Thursday, January 15, 2009

Should you join the military?

There are a great many people who are look upon the military as an attractive career move. I dare say there are positions in the military that carry a lot of responsibility and a high level of technical skill. The problem with the military is ultimately your boss - you are working for the government. The implication is that you are one small butt being pushed around by a mighty powerful government. There might be a tendency to look at the military and say that the chanced of being killed are far lower, that you get to see the world, and that you will make some lifelong friends. Yeh, I can see how that would appeal. But consider that you are working for the government. So what is wrong with working for the government?
The problem is that the government has you where they want you. You sign a contract right? Well it may as well be a lifelong prison sentence because 10-20 years (depending on the country) is a very long time, even if you get a tax-free pension for life. The carrot to get people to join the military depends on the nut case joining:
1. Free education: The opportunity to get a university education paid by the military is a compelling carrot for those with no money. I care say the low enrolments in Australia is because we have a university loan scheme. One of its attractions is

You might ask - Why am I so against the military? Actually I actually think joining the military is a perfectly worthy activity. The problem is the owner. The problem is being employed by government because they are the enemy. The notion that the role of a military officer is to obey orders comes straight out of the Nazi lexicon. I can appreciate that in a certain context it makes sense to follow orders, e.g. On the battlefield, it does not serve the cause to engage in intellectual debate. The problem is that orders or 'the code' is dogma that is enforced arbitrarily and absolutely. There is no context in which soldiers should not think. No where is thinking more important than on the battlefield. Humans make mistakes - officers included. It is better they make them in peacetime than when it really counts - on the real battlefield.

When it comes down to it, being the military is not about serving 'freedom'. Soldiers don't study freedom, ethics and the like, they study how to 'serve' or 'obey' like any good Nazi soldier learned. The prime minister of Australia has remarked during the Iraq campaign on the bravery and supreme sacrifice paid by the fallen soldiers'. The problem is - that is the moral code of the Nazis and other enemies. It was a sacrifice these soldiers made because they really had no idea what they were getting themselves into, and they paid a price for it. I am not anti-war or even an advocate of peace. I spend most of my life in conflict fighting for the values I believe in. But I don't resort to lecturing people without knowing my own values. I fix my own home before educating others. If you read the latest PriceWaterhouseCoopers report on tax, you will observe that Australia and the USA have among the highest taxes on business in the world. If their intent was to defend freedom I would expect them to rank 1-10th, not 100+. Britain was one of the better countries in 59th place. Is that good enough? What are our soldiers fighting for? Is it freedom, or for the entrenched political powers of our politicians. Based not on their rhetoric, but based on their actions, I am quite certain that our foot soldiers are being used to serve the political interests of our politicians. Tax payers are just as worse off. Called upon to fund military campaigns overseas that are baseless.
There are countless ethical battles we could fight overseas if we believed in principles. But instead our politicians are too selective. Their intent instead is not 'defence' of principles, defence of freedom, but strategic 'gains'. Their ultimate goal is to establish a network of 'democratic' nations like them - corrupt, unprincipled and self-serving. The rhetoric will long be forgotten as it always was meaningless. That will be apparent if you keep reading my blogs.
I once asked an Australian soldier if he would fight in a war which he did not believe in. He could not answer me. It was a testimony to a military education he had, which did not serve him, but instead served the politicians in-charge. Anyway who has served in the military understands that its all a huge pretense. Honour? There is no honour in subjugating your mind to a political hierarchy. Herein lies the problem with the military.
Another problem is that fact that its a 'safe decision'. Its all too easy for the government to pay for your education, for you to learn a trade, to see the world. Believe me - its not worth the sacrifice. You only need to look at the mindlessness of the soldiers who serve. You occasionally see incidents that make it into the press. In Australia, there was the incident of 'wedgies' between soldiers, sticking objects up people's anus. These are the actions of mindless people.
The reason why these soldiers degenerate in their thinking is that they are often from poor backgrounds to start off with. Their military service only entrenched such thinking. If the military was such a good option they would not have to spend on huge advertising campaigns to appeal to the uneducated. If it was such a great life choice the opportunity would spread by word of mouth. If the military was such a good option, they would not need to offer such enducements for you to join, nor contracts to get you to stay. They target young people because they need compliant, ignorant people who can conceive of no better life. But they need officers - so they also appeal to slightly more intelligent people who will take the safe option. Smart kids from poor backgrounds. I wish the idea of giving them discipline was appealing, but its not.
Ask yourself what is discipline. Its about directing or modelling desired action through negative consequences. Its a value system which is based on negative premises like fear, as opposed to positive values such as logic, integrity, intelligibility. So when we see US military personnel feeding dog faeces to Arabs in Abu Graib prison in Afghanistan, are you inclined to think there are some bad apples? I am inclined to think that soldiers follow the value system they have been trained to follow. If you are in Iraq, there is no military commander around, then you need not fear if you are taught that the military look after their own. That is the culture until the press leaks or exposes some travesty that demands accountability. The same can be said for the high incidence of rapes in combat zones. Trust me - based on military precedence you can appreciated that you don't know the death of the scandals that occur in the military. They cover up every embarrassment. You cannot talk about freedom without talking about an open, accountable military force, and we don't have one.
We are a long way from the days when you can be proud to be part of the military. Ask yourself what the politicians are fighting for. Read their websites, and you will find you cannot reconcile their political rhetoric with their actions.