COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Why I Don't Support the Troops
Kenneth Thiesen, the Berkeley Daily Planet
March 11, 2008
In the recent political battle around the Marine recruiting stationin Berkeley there has been much confusion around the concept or
slogan of "supporting the troops," but opposing the unjust wars of
the Bush regime. Many who oppose the Bush regime wars also say they
"support the troops." Let me say it straight out I do not support the
troops and neither should you. It is objectively impossible to
support the troops of the imperialist military forces of the U.S. and
at the same time oppose the wars in which they fight.
The United States has over 700 military bases or sites located in
over 130 foreign countries. The hundreds of thousands of troops
stationed in these countries are not there to preserve or foster
freedom and democracy as the Bush regime would like to claim, but to
maintain U.S. imperialist domination of the world. The United States
now spends more on its military than all the other nations of the
world combined.
If you "support the troops" in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the other more
than 100 countries in which they are located, you also objectively
support U.S. hegemony in the world. I believe that the vast majority
of people who say they support the troops do not wish to support U.S.
imperialism, but that is what they are really doing by putting forth
the slogan of "support the troops."
We need to oppose the recruitment of men and women into the military.
We need to support resisters within the military who have realized
what they are doing and now choose to resist the role of the U.S.
military. This includes people such as Lt. Ehren Watada who refused
to deploy to Iraq. Watada stated, "Never did I imagine my president
would lie to go to war, condone torture, spy on Americans…" He was
the first officer to refuse to go to Iraq and he was court-martialed.
Another resister is Camilo Mejia. In 2004 Sergeant Mejia was
sentenced to one year in prison when he was court-martialed for
refusing to assist the military in Iraq. Mejia said, "I am only a
regular person that got tired of being afraid to follow his own
conscience. For far too long I allowed others to direct my actions
even when I knew that they were wrong...."
We need to expose that those in the U.S. military are trained to be
part of a "killing machine." While not every member of the military
is an individual murderer, they are all part of a system that commits
war crimes, including aggressive wars, massacres, rape, and other
crimes against humanity, all in the service of U.S. imperialism. The
bottom line is that even if these people are relatives or friends,
you can not support the troops without also supporting the objective
role that these troops play in the imperialist system.
United States troops are acting as destructive and murderous forces
of invasion and occupation. The people of Iraq and Afghanistan see
this on a daily basis. Hundreds of thousands have died as a direct
result of the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Millions are
either internal or external refugees. Tens of thousands have been
detained in prisons, with thousands of these tortured and scores
murdered. Haditha, Iraq where 24 Iraqis were massacred is just the
best known of the massacres. Women and children are routinely
described as "collateral damage" by military spokespersons when they
are murdered in military operations.
"Support for the troops" has become political cover to support the
wars. In Congress, many of those who claim they oppose the wars, use
"support of the troops" to vote for hundreds of millions of dollars
to fund the wars. These politicians are political opportunists, but
there are also people who genuinely oppose the war, but who also say
"I support the troops."
But to decide whether U.S. troops deserve support you must analyze
what they actually do in countries occupied by the U.S. The wars
these troops are engaged in have the goal of maintaining and
extending U.S. hegemony throughout the world. They are unjust,
illegal, and immoral wars. Can you support the troops in these wars?
Why is this any different from a German in World War II saying, "I
oppose the wars launched by Hitler, but I support the troops of the
German army which are making these wars possible." When the Marines
in Haditha massacred Iraqis, including women and children, would it
have been correct to say I supported the Marines who killed those
people, but not the massacre? This would be ridiculous, but no more
so than supporting the troops engaged in the war that made the
Haditha massacre possible in the first place.
In 1933 Marine Major General Smedley Butler clarified the role of the
U.S. military. He stated, "War is just a racket…It is conducted for
the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses…I spent 33
years and four months in active military service as a member of this
country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps…In short, I was
a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.. ."
Like Butler, Watada, and Mejia, those in the military today must take
responsibility for what the military does. Just like the German
soldiers of World War 2 could not hide behind the "I was just
following orders" excuse, military personnel today also can not hide
behind it. Those of us who oppose the unjust wars of the Bush regime
must struggle with those in the military and those that support them
to expose what role the troops objectively play. Supporting the
troops engaged in making war against other nations and people on
behalf of U.S. imperialism is not acceptable.
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