Most men and women serve in the military and when needed serve during a conflict for honorable reasons. They may feel called to some great cause beyond themselves. They may be serving a personal ethic of civic responsibility. They may be trying to improve themselves in character or social standing. They may feel obligated by a sense of equitably sharing in a burden that has been laid upon others. Or they may just be motivated to observe the Law and answer the draft.

All men and women are taken into the military and used in conflicts by selfish men in pursuit of their own power and ambition. Even the world wars were the product of the selfish ambition of a few who first neglected the welfare and security of most.

There is plenty of honor in military service. There is almost no honor in the use of military force. Every person who died in a war died with honor. Every one of those deaths was caused by someone who knew no great cause other than themselves; someone who had no personal ethic other than themselves; someone who was interested in improving only themselves over others; someone who had no sense of equity and who used the Law for their own selfish gain; someone who had no honor.

(Note: It seems to me that there is no significance in the fact that you did not serve in a conflict other than that you were lucky you didn’t.)

I posted a blog earlier today which I think speaks to what you are saying. Please understand that I don't necessarily disagree with your statements, just your timing.

"Today we do not debate the merits of the job they do at our behest, but honor the blood they shed at our request. Because even when the mission itself is questionable or not well thought out....American Armed Services are on the ground doing thier job! We owe them respect for that.

It's a somber and gloomy day. It's raining...and perhaps that is appropriate. Even the heavens should weep for the loss of our soldiers.

And after we have reflected upon the blood that we have spilled, perhaps we as a nation will remember how precious that blood is.

Let us make this promise to our troops: Tomorrow we will think about the loss before we commit the troops. Tomorrow, we will be certain that the loss is justified by the mission.

There are times and places where military action is not only justified, but required. Regardless of the justification, tomorrow let us never forget that in the real world we bury our children in war! Perhaps tomorrow, we will remember that war is a reality and not a B-movie! The extras don't get up after the filming and have coffee.

Today, let us say God Speed to our fallen countrymen! Our prayers go to your families. And thank you!"

I sincerely hope we heed your words tomorrow!

here's a couple of short quotes you might enjoy:

War is the hope that one will be better off;
next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off;
then, the satisfaction that he isn’t any better off;
and, finally, the surprise at everyone’s being worse off.

Karl Kraus, "Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half Truths",
Trans. by Harry Zohn, University of Chicago Press (1990)

To delight in war is a merit in the soldier,
a dangerous quality in the captain,
and a positive crime in the statesman.

George Santayana, "Reason in Society,"
Ch. 3: The Life of Reason (1905)

To everybody that question the timing of this post and the comments...Speaking for myself I am fully comfortable with what was said and when it was said.

I do care about the men and women who serve our country and value their service. I care about them so much that on 'their day' I will question how and why we are fighting the conflicts in which they died. So my take is not only wasn't it inappropriate to do the post and make these comments yesterday...it was the absolute right time. In fact what better time to...

Hey, D, I made much the same points to my wife yesterday and was going to write a post about honoring the military by not using them. We should honor their sacrifice by acknowledging that it has nothing to do with our "freedom" and everything to do with protecting the American Empire.

You don't need to have served or even wanted to serve in order to examine the evidence and come to a logical conclusion. I spent ten years in the "peace time" Navy of the 90s. Just about anyone in uniform then and now would say they prefer exercises and operations to wars. They prefer being "pretend" warriors than getting shot at. They would much rather do Goodwill Cruises where they build schools and paint orphanages than get shot at in Iraq or Afghanistan.

We should honor our troops by closing every damn military base in the world and quit waving our dicks in everyone's faces. We should honor our troops by letting them train with foreign counterparts and learn new cultures without being required to shoulder the human cost of collateral damage to civilian populations. We should honor our troops by letting them be stationed in the US exclusively, keeping them close to families that crumble in their absence. We should honor the troops by giving them the gear they need to fulfill the missions we give them.

There is zero honor in the continued abuse of the military and military families, no matter how many flags we wave or speeches we listen to or magnets we stick on our cars.

Maybe we still have some old-fashioned and ritualized ways of talking about the military profession that don't quite match the reality.

First, the US military in 2010 is an employer, and participation in the military is job. One gets paid for doing it. For some it is a career; For others, it is just a job they do for a few years before moving on to something else.

I assume most people in the military feel good about the job they do, and in addition think that what they are doing is very useful to the country, advancing various national interests, including legitimate defensive interests, that can be advanced through the use of actual military force or preparation for the use of military force.

The most important defensive role the military plays consists in its mere existence, and its maintenance of a continual state of readiness. Apart from the actual wars that are fought, and whether or not those controversial wars are truly defensive wars, soldiers are indeed "defending our freedom" just by getting up every day on their bases, keeping in training and doing their jobs. Their preparedness to defend the country sends the message to potential attackers that the country is quite capable of defending itself, and exerts an ongoing deterrent effect.

Yes, there is a certain amount of pious doubletalk surrounding the military profession. Many people have a strong need to believe all of our military endeavors are "defensive". I suppose they are if you use a sufficiently strong sense of "defense" where advancing one's interest is described as "defending" one's interests. My impression is that soldiers, especially those career soldiers with long years of service under their belts, are fairly canny about understanding the difference between pious doubletalk and reality.

It is good for the community to honor people who do dangerous jobs such as military service, firefighting and police work, and to take note of the fallen and memorialize them, because that community honor and appreciation is an extra form of compensation that gives people an incentive to do bad jobs that they might not otherwise want to do.

It is just a bit misleading to describe this profession in terms of "volunteering" and "service". Joining the military is not the same thing as signing up to give one's time and labor freely to coach a Little League team. It's also not some kind of bucket brigade. I guess you could say I am a volunteer at my job, because nobody forced me to take it. Nevertheless, it is a job for which I am compensated. we also talk about "service" in the workplace, but it's a bit of a euphemism.

Great post.