 |
|
THE HANDSTAND |
JUNE 2003 |
Out From Its Cocoon, the All Professional Military By Charles E. Carlson (http://www.whtt.org/articles/030512.htm) Before the era of the US professional military we often referred to our all volunteer soldiers in uniform as "The Boys." Most of us had been in their shoes. They were our peers because they were non-professionals in every sense, performing a duty. Most were drafted or volunteered in anticipation of the draft. They were paid practically nothing and very few of them really desired to be there. Vietnam was contrived war at its worst. It was also America's last hour of the citizen military. Most wise lessons of history, from the Bible prophet Samuel to George Washington, have warned us of the dangers of the king's professional (mercenary) army. Our new post-Vietnam, all professional military is the subject of this four part series that will soon be available for distribution in print. It is past time to compare the nearly all volunteer war in Vietnam to the 1991 Gulf War carried out by our new all-professional army: In Vietnam 58,000 men died. In the "Gulf War" we lost less than 75 men to enemy fire in a 31day slaughter, and many of these were really accidents, including a destroyed scud missile that fell on a barracks in Kuwait. But there are secret costs to this war we have only just begun to pay. World Net Daily (far from a Bush critic) tells us 209,000 FORMER GULF WAR VETERANS HAVE APPLIED FOR PERMANENT DISABILITIES (pensions) resulting from their brief service in 1990-1991. Further, it states that 161,000 OF THESE DISABILITIES HAVE ALREADY BEEN GRANTED! (2) At a guesswork estimate, if only $1,000 annually has been granted to each pensioner this would cost about $160 million a year for life! This huge dollar cost assumes only a 10% disability at about $1000.00 per month, the rate of the lowest paid rank in the military. It is likely to be much more. How many in this enormous "sick call line" are actually ill, and how many are taking advantage of the Warmakers' desire to keep the matter quiet? Finally, what is the gulf war "epidemic" that has justified 40% of the entire force to apply for and receive pensions? Pensions have always been hard to come by. Thousands of crippled Vietnam veterans were rarely granted disabilities even when their skin was falling off from jungles diseases or Agent Orange exposure. But now we find the VA passing out pensions like popcorn to the new professional military without breathing a word of it to us. Is it possible that these 160,000 pensions are a payoff to bottle up the fact that the military is not as safe as the recruiters tell the 19 year olds? They are probably not told about experimental inoculations and depleted uranium ammunition that are not safe for our side either. Or, is a disability a new kind of fringe benefit for the all-professional army that the taxpayer will provide for generations to come? Clever recruiters might whisper in the ear of nineteen-year-olds, perhaps saying: "and if you do go to war, you can apply for a lifetime pension." But as costly as the gulf war pensions, these are pocket change compared to the overall cost of our Serial Wars. THE BOYS BELONG TO ANOTHER MASTER. We must learn the hard way--as do the subjects of every Caesar--that The Boys are no longer a citizen army. We must also realize that the New Boys have undergone professional killer training that is not healthy for them and certainly not healthy for us. Ted Koppel used the term "CABAL" on Nightline to describe America's warmaking foreign policymakers. We like his choice of the word. We add: The US military is under the dictates of Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and a few others. This war making cabal is, by its own words, the greatest risk to our freedom. (Endnote 1, Project For the New Century) Though many millions of Americans, including this author, have served in the US military over the last 50 years, it takes more than a little thought to understand the basic change that has taken place to convert what was once an all-volunteer force into an all-professional army. We find most former military persons, including ranking officers, do not know this has happened. This is because most of them served in the "volunteer" era and do not understand the subtleties of the "professional military era." It is also possible because most of those who write about the military were former officers who considered themselves professional soldiers. They are slower to see the change and grasp the significance of a huge professional enlisted class that has taken the place of the volunteers of Vietnam era and before. These were members of the civilian workforce serving temporarily in the military. They were the conscience. They included the cynics, grousers and complainers, the skeptics and distrusters of authority. A few were thinkers in a setting where independent thought is frowned upon. But none were screened out and all took their turn. A very few argued over bad orders, occasionally refusing to do what was absurd or brutal, risking punishment by reporting the boss to his superior. They got out as soon as possible and, though quietly loyal to their buddies and to America, they brought home stories of the mistakes made in battle. Because everyone had to serve, the military was intelligent, at least as smart as the population at large. Their average IQ was probably about as high as or higher than our current President's, who has been rumored to be a perennial "C" student, and who was not drafted. But "A" students were drafted to fight in Vietnam. Americans were defended by an army of their intellectual and moral peers. They should be called "THE BOYS" they were our boys. They gave the US military a trace of conscience, while serving in hell. The volunteer soldier finally tired of being drafted into phony wars against impoverished communist states that were a threat only to their own people. The Warmakers knew they were too smart to accept the wars of the future against benign, selected non-enemy. They needed a new, more pliable military willing to massacre its next carefully crafted enemy. The enemy chosen to replace communism was the billion or more people who call themselves "Islam." It would be a new kind of army, one that would not ask questions about fighting wave after wave of completely contrived wars. The Warmakers recognized the need for a new enemy to replace the old tired communist enemy that kept the war gristmill grinding for almost half a century. The best account of the creation of this "enemy" was written by this author nine years ago, and published in The New American Magazine, dated March 21, 1994. I quote myself with mixed pain and pride. Pride for saying it, pain for not saying it sooner and for not being able to prevent what was so clearly visible to anyone who looked. From C. E. Carlson, Attacking Islam, (endnote 3.) "THE WARMAKERS SELECTED THE FAR FLUNG NATIONS OF ISLAM AS A REPLACEMENT FOR THE OLD MARXIST-LENINIST ENEMY LONG BEFORE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SUSPECTED THE COLD WAR HAD "ENDED." With shocking abruptness, the Red Peril has "greatly abated" (some say it has disappeared) to be replaced by a new Green Peril -- green being the color of Islam. Meanwhile, the USSR is being remolded from the carefully tailored image of world super-enemy into the new role of international welfare urchin and "ally," to be rebuilt by the American taxpayer." "An anti-Islamic hate campaign to poison the peoples of the world, and especially the American public, against Muslims has been underway for quite some time. Fabricating the Islamic demon has not been difficult for the insider-controlled press. THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS (CFR), as usual, has been leading the way with its flagship journal FOREIGN AFFAIRS the publication Time magazine has called "the most influential periodical in print." Once Foreign Affairs began to equate Muslims with terrorists, the malleable international press quickly took the cue and began a campaign to paint resurgent fundamentalist Islam as the looming world enemy." "The CFR has been conditioning its new enemy as a picador taunts a fighting bull, no abuse or insult is too strong. Like the bull, the enemy has been selected for courage in the face of overwhelming odds. With 1.2 billion people blanketing the globe, a naturally militant faith and no organized movement of pacifist clergy such as we have in the West, Muslims can be counted on to fight back when invaded, insulted, or threatened -- as was proved in Afghanistan." (This refers to the Afghans' defeat of USSR 15 years before the US mercenary military bombing of Afghanistan) Continuing from Attacking Islam.* "EARLY ISLAM-BAITING" "Examples of the vicious Islam-baiting media campaign are legion, but we have space here to present only a few of the more notorious and influential. Of these, in the spring of 1993 issue, Foreign Affairs offered a particularly noteworthy case. The keynote "debate" of the journal was framed by the article, 'IS ISLAM A THREAT?' by CFR member Judith Miller, a New York Times writer and author of a new book entitled 'THE ARABS AND ISLAM.' Ms. Miller's article makes negative generalizations about all of Islam, associating the vast majority of peaceful, law-abiding Muslims with the relatively small minority of those involved in outlaw activity. She depicts a warlike, united Islam, which she claims (without offering a shred of evidence) has executed a secret manifesto committing Islam to war against the West." - End quotes Attacking Islam, (3) The volunteer soldiers were much too smart, well educated and naturally skeptical to accept the contrived new war against Islam. To get soldiers to fight in a senseless race-crusade, the Warmaker cabal had to come up with a new kind of Army that would not ask questions. In fact, in the all-professional army, most would not know what questions to ask. The conversion took from 1975 when the draft was eliminated, to January 19, 1991, when the new mercenary military was tested in Desert Storm. We now have a record of the ongoing plan in "PROJECT FOR THE NEW CENTURY by Wolfowitz. (1) Mercenary forces are strictly beholden to the administration that hires them and determines their professional future. Patriotism and loyalty to the folks back home is replaced by the need to get the job done to the boss's specifications. Neither constitutional nor democratic principles are at the conscience center of our all paid military. During the American Revolution, some 15,000 Hessians were shipped to the New World for the English as cannon fodder. The British solders were apt to occupy in comfort, but loathe meeting the musket of the farmers head on. The Hessians were paid mercenaries called "hirelings." Before the Korean conflict, Congress declared wars after at least some deliberation, as provided for in the United States Constitution. Vietnam was the second "undeclared war," and every war since has followed suit. Today's professional military fights in the era of the "undeclared war," masterminded by a single commander-in-chief. Released from the requirement to sell war to the Congress, successive administrations have waged undeclared wars against any country they wished to dominate or destroy. Assassination is already a part of our military's duties. Their Commander-in-Chief tells us so. Covert assassination has been routine in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mass murder of prisoners and what clearly amounts to torture is on record in Afghanistan. Why do The Boys do it? They do it because it is ordered. Professional soldiers obey orders, even if it calls for murder! President Bush's own public statements are repeatedly are laced with references to the detainment of unnamed individuals, who he says have been, "detained, captured OR WHO WILL OTHERWISE NO LONGER BE A PROBLEM TO THE UNITED STATES." His carefully structured language can only be a boast of assassination. Who does this killing, and who will do it even if those suspected are Americans? We leave that question for your own consideration and imagination. Is an E-I recruit in basic training less a professional than a GS-18 in the CIA? There is no difference but pay scale. We have seen a hint of professional killing power at work in the all-but- public assassination of Randy Weaver's family and the Branch Davidians. Both were first vilified as fanatical cultists but were never charged with criminal acts, only that of being anti-social. One excellent account of executive-ordered assassinations written by AMY LEE OF THE DETROIT NEWS said that covert snipers were killing suspected Iraqi activists. She wrote: "SINCE SEPTEMBER 11, THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HAS CONTENDED THAT THESE EXECUTIVE ORDERS DO NOT PREVENT THE PRESIDENT FROM LAWFULLY SINGLING OUT A TERRORIST FOR DEATH BY COVERT ACTIVITY." Lee wrote furter: "THE CIA HAS ASSIGNED PARAMILITARY TEAMS, SOMETIMES WORKING IN TANDEM WITH COVERT MILITARY UNITS SUCH AS DELTA FORCE, TO TRACK DOWN AND CAPTURE OR KILL THOSE INDIVIDUALS, MOST OF WHO WERE MEMBERS OF AL-QAEDA."(4) The Warmakers have the power to command a paid, professional military to do anything they alone desire. So far, the only restriction has been on nuclear annihilation. To the victims in Afghanistan and Iraq, the use of Daisy Cutters was no different than nuclear destruction--only the size of the consumed radius differed. The Warmakers' Cabal, Paul Wolfowitz and his peers--were faced with contriving a plan to overcome the problem of the citizen soldier with the high IQ and the big mouth comes home and tells the truth. Under the new plan, they have replaced by a new kind of military dominated by the educationally and economically disadvantaged, underachievers who desperately needed the job and the money. NEW RECRUITS COMMONLY RECEIVE BONUSES OF FROM $20,000 TO $50,000 (COLLEGE FUNDS) FOR ENLISTING. One recent recruit, who did not sign, said the recruiter's discussion was only about money, and patriotism never came up. Former Marine Chris White told what a powerful deterrent it is to their free thought and free speech when recruits agree in writing to fight in undeclared wars.(5) America's government is no longer ours. It is an international government that claims to be ours. The interests of our citizenry are no longer its primary consideration. The military is no longer a protective force for Americans, but a mercenary force for that "foreign" government. Americans now under the same kind of empire that we have always claimed to abhor. Are we flirting with a dictatorship of an all-powerful Caesar, who can carry out his unrestrained will through a hired legion? Vietnam patriots die without a price when they are convinced they are needed. Mercenaries are now deployed in safe non-combat actions so they will sign up for another tour. They act as transition forces in manipulated wars in places like Panama, El Salvador, Granada, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In the first war on Iraq, we saw the aftermath of the "highway of death" on which civilians and military were literally incinerated when the tried to flee from Kuwait City. Our combat pilots publicly called it a "turkey shoot." Rather, it was a brutal Nintendo war game against real people who did not even own night goggles to see who was bombing them -- a planned extermination. It is this writer's opinion that the old Army would never have gone to the Middle East or participated in this extermination. They would not have been convinced that the Arab civilians were our enemy. Recently, an Australian pilot under U.S. Command refused to drop his bomb load on Iraq because he could not clearly identify his target. The U.S. Command said he was derelict in not dropping anyway. While following orders, our boys have shot women and children at crossings and checkpoints, dropped cluster bombs on residential neighborhoods, used Daisy Cutters to obliterate entire units without regard for civilians and animals, fired tons of depleted uranium into neighborhoods where people live. Residences and places of business were incinerated with all of their patrons because of tips that Saddam Hussein was seen there. Now we are told The Boys are to shoot looters, civilian Iraqis. Americans in tanks have already shot and killed several independent news reporters who were covering the otherwise the un-reportable carnage. No doubt all are following what they considered to be lawful orders. Would The Boys from the old drafted military have incarcerated and tortured suspects in CAMP X-RAY At Guantanamo who have been imprisoned for more than a year, with no hope of ever getting out? It is a torture camp is so inhumane that 60 MINUTES did a special (but only from a distance) on the inmates there. The report disclosed that after almost a year some of the captives were released because of illness and extreme age, and one suspected terrorists was NEARLY A HUNDRED YEARS OLD! And now we've learned from our own media that Camp X-Ray has a juvenile ward where boys as young as 14 who were interned a year ago are still there. DONALD RUMSFELD ADMITTED THIS BUT ASSURED THE PUBLIC THEY WERE "DANGEROUS PEOPLE." Donald Rumsfeld, please tell us more about the training you are giving to our boys. What kind of men would imprison a hundred-year- old man in an outdoor cage exposed to the elements for a full year, or 14-year-old boys on the pretext that they are "dangerous terrorists?" It does not bother our Warmaker leaders, the Cabal. It would have bothered our once volunteer army. It no doubt also bothers today's mercenaries but they will say nothing because they are military pros. In the future, the professional military will stand as the enemies of freedom, some even our own sons and daughters. This is the lesson we have learned of the history of many tyrannies. Let us stop coddling our all-mercenary military. I SUGGEST YOU DISCOURAGE ANYONE YOU KNOW FROM SIGNING ON. Bring them home and let them become productive in our economy. Demand that your church stop supporting unholy wars. Only when you have done all this can Congress to be made responsible for the cost of war. Demand an immediate stop to the unholy race war against Islam. Israel has made an enemy of Islam by persecuting four million Arabs in Palestine. But that does not make Islam OUR enemy. By Charles E. Carlson©2003 (http://www.whtt.org/articles/030512.htm) F-16 War Machine Raining Death On Mujahadeen US Pilots Are paid very well Leaving behind Dead kids In a high explosive Hell The Geneva Accords Are supposed to draw the line JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS, SIR! Dont excuse No war crime Are you fighting for freedom Or killing for pay? You say it cant be wrong Its for the US of A Stop for a minute And let me put this in your ear The choice is yours Your conscience Or your career ****** by Thomas C. Mountain another Irish settler in the land of the great black navigators, the Kanaka Maoli Kaneohe, Hawaii |
|