I No Longer Support the Troops

I am not anti-military.

The training and discipline service requires have always impressed me.
I recognize the military as an excellent way to gain the skills and experience needed to succeed.
I grew up with people who served in the armed forces and, as individuals, I know them to be good people.
Many of the best students I've taught are veterans.
I have friends who served.
I have family serving.
One of my most powerful childhood memories is watching my father find the name of an uncle I never met on the Vietnam War Memorial.

I want to support the men and women of our military, but I can no longer do so.

I feel horrible saying that, but this is bigger than my feelings. My withdrawal of support is about ethics and morality.
An informed citizen can no longer join today's military and honestly believe it is a virtuous institution designed to protect America. This has been true for some time now, but in recent months it has become too clear to ignore.

There are friends on one side who will tell me I should have stopped supporting the military long ago. They'll tell me what I've written here today has been obvious to them for years.

There are friends on the other side who will condemn me for withholding my support. They'll tell me that I have no right to deny support to men and women who risk their lives protecting my freedoms.

From here in the middle, I say it is time we acknowledge a hard truth:
Our military's primary mission is no longer to end conflicts, protect America, or fight for democracy.
We are engaged in a number of conflicts with no clear definition of victory.
Many of those have spurred additional conflicts, each requiring more military action.
The evidence is clear, America's use of our military creates conflict and works to expand the use of deadly force.

Since the end of the Cold War, our military has become exactly what Eisenhower warned against when he said,

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

Neither that speech nor this post is anti-military. Eisenhower stated, and I agree that a "vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction."

But as American citizens, we have failed to compel the proper meshing of the military-industrial complex with peaceful methods that prioritize liberty. 

From KAOM

Mike Pompeo, our nation's Secretary of State (not Defense), is publicly arguing that the best course of action in our effort to reduce tensions with an international adversary was an extra-judicial execution carried out by our military. As a result of this action, we are deploying more troops to the region where it occurred.

The Secretary of State was asked today for evidence of the imminent attack that made military action necessary. He did not provide any such evidence. And he won't have to. He can tell us it's a secret, and we will accept that as sufficient.

But I can't do that anymore. I cannot trust that our military keeps secrets to serve an honorable mission. Not after our President insisted that our military honor a man convicted of "posing with the dead body of a teenage Islamic State captive he had just killed with a hunting knife." Not after the military fired an active leader who - with good cause - refused to honor such a man.

With that, I am being asked to support an institution that publicly honors people who disregard the value of human life.

Will people serving in such an institution recognize the imperative to disobey illegal and immoral orders? I thought I knew the answer to that question. But now our military publicly carries out executions, honors the dishonorable, and works to create a perpetual state of war.

I cannot support the people who volunteer to join such an institution.
Again, I am not anti-military, but I am no longer able to support this military.