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Why We Fight


Here is an email I received in response to one of my essays.

Why We Fight : D. B. (anonymous coward) : email withheld : 2006-10-23

Greetings, my name is D*** B***, I am currently serving in the United States Army and at this time choose to leave my rank undisclosed as not to draw attention to myself. The reason for me writing to you is simply to express my saddness and confusion as to the nature of the comments you left on your website regarding American Soliders. The following is what you wrote regarding U.S. soldiers:

I don’t really give a fig personally about US soldiers who die. Those US soldiers voluntarily chose the profession of hired killers. They kill for thrills and money, not because they are defending their country. I care about civilians, especially children, of any nationality or religion. I realise, however, that most Americans are infected with racism and nationalism and care only about American deaths and then only white ones, so I will gladly post any photos you can find of US casualties to pound home the cost of this war in suffering to Americans too.

These men don’t deserve to be called soldiers. They have nothing in common with those brave men in WWII (World War II) who sacrificed their lives to defend their country. Today’s soldiers have no such motive. They are sickos in it for purely for kicks and adventure pretending to be real soldiers to con the tax payers into funding their sadistic games. They trick naïve people into treating them like heroes when in truth they are just serial killers.

I would like to speak to you as a man and represnetative of the many fine men and women I have had the privledge to serve with in the past. At no point have I ever met a soldier who wished first and foremost take the life of another human being nor for that matter even have to go to war. Reasons for joing the military certainly vary for the individual but never have I met someone who chose such a profession to take another’s life. Quite the opposite really, most choose the life of soldier to protect life, not just American life of all the world’s citizens.

You are all just kidding yourselves. I don’t believe you. That’s the bullshit you try to sell to outsiders. You killed over 650,000 Iraqis. You were not saving lives, you were butchering them. You knew before you enlisted that would be what you were doing. You knew this was a purely aggressive war, nothing at all to do with defending the USA. You will fool many people, but you can’t fool yourself and if you believe in a god, you won’t fool him. In Canada, the military admits enlistment is up because of the romance and glory of combat in the Afghan war. Why would the US army be any different?

The United States of America is one of the few countries in this world who ascribe to the guidelines of the Geneva Convention and punish heavily when these guidelines are crossed.

That is blithering nonsense. The USA routinely tortured tens of thousands of detainees in Iraq. They used banned weapons such an napalm, white phosphorus and cluster bombs. They targeted civilians and children.

As a solider I would also like to make it clear to you that we do not make much money at all and serve regardless.

Some of you serve simply because you can’t get a real job. The military is the occupation of last resort. It does not have to pay much. Your excuse for enlisting is no more valid than a ghetto dweller uses for taking up drug dealing as his only way of earning a living. The attraction of being able to bully and kill without legal consequences is so attractive some of you would even gladly pay the army for it. No wonder the wages are so low.

Personally I consider it a privledge to wear the uniform of our nation in its defense, for people such as yourself that you can continue to speak as you wish however, hateful and spiteful your words may be to me and my family members.

The United States has not been attacked since Pearl Harbor. Unless you are very old, any military action you took part in was an illegal aggressive war, save Kosovo. The USA spends more on the military that the rest of the world put together. This is clearly not needed for defence. It is to maintain global hegemony.

People who work for the Mafia feel proud of their jobs too. But that does no make them honourable. You are a war criminal as is anyone who aids or abets an aggressive war. Nuremberg established the penalty for that as hanging. Bush protects you, for now, from the world court in the Hague, but sometime between now and your death, the USA may no longer be willing to, or able to shield you from justice. I look forward to your trial.

I don’t disagree with the posting of graphic pictures either, I don’t approve of it in any way but acknowledge it is your right to share such pictures. In closing I would simply ask you to see the nature of things from the eyes of someone working and giving of themself to make the world a better place not a heartless mercenary who indiscriminately takes human life. If you ever have serious questions about the military I suggest getting your information from someone in the military rather than unreliable Internet sources and radical opinionists.

When there is a rape, you interview the alleged perpetrator, but he is hardly the best source of unbiased information. After every war is over, we discover many more atrocities were committed than were acknowledged.

Basically your argument is your murders and maimings are ok because you did not enjoy them. I don’t believe you. Further, that is irrelevant. Your actions are odious because:

  1. Aggressive war is illegal.
  2. Killing civilians, especially kids is illegal.
  3. You have absolutely no excuse or extenuating circumstances for your crimes.

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