WHY I DON'T SUPPORT THE TROOPS

In a society manipulated by patriotism and empty rhetoric there are many vague sayings. One of the more popular is the yellow ribbon you see on car bumpers that say "support the troops" or american flag magnets that say "support our soldiers" etc. It is common place in our society today to hero worship soldiers and police as the brave defenders of peace and freedom while in reality they do nothing of the sort. If we can remove the blinders that patriotism and other forms of indoctrination have placed on us, we can see that those in the armed forces are much like mercenaries. They agree to go to war and fight for a paycheck. "No, they fight for their country, they fight for us, etc..." Really? How many men and women would be in the armed forces if they were not drawn in with such tempting college scholarships? How many would volunteer if they were not payed at all? Unless they were conscripted, nobody in their right state of mind would go to war for free. Besides this, what on earth does the army do that we should support? Occupying dozens of foreign countries? Preforming night time raids/kidnappings in attempts to find terrorist members? Killing people? Rape? There were 3,374 rapes in the military last year, a 6 percent increase, and an estimated 26,000 sexual assaults. The problem has been mostly ignored by the military. And yet in the face of all the evil that the army does, people still "support the troops."

 It doesn't surprise me either. I was once a conservative. I thought the war in Iraq was justified. Then I watched a documentary "No End in Sight" This movie didn't go into the philosophical argument about weather or not we should have gone, but it just showed the cold hard facts about how badly we damaged that nation. The bureaucratic inefficiency and the military's hard handed tactics combined to damage that country and its people deeper than we can understand. Because of the government and everyone that stood behind it (myself included) an entire generation of Iraqi people will grow up knowing that it was America that did this to them. The people of the middle east have a culture that never forgets and is slow to forgive, if they do at all. At the end of it all however, it was the soldiers that carried out the governments orders, as it always is. How many lives would have been spared if the army just refused to go? Unfortunately since day one of their military career, it is drilled into every man and woman's head to follow orders immediately and without question. Undoubtedly this makes them better soldiers but it doesn't help prevent wars.
 There are however, quite a few veterans who have turned from statism to become anarchists or libertarians, most notably the anti-war protesting vet Adam Kokesh, and it is these people who give me hope that everyone can see the light through the haze of patriotism. It is not because I think all the troops are baby killers, but because I can see the immorality in what the military stands for, that I can say with confidence that I do not support the troops. I despise, not the individuals, but the organization that they choose to work for and everything it stands for.