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Parent Article: One Year After our Anti-War Resolution: What We Can Do Now |
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Hidden with code "Duplicate post" |
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Re: One Year After our Anti-War Resolution: What We Can Do Now |
by James Mortland
mortland1976 (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: -1
22 Mar 2004
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ML, get a grip. Pulling quotes out of my opinions from their proper context, adding YOUR assuptions of what goes on in my mind and then drawing correlations that don’t exist is the world’s easiest way to argue. This is mostly because you’re arguing against something that I haven’t said.
As for running for council office, I would if I could.
Don’t take what follows out of context. My opinions represent ONLY my opinions. My opinions do not represent the military as a whole or any portion thereof.
I’d like to run for city council, if nothing else than to give the current council members a reason to solidify their positions and stick to what they were elected to do. However, as a soldier, that would clearly be a conflict of interest.
I’m currently a member of the National Guard, but I’m also an Active Army vet – nine years total so far. I have friends who are have been and are currently serving in Iraq. I have friends who have served in Afghanistan. Personally, I volunteered twice (and left in the middle of my senior year of college at UIUC) after 9/11 for whatever jobs the military might need me – I ended up on 1) Airport Security and 2) on Force Protection in Europe. It’s not the front lines, but I can’t make the decision about where I go. On active, I was deployed for Peacekeeping in Bosnia in 1997 as a Cav Scout with a Mech INF BN, performing security patrols, checkpoint ops, dismounted liaisons with local nationals, and riot control.
Currently, I’m non-deployable, but only because I volunteered to go through Officer Candidate School – OCS – to be a platoon leader. I look forward to leading troops in an ethical manner in whatever capacity that the state or federal government needs my unit.
So, when and where we as a nation go to war is truly a personal issue, not only for me, but also for my wife, son, extended family and friends. As MacArthur said, no one prays for peace like the soldier.
Since the military is a subordinate organization to the government, I cannot ethically be a part of the government in any official capacity, whether or not it is legal for me to do so at the local level.
What’s your excuse? |
