Ethics in the Military? Didn’t think so.
May 4th, 2007This is what happens when you have a military mostly composed of people from inner city ghettoes or rural hicksville. (The truth hurts). And I really think the latter group is committing the most abuse since at least the first group is exposed to diversity and different cultures. Both groups do it to advance in society and get scholarship money, so its understandable why they would join. Though I’m sure more than a few joined cuz they thought killing “terrorists” would be cool or fun. Anyway, I know the vast majority of soldiers don’t have ignoble intentions. But still, the demographics of these soldiers show a limited education attainment and exposure to other cultures which will inevitable translate to ignorance. You can be sure that a survey of upper-middle class Americans would turn up totally different results.
Sixty-two percent of soldiers and 66 percent of Marines said that they knew someone seriously injured or killed, or that a member of their team had become a casualty.
The 2006 adjusted rate of suicides per 100,000 soldiers was 17.3 soldiers, lower than the 19.9 rate reported in 2005.
Only 47 percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.
About a third of troops said they had insulted or cursed at civilians in their presence.
About 10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating civilians or damaging property when it was not necessary. Mistreatment includes hitting or kicking a civilian.
Forty-four percent of Marines and 41 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the life of a soldier or Marine.
Thirty-nine percent of Marines and 36 percent of soldiers said torture should be allowed to gather important information from insurgents.
Just repulsive…and you wonder why we are losing Iraq?
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Haha if you think level of education had anything to do with being a racist douche you should come to my school, seriously. I don’t know why people have any idea that college is anything more than an amplified version of high school. I mean the architects of this war are a bunch of priveleged overeducated dorks that were armchair trotskyists in their 20s and 30s, and probably should have opened a history book before they thought they could occupy a country successfully. I don’t really see how one kind of ignorance is any better than the other.
The US military has lowered its standards, though, extending the age by which you’re allowed to enlist, and also, according to some articles I’ve read, by looking the other way at criminal records and mental illness as well as gang and racist group affiliation, which unfortunately doesn’t surprise me a bit the way the recruitment numbers are sagging. This kind of abuse though…happens in any kind of occupation, I’m angry but unfortunately it doesn’t surprise me a bit.
Abuses are the result of the war, a war that was NOT planned or executed by those from the ghettoes or rural hicksville. Beating up a rock instead of the hand or the person that threw it is retarded.
Education doesn’t equal higher moral values. Get this backward thought out of your system.
Kinda like if I were to say something like, if I did a survey of upper-middle class Egyptian Christians living in the US, I would find out that they are all pricks with uber amount of superiority complex.
Other related links -
Many troops in Iraq lack ethics, U.S. finds
US troops admit abuse
Speaking of education, the IDF has some of the most educated people enrolled … they are not exactly leading in terms of morality and ethics either. So I second Nadia’s comment.
Another thing, military’s purpose is to kill or to use violence to maintain order. The whole concept of the military is immoral from a certain point of view. Nitpicking about it is just proves how stupid the person is.
There was a letter posted by a marine serving in iraq right now on the angry arab a while back that he prefaced as being by one of his best students, and you would not believe how racist and nasty it was.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt224.html
that’s the article i read where they said the recruiters were looking the other way with regards to gang and white supremacist affiliation, so I don’t think it’s level of education that’s a problem.
Alot of arabs seem to use uneducated as a synonym for retarded or horrible people, I’m really not crazy about that.
Two years ago I was getting a gun and a mission while serving in the Swiss airforce. For some reason the military has to assist the police in providing protection to foreign embassies and residences in the country. So in a way, we were doing something similar to what (I imagine) most American soldiers do in Iraq.
Now Bern is probably one of the safest cities in the world, so nobody was really expecting any incidents. Still, you had to take it seriously. You had to ask yourself the question “What if?”. We were allowed to shoot only in self-defense (or in protecting another person), meaning in an imminent threat to life. I guess everybody has to make up his own mind as to how he will react in what situation. I decided I’d rather die than hurting or killing someone unnecessarily. That seemed to be the most reasonable policy to prevent any kind of mistake.
What if this had not been in Bern, but Baghdad? What if comrades got killed on a daily basis? For sure, this can change your attitude completely. I guess it doesn’t take much to get you into a state where the death of an uninvolved person is really only a matter of time.
Really, it all works in theory, but it would take robots instead of soldiers.
The survey only shows under how much pressure and stress these soldiers are.
Well said Dominik, I agree with you. People sitting in front of their computer expect the world from these kids. Some people need some reality check.
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