TheAgitator.com
Deployed
Sunday, September 5th, 2004A reader in the National Guard writes:
I am a frequent reader of your blog and have been both engaged and entertained by your writing. I have an odd situation, and I’d really appreciate your opinion or any suggestions you might have.
I am a National Guard soldier. My unit was activated about a month ago, and I am currently training for a 12+ month deployment to Iraq. As a man with a particular political philosophy, needless to say, I’m kinda bummed. With the intent of offering a glimpse of my experience to my family, friends, and anyone interested, I’ve created a blog. Realizing that I have to be careful what information I post, I recently spoke to a “Media Awareness Officer.”
During her brief, she essentially told us all that when faced with a media interview, we are only authorized to give “command messages” in response to questions. In other words, we are not to express our personal opinion on any subject. In an example, if asked about our opinion on the invasion of Iraq, we are supposed to reply, “The US military is doing extraordinary things for the Iraqi people and are working hard to promote democratic change in this region.”
When I asked the woman specifically about my wish to write my thoughts on blog site, she told me that it was “unauthorized” and that the military actively pursues such sites and shuts them down. She said verbatim, “As long as you wear that uniform you do not possess the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.”
I know of several blogs created by soldiers in Iraq that have been shut down over the last few months. The sites in no way compromised “operational security.” I know personally that it isn’t operational security that they are worried about. the Army does not want anyone to see soldiers pointing out any of the multitude of problems that are endemic to this institution.
I apologize for rambling on. Essentially, I plan to write whether they like it or not. I just have a really hard time accepting that as a government employee (cringe), I have in some way forfeited such a basic right. The U.S military, as supposed protectors of the Constitution (so they tell me anyway), should be afforded the protections that the document guarantees.
Am I way off base here?
I actually do understand the military’s position on this, and think it’s a sound one. There’s certainly a compelling interest in keeping soldiers from questioning the wisdom of their orders in a public forum. And yes, I do think you give up many of your rights as a citizen when you join the military.
However, I also understand that it must be terribly frustrating to be a soldier sent off to fight in a war you’re not so crazy about. Were I in the military (and believe it or not, I once entertained the thought of joining the reserves) I’d probaby risk court martial over going to Iraq. This is particularly true of a soldier in the National Guard (insert comment about irony and Bush sending guardsmen into war zones here).
At any rate, I’m flattered that the guy wrote to me. His blog is here.
I’ll keep an eye on it. I wish him luck. And that he comes back safely to tell us what he’s seen.
Hey, if the Commander-in-Chief can’t blog, neither can the soldiers.
Well, while I certainly don’t know what this soldier was told but it’s quite a bit different than what I was told. We could say anything we wanted to the media so long as we worked in a backround with an Iraqi beating Saddam’s picture with a shoe.
Joey, (if you’re reading) I think the person who briefed you is on their ass. There’s ways to work this for the official no BS answer. Work through your PAO, if that doesn’t work go through your IG, just keep your chain of command in the loop.
When I was in the military I was told that I was in a dictatorship used to support a Democracy.
>>The U.S military, as supposed protectors of the Constitution (so they tell me anyway), should be afforded the protections that the document guarantees.
This guy’s going along with his deployment orders, which are quite unconstitutional, while simultaneously complaining about the military messing with his Constitutional rights. This strikes me as quite odd.
If this guy actually understands and cares about the Constitution he’s sworn to uphold and protect, he can start demonstrating this by challenging his illegal deployment orders. This would require a level of courage and internal consistency that essentially nobody in the military possesses.
If nobody in the military is willing to stand up for the Constitution, then the document is useless.
“If this guy actually understands and cares about the Constitution he’s sworn to uphold and protect, he can start demonstrating this by challenging his illegal deployment orders.”
What, exactly, is “illegal” about an Army National Guard unit being deployed to Iraq for 12 months?
I was always told we were there to protect free speech, not practice it.
If he is higher ranked than even one other person then he should not be contradicting or questioning orders, that is the basis for sedition or mutiny charges.
Mike
You lose many of your rights when you join the military. That is the trade off for being able to blow shit up (as explained to me by my all wise and all knowing drill instructor
So protesting his deployment orders would more than likely get him a nice stay in a military prison and a dishonorable discharge. Worse than that, it would let down your buddies.
While I wish this soldier luck in his blogging, his line “I just have a really hard time accepting that as a government employee (cringe), I have in some way forfeited such a basic right.” is a bit oversimplified. There is a world of difference between a government employee, and a soldier, and yes, you DO give up your rights when you sign up to become a soldier. Even the military justice system is different, and leans toward an assumption of guilt rather than innocence.
It reminds me of the reservists who were called up in the Gulf War who tried to get out of going because they never expected they’d have to actually FIGHT in a war! They just wanted some tuition money! Well, read the fine print. Ya don’t get something for nothing in this life. When you voluntarily sign up for the military, you also voluntarily give up your rights and freedoms for a while. Your choice.
>>What, exactly, is “illegal” about an Army National Guard unit being deployed to Iraq for 12 months?
Well, let’s start with no Congressional DoW against Iraq, and no Letters of Marque against any of the various resistance/terror groups operating there. Congress instead delegated the DECISION on whether or not there was to be war to the President. This was not only unconstitutional, but very unwise. This makes all the deployment orders illegal. Of course nobody in the military is going to ruin their career or risk jail time over something as unimportant at the Constitution.
T.J., there’s an oath you take when you sign up for the Guard (or the Reserves, or Active Duty) that goes “…and I will obey the orders of the President, and the officers appointed over me, according to regulations, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
The President, as Commander in Chief, has the power to order troops, including the Guard, to go anywhere he deems necessary, without declaring war.
I’ll let Representative Abraham Lincoln from Illinois field this one:
“Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose - - and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after you have given him so much as you propose. If, to-day, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, ‘I see no probability of the British invading us’ but he will say to you ‘be silent; I see it, if you don’t.’
“The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress, was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons. Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.”
That Lincoln guy is pretty smart…
I would advise the soilder to keep a very good journal and then post about it later.
he could also use an alias, and never mention anything specific (unit, names, and regional areas).
but then again, the miltary can track his time on the net directly (most likly).
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