“I’m going to give those back because I truly feel that I did not defend my nation and I did not help with the Global War on Terrorism. If anything, this conflict has bred more terrorism in the Middle East.”Gaines, according to Army Times today spent a tour of duty in 2004 and 2005 guarding two military bases and issuing ammunition to soldiers. He never fired a weapon.
Of course one doesn't need a weapon to shoot oneself in the foot and the man has reason to resent the Army for having discharged him "less than honorably" for smoking cannabis after his return from Iraq; to help him, as he says, to sleep. It's a shame of course, since I essentially agree that demolishing Iraq and presiding over the smoking ruins isn't protecting the United States and is creating more hatred towards us than anything else, but his gesture will only provide fodder for the war lovers who would like to dismiss all dissenters as dopers, misfits and fringe elements. It would hardly take the Swift Boat Veterans a moment to sink him with their wake.
I realize that Americans need faith that we're always in the right and our wars are always part of the good fight and I know that all soldiers are heroes save those with the courage to question the ruler, but like at least one man who served with him said, I'm also proud of him and I wish there was less pride in submission and obedience in the ranks. I wish that more generals could give their real opinions and I wonder what Colin Powell has to smoke to sleep at night.
4 comments:
Isn't it a terrifying thought that sometime in the not too distant future, we may be hoping that the military orchestrates a coup to save us from these fascists?
I'm trying to think of a precedent where a military coup stepped in to restore democracy. I think it usually works the other way.
I worry too about what I see as the infiltration of the armed services by fundamentalism.
This is not related to your point but your post reminded me of a soldier I tried to help to reenlist back in 84. He was an excellent sergeant except that in 81 or so he had tested positive for THC. At the time, recruiting woes were such that a slap on the wrist and some counseling got him off the hook. By 84, all that had changed. The ranks were full and so, retroactively, a bar to reenlistment was placed in the file of every soldier who had even one drug related infraction. I went to the mat for SGT Hernandez, because there was an appellate process, but the General who had waiver authority in our chain decided there would be no exceptions in his command. So, out went this excellent sergeant, back to Puerto Rico to high unemployment and who knows what else. I don't think I ever felt so powerless again during my time in the Army.
All this by way of saying I'd love to know more about the discharged soldier you mention. I can't imagine that with the retention problems today, the cannabis smoking was his downfall -- I'd be more inclined to think it had to do with his views on the Bush Wars...
All I know is what I read in the papers, but I'm inclined the same way.
You probably can't get a job cleaning the White House septic tank without having the correct opinions on the war, gays, and Abortion.
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