Title: 
Watch What You Say!

Word Count:
818

Summary:
When we don't say what we mean and we don't mean what we says, problems will surely follow.


Keywords:



Article Body:
Watch What You Say!


     Repeat after me: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice." Ha! I tricked you. I have deceived you into swearing an oath, or affirming if your religious convictions do not permit swearing oaths. Of course the intention and effect are the same in either case. You will now be loyal and obedient, especially obedient.

     Does it seem underhanded that someone should spring such an oath on you unexpectedly? That's how it's done in the military. You don't get time to think it over. You say I do with everyone else in the room. But you can relax now, you will never be tested on its meaning, because it has no meaning. It is designed solely to obtain your loyal, unquestioning obedience, just like you have been learning since before you could walk.

     Given time to think about it no reasonable person would swear such an oath. Only someone desperate for a job that required it, or someone who routinely swears to things that are not true, make no sense, do not matter, or all these - like politicians. What say we take a closer look?

     "I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States”. The constitution may embody important principles. It may require tweaking from time to time, to remedy original deficiencies, many which were hotly contested when it was fresh. It may be the best of its kind ever devised. But what it was and is, is a legal contract between elite, slave owning men who were dead when half the country butchered the other half over who was a domestic enemy. It is not an object of worship, despite all appearances to the contrary. It is not something to kill and die for, even though millions have been certain it is. It is not supreme, though its creators proclaimed it so in the very text itself, and many there are who say amen. It is an old and badly flawed contract.

     So how do patriots support and defend this old contract? Apparently by obeying others who claim to be supporting it.and killing some who don’t. If you ask superiors what that oath means, they cannot give a straight answer. I would have no confidence in anyone who has sworn such an oath. Since I would have no confidence in them, I would neither obey nor serve them for honor, love or money.

     "Against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic". This one word, ALL, makes it impossible for any living person to uphold  this oath. How do you determine one enemy? What are the chances you could ever discover them all and what are you supposed to do by way of defense, if you found them - write down their names and turn them in to superiors? Shoot first and ask questions later? What if your superiors violate their oath and do nothing to defend the contract? Guess you'd be off the hook.

    What does it mean to bear true faith and allegiance to the same? The way this is worded, it sounds like true faith and allegiance to all enemies foreign and domestic. A case can be made the national leadership reads it that way.

     You have the right and the duty to refuse unlawful orders but it says nothing about that in the oath, does it? Why do you suppose that is? That is because you will never know the regulations and the UCMJ you are swearing to obey. The bureaucracy does not want some combat grunt deciding which orders are lawful and MUST be obeyed. Soldiers who think for their selves are court martialed and discharged or imprisoned. You, my friend, have been taught to accept the words of authority. You were a slave, before you volunteered to be one. Society volunteered you from the cradle.

     Before you raise your right hand and say I do; consider that George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld might be traitors according to the words of that old contract you want to defend. Every one who serves under them in silence, would also be traitors, as well as a U.S. Congress that should know the facts but would rather not.

     U.S. leadership goes to war not knowing friends or enemies and because of this tactical error, MUST lose any/every war eventually. If you want to be a patriot or a hero in the face of the truth; to imagine or hear the public sing your praises, don't let any oath stand in your way.