BELLUM AMERICANA
Navigating lethality
A U S Army Ranger with the 75th Ranger Regiment stands watch during the 80th Anniversary Commemoration of the D-Day invasion at the Normandy American Cemetery, France, on June 6, 2024. Photo by U.S. Army 75RR by Sgt. 1st Class Jorden Weir, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.1
Wanting to examine the basis of current jingoism by the POTUS regime, I set off to sniff out the essence of what we take for patriotism.
The oath of enlistment2 is interesting. It starts out requiring allegiance to The Constitution, then it veers to obeying the POTUS, then it returns to obeying the law. What if the POTUS is acting illegally, immorally? What if the POTUS is violating the mandates from The Constitution?
A member of the Armed Forces is trained to kill the “enemy”. For American Democracy, the job of defining the enemy falls to Congress, not the POTUS.
Do Armed Forces personnel have the capacity to discern unlawful orders, especially now that the POTUS has intimidated and reduced the ranks of Judge Advocates General in the Services, the legal counsel to Armed Forces Officers?
Armed Forces personnel, men and women of every ethnicity, have proven their bravery time and again. The lore of each branch is reflected in its hymn and reflects the aspirations of those who fought the nation’s wars. Some of the lyrics’ statements have proven to be unsavory over time as in retrospect the causes have come under question. However, my purpose is not to argue historical correctness, but to get at the motivational force of the lyrics. Here are some excerpts:
The Army3:
“First to fight for the right”
“Faith in God, then we’re right
And we’ll fight with all our might”
The Navy4:
“Faith, courage, service true
With honor, over honor, over all”
The Marine Corps5:
“First to fight for right and freedom”
“And to keep our honor clean”
The Air Force6:
“Fly to fight, guarding the nation’s border”
The Coast Guard7:
“We place our trust in Thee”
”High shall our purpose be”
The Space Force8:
”Warfighters brave and true”
It is difficult to take issue with those excerpts. They are crucial to inspiring the Armed Forces to act courageously and honorably before the perils that they face.
What do we expect from our Armed Forces? How fair is it for the POTUS to corrupt their ideals by illegally sending them to wars without the approval of Congress? Is the POTUS’ ego worth corrupting the heart, the morale, the soul of the Armed Forces of The United States of America?
The law exists for the service of humanity and not for the service of tyrants.The law exists to protect children from pedophiles and embezzlers.
Human decency, as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, requires that we honor life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for and by each human in the country.
How reasonable is it for the American people to believe that the Armed Forces will restrain themselves from complying with the immoral and illegal commands from a POTUS who gets his “kicks” from hurting other human beings?
Peace to all. Justice to the downtrodden and exploited by Epstein, the POTUS, and oligarchs.
It's not too much to ask, Manuel.
"The law exists for the service of humanity and not for the service of tyrants.The law exists to protect children from pedophiles and embezzlers.
Human decency, as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, requires that we honor life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for and by each human in the country.
How reasonable is it for the American people to believe that the Armed Forces will restrain themselves from complying with the immoral and illegal commands from a POTUS who gets his “kicks” from hurting other human beings?"
Great insight and yet another great viewpoint on a terrible situation. We rightfully focus on POTUS but where is congress in all of this?