{"id":14182,"date":"2012-05-31T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=14182"},"modified":"2012-05-30T17:24:40","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T22:24:40","slug":"u-s-veteran-if-i-knew-what-i-know-now-i-would-never-have-joined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=14182","title":{"rendered":"U.S. veteran: ‘If I knew what I know now, I would never have joined…’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We’re frequently told that we must support foreign invasions and military operations in other countries because that means “supporting the troops.” A veteran of the military gave me his thoughts on this whole idea on Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

Those who support invading other countries and continuing wars that can’t be won tell us that doing so honors and supports the men and women who are fighting the wars. If that’s true, why did 87 percent of contributions from active-duty U.S. military people to GOP candidates go to Ron Paul<\/a> — the only candidate who supports an end to military adventurism, reserving the U.S. military to the role of defending this country rather than invading other countries that haven’t attacked us?<\/p>\n

More of those in the armed services have grave reservations about the way the military is used today. Some might be blindly supportive of the militaristic view of their civilian bosses, but a substantial number know better. And as many of them finish their time in the military and reflect on what they’ve seen and heard, they come to view things in very different ways. This is what a veteran said to me Monday in discussing the illustration above:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I served 10 years in the armed forces and received an honorable discharge from the service.\u00a0I did so because I was ignorant and had been lied to.\u00a0If I knew what I know now, I would never have joined or served.<\/p>\n

I do not<\/em> support the troops or\u00a0anyone else who is committing mass murder for pay.\u00a0The troops are without a doubt cannon fodder. If people could actually see what takes place on a battlefield we would never have another war. (Though we would have a few sick people more than willing to start one.)<\/p>\n

People who support war and the military have absolutely no idea of what is really going on.\u00a0Wars are won by distinction in the techniques of mass murder.\u00a0That is hardly something for a people (pretending to be civilized) to be proud of.<\/p>\n

— Mark Robbins<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you want to support soldiers, sailors and marines, support policies that will keep them safe and protect innocent civilians, both here and abroad. That means a more peaceful approach and a less antagonistic approach around the world<\/p>\n

We’ve made enough enemies now that it will take generations for the people who hate us to die off and their descendants to trust us. But isn’t it worth starting now — instead of continuing the policies that have made enemies for us around the world for the last hundred years?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re frequently told that we must support foreign invasions and military operations in other countries because that means “supporting the troops.” A veteran of the military gave me his thoughts on this whole idea on Memorial Day. Those who support invading other countries and continuing wars that can’t be won tell us that doing so Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-3GK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14182"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14209,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14182\/revisions\/14209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}