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Thursday, May 5, 2005 |
CommonDreams: "American commanders promote a widespread misconception that, once American youth sign an enlistment contract, they are obligated to participate in any kind of war, whether it is based on fraud or truth, whether it is a preemptive invasion or a genuine war of self-defense. In a 'voluntary military', Rumsfeld said at a recent press conference, soldiers have no right to complain.
That's preposterous. No soldier owes absolute allegiance to any military system. The prevailing doctrine of blind obedience is a fascist, not a democratic, doctrine of military service. Of course all military systems require discipline, and all operate through a chain of command. But the legal authority of command depends on adherence to the rule of law. As sailor Pablo Paredes noted recently, the U.S. Military Code of Justice says that, while soldiers are obligated to obey all legal orders, the same soldiers have a right, even a duty, to disobey illegal orders. That is the essence of the legal case for military resistance.
Once unrestrained leaders, in their lust for power and world domination, place our military system beyond domestic and international law, the obligation of soldiers to serve the military in its state of lawlessness is dissolved. Long ago Thomas Jefferson captured the spirit of legal resistance when he wrote: 'Whensoever the general Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.'
Outside defensive necessity, American troops have no obligation to serve in war.
It is one thing for Marines, or army reservists or sailors to risk life in defense of their country under attack. It is quite another to take innocent lives in other countries in order to placate corporate lust for power and profit."
Katu: "Japan will withdraw its 550 soldiers from their non-combat mission in Iraq in December, according to a media report Wednesday."
All nations should withdraw their support for an illegal war.
11:26:42 AM 
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© Copyright 2005 Hetty Litjens.
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