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thedrifter
02-05-04, 07:20 AM
I Still Owe the Military Nothing

My article on the military drew more emails than I've seen since I wrote a couple of years ago that Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry was a commie rat. Then Paul Craig Roberts wrote this week a few good reasons why it's sometimes no fun to be a columnist. Just because it's enlightening and amusing (and a little informative), I thought it would be interesting to discuss the responses to my military article.

Free Republic was the most fun. As Paul Craig Roberts pointed out, some people will invent things they believe were in your article, and focus on those. One reader acted offended that I considered the rank of major "lowly," which I didn't suggest (I was putting it in relation to 2- and 3-star generals); another assumed my dad retired as a major, which I didn't suggest, and which wasn't the case. Others understood that I retired from the CIA, which I didn't. I was there for a relatively short time, and left in 1990. There was little of substance – mostly empty invective – on Free Republic, though one reader successfully corrected my simplification of US foreign policy in the Middle East to "40 years of bombing." I should have linked this article by Adam Young, and referred to "50 years of ham-handed, violent, dictatorial, capricious intervention" instead of "40 years of bombing." I stand corrected. Freepers, as they're called, are self-selected, and virtually all neocons; almost no libertarians are among them. I counted, just for fun, about 70 different posters, 65 of whom were opposed to my viewpoint (about 60 of those without substance).

My emails, also subject to self-selection, were just the opposite. I counted, just for fun, and heard from 114 different people – so far. 105 were in agreement, nine disagreed. Of those who identified themselves as military veterans, 32 agreed while only three wrote to disagree. None of the three claimed to have been a combat veteran, while many of the 32 mentioned the wars in which they saw combat.

Without exception, those who disagreed simply restated the point I wrote to dispel: That we owe our freedom to the military. A few thought they had me on a legal point: Since I noted that Americans' freedoms have decreased, some readers thought I'd confused the purpose of the military (defense from foreign invasion) with civil government (the enactment of laws, the existence of which limits freedom). No, they didn't have me; they made my point – that the military has little to do with freedom.

The only thing the military can do for our freedom is to repel an attack from an invader who, in occupying, would offer us a less free society than we have now. I mean, we must consider the possibility that an occupying force can increase our freedom, right? Isn't this Bush's point in Iraq? So, for our military to have been effective in protecting our freedom, the enemy must be (1) credible; (2) willing and prepared to attack; (3) likely to reduce our freedom if he wins; and (4) repelled by either the action, or the threat, of our military.

This circumstance has never obtained in our history, and probably never will. The British, in 1812, were the single most credible invading threat we've ever faced, and if the British invaded successfully they still might not have had a tremendous impact on our liberty either way. (Remember the Whiskey Rebellion? Our liberty was threatened by our own government in 1791.) Further, the most effective defense we had in 1812 was privateers – private ships, paid only in captured booty (which gave them incentive to preserve the enemy and his ships). So much for the government's military there.

The next "invasion" was the Union army invading the sovereign CSA, which only established once and for all that there was nothing voluntary about the US government. We have never been in any credible danger of being forced to speak Spanish, Japanese, German, or frankly, Russian. (We were in some danger of being hit by Soviet nuclear weapons, but the only deterrent was our own bombs – not men and women, not command structures, since ICBMs could be launched on Moscow from inside the US.)

The USSR was credible, likely to reduce our freedom, and somewhat hampered, if not repelled, by our military (but really mostly by our under-the-table payments to, for example, Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan; and our placements of missiles in Europe), but the USSR was never prepared to attack us. Hitler and Germany never constituted a credible threat to the US, and Hitler himself made no secret that he thought the new world order should consist of Germany, England, and the United States. Japan was goaded into Pearl Harbor, starving and desperate to break up our blockade of oil, steel, etc. against their island; but Japan never had any wish to invade the US. (Freepers take note: Yes, Germany, Japan, and the USSR were evil. Yes they were. I agree. They were still never a threat to us, with our without our military.)

What has made the US an uninviting target for 200 years is the oceans and our gun ownership. As Iraq and Afghanistan have proven in the last three years, making war halfway around the world is expensive, risky, and difficult even for the US, even today, even when attacking pathetically weaker opponents. Universal gun ownership means an occupying force can never succeed. To occupy, you have to step out of your planes and humvees and move on foot. The more the natives own guns and want to resist, the more ground area you have to occupy continuously. With a nation full of rifle-toting rednecks, a hostile foreign power can never succeed. To obliterate us, they would be forced to nuke us.

There is no incentive for any nation to do that to any other: There would be nothing of value to steal afterward, and it would be costly and dangerous for the nation using the nukes. America did it to Japan because we knew Japan was already defeated, and we were the only ones in the world who had nukes. Indeed, to prove the disincentives work: Truman bombed Japan because the Japanese demanded as their only condition of surrender that the emperor remain emperor. They continued to demand this after both bombings, so Truman just gave in. The bombings were for nothing. And with no retaliation for Truman or the US to fear, Truman still stopped, and gave the Japanese what they wanted. They didn't even have rifles.

We have rifles.

Heck, I'd be more prone to believe we owed our freedom to the military if they were here, defending our borders (or even their own headquarters). They're not.

And as to my point that the military is just a tool for Congress and the president, you don't have to listen to me. Listen to a retired Marine general, twice winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, on the subject.

We don't need a standing federal military. If someone invades, militias can pop up, with rifles and perhaps a government commission (while we still have forcible government) to get the job done and then disband until the next invasion. I'll be there, ready to go. Let me know when it happens.

February 4, 2004

Brad Edmonds [send him mail] writes from Alabama.

Copyright © 2004 LewRockwell.com

http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/edmonds181.html


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

kentmitchell
02-06-04, 05:44 PM
He might have something to say but I got bored by the third paragraph. Kept wondering when he'd make his point and gave up.
I guess I mean he's not a good writer.

greybeard
02-06-04, 10:39 PM
Oh he's a fairly good writer-but he lives in a very small world. Had the US been only an economic powerhouse during the eras he mentioned, and not the economics/military power we were, we would have been attacked much more than we were, only we would have had no way to repel such an attack. A quickly raised civilian militia such as he suggested, would have little affect on a well armed and trained invasion force. The sharpshooters he speaks of would be very different from those of the Armed Forces. They are used to shooting at wildlife--which everyone knows--don't shoot back.

radio relay
02-06-04, 11:21 PM
What use would it be to send that clown an e-mail? He obviously isn't going to be pursuaded to reconsider his own lunatic point of view. I'd rather spit in the wind. It's more refreshing than trying to talk sense to a left wing idiot.

SF :marine:

Superbee
02-07-04, 07:06 AM
Okay, he's an idiot.

Sparrowhawk
02-07-04, 09:10 AM
From his writing it seems logical that the CIA would no longer employ him. He never tells us what he did there. Janitorial work? Who knows?

Sounds like he has an issue with his father, probably because he was a military brat and was often told that he had what ever he did, because of the military.


That explains his point of view, twisted as it is. His point can be argued both ways and either way it would make no sense because even the Marine general he mentions (not by name) goes on to say, in case of an invasion a militant army would be needed to secure our freedom, one that would be supported by the government, that is if a government still existed following an invasion.

Just having a standing military causes other countries to reconsider. Even Ben laden knew once he attacked us, we were going to be hunting him down. His attack however was encouraged by this type of thinking. Don’t use the military unless we are attacked on our home turf.

Well that's what the terrorists have been doing for years striking at us in other parts of the world and they are still doing it in Iraq.

I like lion hunting in the snow, going after those that pose a treat to our county’s freedom while they are still in their den. Causes a lot of other lions to stay at home.

We still need to strike at Saudi Arabia for their support of terrorist, worldwide and for their citizens being involved in 9-11.

Yep, this guy is a stupid idiot, a bean counter, seeing how many respond to his writing, he probably never served in he military or else he would at least be thankful to the military for showing him what is the difference between his right and his left foot.

Toby M
02-07-04, 11:18 AM
Okay, call me ignorant but who is the "retired Marine General-twice a winner of the Congretional Medal of Honor"?

Sparrowhawk
02-07-04, 11:36 AM
Originally posted by Toby M
Okay, call me ignorant but who is the "retired Marine General-twice a winner of the Congretional Medal of Honor"?

I don't know Toby, I emailed Mr. Edmonds with that same question and waiting to see what he writes back.

MillRatUSMC
02-07-04, 03:45 PM
http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Major General Smedley Darlington Butler USMC (retired) on "War is a Racket".
He know that Major General Smedley Darlington Butler USMC (retired) was a double recipent of the Medal of Honor.
He just got confused and couldn't remember the name of great hero of the United States Marine Corps

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

PS He was a recipent of that medal on two seperate occasions, not a recipent from two services as some other double recipents...

MillRatUSMC
02-07-04, 03:57 PM
http://www.lewrockwell.com/photos/edmonds.jpg
Let's put a face on the name of Brad Edmonds.
He best do some researching on WWII, the Germans shell some of the East coast early in the war.
The West coast was blackout in fear of shelling by Japanese submarines.
Now the reciprocal question might be;
Does the Military owe anything to Brad Edmonds?
Ricardo, IT DON'T MEAN NUTHING!!!
Let it go....

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo