President
Trump is in hot water for supposedly disrespecting the family of a slain U.S.
soldier.
Earlier this month, four U.S.
soldiers were killed in an ambush by Islamic
extremists/militants/terrorists/bad guys in the African country of Niger during
a joint patrol by American and Niger forces. At a press conference over a week
later, a reporterasked the president: “Why haven’t we
heard anything from you so far about the soldiers that were killed in Niger?
And what do you have to say about that?”
The next day Trump called
Myeshia Johnson, the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the soldiers who
had been killed in Niger, while she was on the way to the Miami airport to
receive his body. According to Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), who was
in the car when Trump made the call, the president told the grieving widow that
her husband “knew what he signed up for.” She claimed that Trump’s call was
“horrible” and “insensitive,” and that the president couldn’t remember the dead
soldier’s name. Trump then tweeted: “Democrat
Congresswoman totally fabricated what I said to the wife of a soldier who died
in action (and I have proof). Sad!” Later, before a White House meeting with
senators, Trump remarked: “I didn’t say what that congresswoman said. Didn’t
say it at all, she knows it.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claims that several
senior officials witnessed the call and described Trump’s manner as
“respectful” and “very sympathetic.”
He
said; she said.
Missing in most all of the
news stories about this event are two things that are much more important than
whether President Trump was insensitive and disrespectful.
What are U.S. troops doing in
Niger?
- What
do U.S. soldiers actually sign up for?
The United States actually
has almost 1,000 troops in Niger. It is not surprising that most Americans
didn’t know this since even Lindsey Graham, the Republican warmonger on
the Senate Armed Services Committee said that he had no idea. Some alternative
news sources (here and here, for example) are asking what U.S. troops
are doing in Niger so I will refer you to them. And, of course, it is not just
Niger. Even the New York Times is reporting
that the United States “now
has just over 240,000 active-duty and reserve troops in at least 172 countries
and territories,” plus an additional 37,813 troops on assignments that have not
been made public.
I
want to take a serious look at what U.S. soldiers actually sign up for. What is
a young man (or woman) actually getting into when he signs on the dotted line?
What does it actually mean to wear a U.S. military uniform?
There are
a number of things that U.S. soldiers certainly don’t sign up for. No matter
what they think, their family thinks, or what Americans in general think, U.S.
soldiers don’t sign up to:
- defend the country
- fight for our freedoms
- keep Americans safe from
terrorists
- support and defend the
Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic
- protect Americans from credible
threats
- serve the country
- secure American borders
- patrol American coasts
- guard American shores
- watch over American skies
- fight “over there” so we don’t
have to fight “over here”
So, what is it that U.S. soldiers actually
sign up for? Truth be told, they sign up to:
- boldly go where no American soldier
has any place going
- obey orders unconditionally
- die in vain, for a lie, or for a
mistake
- die for empire
- be a pawn in the hands of Uncle Sam to
be moved around as he sees fit
- serve the state
- help unleash sectarian violence
- invade other countries
- occupy other countries
- fight foreign wars
- maintain U.S. hegemony
- make widows and orphans
- launch preemptive strikes
- spread democracy at the point of a gun
- be the world’s policeman, fireman,
bully, and social worker
- be part of the president’s personal
attack force
- enforce UN resolutions
- die a senseless death
- fight unjust wars
- kill and maim foreigners
- kill civilians
- die for imperialism
- destroy foreign industry, culture, and
infrastructure
- change regimes
- nation build
- fight immoral wars
- defend other countries
- fight unnecessary wars
- carry out a reckless, belligerent, and
deeply flawed U.S. foreign policy
- neglect their families
- intervene in other countries
- create terrorists, insurgents, and
militants because of foreign interventions
- enforce no-fly zones in other
countries
- fight undeclared wars
- take sides in civil wars
- engage in offense instead of defense
- get PTSD or a traumatic brain injury
- have their limbs or genitals blown off
- die for the military/industrial
complex
- be a global force for evil
These are the things that U.S. soldier
actually sign up for.
Joining the U.S. military is not
patriotic. It is a bad decision. It is a foolish choice. It is, in fact,
downright idiotic.
Laurence
M. Vance [send
him mail] writes from central Florida. He is the author of The War on Drugs Is a War on Freedom; War, Christianity, and the State: Essays on the Follies
of Christian Militarism; War, Empire, and the Military: Essays on the Follies of
War and U.S. Foreign Policy; King James, His Bible, and Its Translators,
and many other books. His newest book is Gun Control and the Second Amendment.
Visit his
website.
