01-16-2007, 11:48 AM
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Interesting comments here.
I'm of two minds on Lt. Watada's situation. On the one hand, I admire his refusal to deploy to this Mesopotamian cluster****; but on the other, he was commissioned after the shooting started and as an Infantry officer to boot. Seems he should've known what was in store for him before taking the oath. Certainly someone like the late Pat Tillman's brother, and fellow former Ranger, Kevin is a more credible war critic having served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Still, I guess I'd have to cautiously give Watada the benefit of conscientious doubt for now.
About 'War is a Racket' and its author Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler that mella provided the link to in her original post. I was the one who introduced her to it/him and it appears a bit of expansion and clarification may be in order on the subject. All former and current Marines and most students of military history are familiar with the basics of this mythic American warrior/pacifist's background. Briefly for the others:
Butler, the son of a Pennsylvania Congressman, entered the Marine Corps at age 16 in 1898 after lying about his age and received a commission as a 2nd Lt. In the ensuing 3 decades, he became one of only 19 individuals -- and the only Marine officer -- to be awarded the Medal of Honor twice (he very probably would be the only person with 3 had USMC officers been eligible for the award during his service during the Boxer Rebellion). After his first action then Maj. Butler, unimpressed with his heroism, returned the decoration to the War Department. The government, unimpressed with his gesture, sent it back, ORDERED him to wear it, and threatened him with court martial if he refused LOL.
It is true he was denied the post of Commandant in 1930 even though he was the senior Major General then on active duty. And yes he had a big mouth that hindered his career. This characteristic was not limited to Smedley Butler and Chesty Puller. It's not particularly uncommon among military personnel not attached to the '82nd Chairborne'. Fighting officers from Billy Mitchell to Curtis Lemay to 'Bull' Halsey to George Patton to David Hackworth (78 combat awards) all suffered from foot-in-mouth disease when dealing with their superiors. Hell, even MacArthur bumped his gums to Truman one time too many.George Marshall used to say that once you get past two stars it's nothing but politics. This lack of tact and diplomacy hurt him more than anything else. That and the fact that his father had died and thus removed some degree of protection from the hostility of his civilian higher-ups. Just as in the civilian corporate world, the ass kissers and yes men careerists are the ones that advance to the top of the military hierarchy. I wouldn't exactly characterize current Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace or his predecessor Richard Meyers as pogue/REMF Rumsfeld lotion boys . . . oh, what the hell, sure I would!
Following his retirement he became an outspoken critic of war profiteering and lectured widely on the subject to pacifist, non-interventionist and veterans groups. His views on what became known as the 'military-industrial complex' were not dissimilar to those expressed 26 years later by President Eisenhower in his farewell speech. This is one of SB's more quotable cracks regarding the economic rationale behind many armed conflicts:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.
Yeah, he had malaria at one time too but that has nothing to do with anything. Unless a person contracts Cerebral Malaria (in which case you'd very likely be dead within 72 hours)there is no long term damage to the brain. Our family has some first-hand experience with this affliction. Mella's dad was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and spent 3 years as a Japanese POW. As a result of his treatment as a slave laborer he contracted beri-beri, pelegra . . . and malaria.
Butler penned his tract over 70 years ago, but I think it's just as relevant -- maybe more so -- today. Just substitute the names of the thieving weasels of his day (Utah Copper, Central Leather, General Chemical, International Nickel) with today's Bechtels, Blackwaters, Titans, Parsons, CACI Int'ls., and of course good 'ol Halliburton who's vacuumed up $16 billion from the Pentagon for work in Iraq between the March 2003 invasion and July 2006 largely through no-bid contracts.
My gonads are nowhere near the size of Smedley's, but I'll put my gaping pie hole up against anyone's so here are a few comments about some of the other statements made so far on this thread:
The Geneva Conventions (there are 4) were adopted from 1864 thru 1929 and last modified in 1949. They have nothing to do with the legality or illegality of warfare as such. The first two are for the "Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea"; while #3 & #4 are "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War"
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As for the guests in Guantanamo, what would you have us so with those people. They wish to do us harm but may not have violated applicable criminal statutes of American law. They are not American citizens and committed their acts in a hostile foreign country, the overthrown government of which is still hostile and warring with us.
Yummm. Bush/Cheney Kool-Aid gooooooooood. We have NO idea what these individuals may or may not have done or planned to do. More to the point, they apparently have no right to know that they are accused of either. We're simply supposed to take the administration's word for it and ask no questions. Maybe Glen or another attorney can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe since AT LEAST the Magna Carta in 1215, habeas corpus has been a central tenet of western common law. Until Tex & Darth decided it was inconvenient, that is. The idea that a person being held should be able to - at the very minimum - be allowed to know what they're being charged with is a fundamental human right. It allows detainees to ask a court to order their warden to explain the basis for their detention. Detainees can petition for habeas review if they are held without trial, or if they're convicted and claim that their constitutional rights were violated at trial. But of the over 700 prisoners sent to Gitmo, only 10 have ever been formally charged with anything.
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Individual violators are being punished for their violations and they do not represent the actions of our troops in general.
I've looked and I can't find an instance of anyone above the rank of Staff Sgt. (E-6) being punished for any abuse whatsoever. This should surprise no one, of course. Policy makers and senior commanders always skate while throwing a couple of the lower enlisted ranks under the bus and covering their own butts with the old "few bad apples" canard.
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I would say Iraq was despotic, much different than secular.
des·pot·ic –adjective of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a despot or despotism; autocratic; tyrannical.
sec·u·lar –adjective of or pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal: secular interests.
Well, yeah. Despotic is different than secular. That doesn't mean they're mutually exclusive. Seems pretty obvious to me Iraq was both.
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I believe the neutron bomb would have been politically unacceptable.
Don't go giving the Primate-in-Chief any ideas.
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A civil war may result.
MAY RESULT!?!?!? Man, this passed mere civil war and entered the realm of anarchic chaos a looooong time back.
I'd better shut it down here before I REALLY work myself into a lather and start breaking objects and kicking small dogs.
Before I say g'nite though, I'd like to remind all the red-blooded stalwart Limbaugh listenin', Coulter readin', Faux News watchin' members of our little Punaweb family who have lamented the fact that it's been mostly middle and lower-middle class teen-agers having all the fun in the sand that the US Army has recently raised its maximum enlistment age so there's now a new opportunity for y'all to 'get some' too!
aloha,
Gene
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Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
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Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
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"I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No." - Craig T. Nelson
"I've been on food stamps and welfare, did anybody help me out? No." - Craig T. Nelson