Jimmie Higgins
30th October 2005, 04:15
On a couple of other threads, the question has come up about supporting US/UK troops (in rebelling from the military) and repeatedly comrades have suggested that conscripts have the potential to rebel while recruits are inherently pro-imperialism and should be completely written off.
I believe this is wrong because neither recruits or conscripts have a material interest in imperialism and both ultimately have more in common with the people they are forced to fight against (in the case of Iraq or Vietnam) than the people they are fighting for (the US ruling class and imperialists). In addition, because neither have a real interest in seeing imperialism win, they are risking their lives for something which will not benefit them and therefore is a weak point in the war machines of imperialist militaries.
Here are some quotes that suggest that it is actually recruits and reservists who are the first to rebel from the military.
http://www.akpress.org/2005/items/soldiers...ngthevietnamwar (http://www.akpress.org/2005/items/soldiersinrevoltgiresistanceduringthevietnamwar)
"[A]n exhaustive account of rebellion in all the armed forces, not only in Vietnam but throughout the world...Perhaps Cortright's most important conclusion is that most of the GI resistance came not from draftees 'but from volunteers from working class backgrounds.'" --New York Review of Books
http://www.objector.org/ccco/inthenews/americarefuse.html
People who have been shipped to Iraq (on lies of either getting job training and an education or fighting to "help the Iraqis") see first hand the brutality of occupation and imperialism and since, in a Marxist view, these soldiers have no material interest or gain from the occupation they are likely to have real reasons to oppose US imperialism:
Sergeant Kevin Benderman is one of the US's latest war resisters. Benderman spent eight months in Iraq in 2003 as an army mechanic. Though he never fired a gun in combat, he says the misery he saw firsthand led him to seek conscientious objector status.
"One thing that really sticks out in my mind, is the picture of a young girl standing there with her arm burned," Benderman said in an interview with the Associated Press. "Her mother was there and they were both crying and begging for help. The executive officer refused to help because troops had limited medical supplies." IT was what he say in Iraq, the realities verses the lies told to get him there that caused him to identify with the Iraqis.
Mejia spent six months in combat in Iraq where he witnessed the atrocities of the US-led war, including the abuse of prisoners and the killing of civilians. After returning to the US for a two-week leave in October 2003, Mejia decided he never wanted to fight again in Iraq and went AWOL (Absent Without Leave) to avoid re-deployment. He finally surrendered to the military after five months in hiding and filed for conscientious objector status.
"We are doing this for the soldiers and their families who are victims of this war," Mejia wrote from Fort Stewart in a letter to his aunt, Norma Castillo, shortly after turning himself in. "We are doing this for the people of Iraq, who are being oppressed for the oil. We are doing this for humanity, which has already paid a high price." Mejia's application for conscientious objector status was ultimately denied and he is currently in jail, serving out the remaining months of his sentence.
New Pentagon statistics show that more than 5,000 soldiers have now been charged with desertion from US and overseas bases since the invasion of Iraq in early 2003.Seems like resistance is preventing more soldiers from fighting than the insurgency has killed. Ok that was flippant, but it shows the possibilities that exist to shove this wedge deeper into the US war machine and cripple their occupation.
I believe this is wrong because neither recruits or conscripts have a material interest in imperialism and both ultimately have more in common with the people they are forced to fight against (in the case of Iraq or Vietnam) than the people they are fighting for (the US ruling class and imperialists). In addition, because neither have a real interest in seeing imperialism win, they are risking their lives for something which will not benefit them and therefore is a weak point in the war machines of imperialist militaries.
Here are some quotes that suggest that it is actually recruits and reservists who are the first to rebel from the military.
http://www.akpress.org/2005/items/soldiers...ngthevietnamwar (http://www.akpress.org/2005/items/soldiersinrevoltgiresistanceduringthevietnamwar)
"[A]n exhaustive account of rebellion in all the armed forces, not only in Vietnam but throughout the world...Perhaps Cortright's most important conclusion is that most of the GI resistance came not from draftees 'but from volunteers from working class backgrounds.'" --New York Review of Books
http://www.objector.org/ccco/inthenews/americarefuse.html
People who have been shipped to Iraq (on lies of either getting job training and an education or fighting to "help the Iraqis") see first hand the brutality of occupation and imperialism and since, in a Marxist view, these soldiers have no material interest or gain from the occupation they are likely to have real reasons to oppose US imperialism:
Sergeant Kevin Benderman is one of the US's latest war resisters. Benderman spent eight months in Iraq in 2003 as an army mechanic. Though he never fired a gun in combat, he says the misery he saw firsthand led him to seek conscientious objector status.
"One thing that really sticks out in my mind, is the picture of a young girl standing there with her arm burned," Benderman said in an interview with the Associated Press. "Her mother was there and they were both crying and begging for help. The executive officer refused to help because troops had limited medical supplies." IT was what he say in Iraq, the realities verses the lies told to get him there that caused him to identify with the Iraqis.
Mejia spent six months in combat in Iraq where he witnessed the atrocities of the US-led war, including the abuse of prisoners and the killing of civilians. After returning to the US for a two-week leave in October 2003, Mejia decided he never wanted to fight again in Iraq and went AWOL (Absent Without Leave) to avoid re-deployment. He finally surrendered to the military after five months in hiding and filed for conscientious objector status.
"We are doing this for the soldiers and their families who are victims of this war," Mejia wrote from Fort Stewart in a letter to his aunt, Norma Castillo, shortly after turning himself in. "We are doing this for the people of Iraq, who are being oppressed for the oil. We are doing this for humanity, which has already paid a high price." Mejia's application for conscientious objector status was ultimately denied and he is currently in jail, serving out the remaining months of his sentence.
New Pentagon statistics show that more than 5,000 soldiers have now been charged with desertion from US and overseas bases since the invasion of Iraq in early 2003.Seems like resistance is preventing more soldiers from fighting than the insurgency has killed. Ok that was flippant, but it shows the possibilities that exist to shove this wedge deeper into the US war machine and cripple their occupation.