.S. military who have posted here and not gotten published, one of the things I mean by condescension is stating the obvious/restating a truism, and assuming the audience has never heard it before. The peace movement in this country really will not be heard if we blame the soldiers for the war. 6. Ultra-finally, not about landsker’s comments, but about some I have not published: I find it really odd when people come to THIS site to say things to the tune of, have you ever heard that U.S. foreign policy is bad, have you ever heard of the French Revolution, have you ever realized that it is hard to be a veteran, etc. I also find it odd when people come to ask why we are ‘writing and not acting’. How do they know this is the case, I wonder! And why are they not taking their own advice?