Mithrall

As an ex-soldier, I am gonna have to take offense to this statement. Show me a soldier that is responsible for thier country's policies or aggression and I will agree on that particular soldier but most of the time soldiers are just as innocent as the civilians if not moreso. I really like the quote from Mary Tillman, 5/9/08, mother of slain Army Ranger Pat Tillman that Kanadesaga has adopted as her tag: "Soldiers lose their voice when they enlist. My sons spoke of that before they did enlist. That that, was a reality. And the public is their voice." This is absolutely true and it permeates the entire military all the way to the top ranks. Often the only time generals will dare to speak up is after they have retired.

Military personel do not have the same rights as civilians, It also applies to the families of military personel in some instances. I am not sure how many people are aware of this but military personel and thier families are prohibited by law from sueing the military. When I was serving I heard and saw many horror stories of military dr's screwing up and killing or severely harming a patient and there was no recourse for the families because it was a military dr. One of the guys in my platoon actually had a military dentist pull a moler instead of the wisdom tooth he was supposed to pull. Military dr's have no need of malpractice insurance, they can't be sued. One of my friends in my platoon collided in mid air with a sergeant and both of them streamered in to the ground, the only thing that saved them is the sergeant's parachute re-opened at the last second and snapped him upright breaking both of the sergeant's feet. My friend wasn't so lucky, his leg was shattered in several places. When the dr's set his leg, they set it wrong. His foot would lay flat on it's arch when he was laying on his back in his bunk. They had to keep rebreaking his leg to straighten it out a little at a time. They wouldn't let him out of the military even after his term of enlistment was up because they wanted to keep operating on him to reduce the percentage of his permanant disability so they wouldn't have to pay him as much.

The U.S. Military has a completely voluntary force, however simple economics drive many young people who are just out of high school into the military. These people are certainly not the ones making foreign policy decisions, many of them have never even voted before. When we invaded Iraq, both times there were Iraqi "soldiers" who surrendered that were just dragged off the street and sent to the front lines. They were wearing loafers not boots, many of them were very relieved to be captured by U.S. troops. In a democracy, the average civilian is infinately more responsible for the policies and aggression of that country than the average soldier.