Ubertuber, a VERY interesting article that I feel makes my personal sentiments on this whole thread evident. I served my time as well, and have seen many horrific things(mostly by the opposing force for those who would hijack that quote), but I have to seen the wonderful things that we have acomplished. Too many look at the bad things, and forget the good things; Education, medical assistance, etc. I read a while back of a platoon that while on patrol, stopped and spent two days helping a small town dig a new well for water....This all being done by our "robot" soldiers who are having their soul removed in training.....lol.
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Originally Posted by willravel
Dehumanization has been a part of training soldiers for a lot longer than the past 60 years, as I understand it.
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Just for your information, that is no longer correct. Current militart training actually now is director towards HUMANIZING the soldier/Marine, and training them on how to be MORE humane and self-thinking, however they are also trained that an order is an order, and is to be followed out unless the soldier can justify that the order in its application becomes unjust. Here is an example. A Captain say has given an order to troops that they are to immediately destroy a bridge that has been used to transport enemy supplies. The troops arrive, and find that civilians are on the bridge fishing. Old-school was, destroy the bridge, damn the civilians. Current military directives require that the soldier in charge attemt to communicate this information to the ordering officer. If unable to communicate, the soldier has the full rights to then "refuse" the order, or attept to comply with the order, while preserving the safety of the civilians. Yes, when given, the order WAS a legal order, however circumstances have changed, and THIS is what we are now being trained to do. WE ARE ALLOWED TO THINK, and be humane, not Soulless, mindless automated troops of yesteryear. It is the current standing directive of all military branches that a given order can be, and is EXPECTED to be refused if circumstances durring the execution of the order has changed, making the standing order unlawful, or inhumane. Now the enemy knows this, and they use it to their advantage. We have had many "Civilian" people in buildings and on bridges that were deemed military targets, and when troops came upon the civilian to relocate them, they were shot by said civilian. This is the way of war. Learn from your enemy and use it to your advantage. This of course makes it difficult to deal with civilians, and yes, sometimes it does, and HAS resulted in innocent lives lost.
As it has been said before, yes, we are most likely not supposed to be there any longer, and some believe that we are there illegally. However as long as congress and NATO say it is a legal action, then orders given to GO are NOT illegal orders. You cannot as a member of the military say "I think the REASON for us being there is illegal, therefore I can disobey this 'illegal' order."
THAT is a violation of the UCMJ. Yes, as a member of the military you have a voice. You can still vote as a way of expressing that voice, and you can still speak out that you disagree with the action, however you CANNOT incite others to disobey orders, or disobey them yourself without being able to defend yourself in the future courts martial that you WILL be attending.