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The Soldier's Creed
bushinoki
Veteran
Being a Soldier, by nature, means being engaged in an occupation which involves violence. But, in the right context, it's no different than being in law enforcement. The problem is, I have had some difficulties in the past on this forum, because of the nature of my job. Other recent threads have made me reconsider my job, and being a Buddhist. So, I thought I'd post two things that might help people see my POV on this.
The first, the Seven Army Values:
Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance
Duty: Fulfill your obligations
Respect: Treat People as they should be treated
Selfless Service: Put the welfare of the nation, your unit and your subordinates before your own
Honor: Live up to all the Army Values
Integrity: Do what's right, legally and morally
Personal Courage: Face fear, adversity, and danger, legal or moral.
The second, the Soldier's Creed:
I am an American Soldier,
I am a warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the People of the United States and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I will always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself.
I am an expert and a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier.
I truly believe that that is what it means to serve my country. I am here, I wear the uniform, because I truly want to defend and protect the ones I love.
The first, the Seven Army Values:
Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance
Duty: Fulfill your obligations
Respect: Treat People as they should be treated
Selfless Service: Put the welfare of the nation, your unit and your subordinates before your own
Honor: Live up to all the Army Values
Integrity: Do what's right, legally and morally
Personal Courage: Face fear, adversity, and danger, legal or moral.
The second, the Soldier's Creed:
I am an American Soldier,
I am a warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the People of the United States and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I will always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself.
I am an expert and a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of the United States in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
I am an American Soldier.
I truly believe that that is what it means to serve my country. I am here, I wear the uniform, because I truly want to defend and protect the ones I love.
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Comments
Wars will not end if you decide not to be in the military. Perhaps you being there is a blessing in disquise ??
"What happens in a man's life is already written .. yet one must choose to be there .. though both are opposite both are true."
Good Day ...
I am glad for you that you find inspiration in this creed.
Do you want us to discuss it?
I'm just saying, I'm willing to give everything to protect the people I love.
I feel that I've been given tremendous gifts in this life, and it is my responsibility to use them well.
If I die trying to defend all that I love, I consider it a worthwhile expenditure of my life. If I don't die in such a manner, I will do everything I can to improve the world I live in.
OST, thank you for your thoughts. I truly am glad to serve.
There's just one thing that kind of stood out for me in your last post, the part about protecting those you love. I was wondering about the use of equanimity in your practice, specifically widening the circle of those you love to include those outside you family or country and eventually widening it to include all living beings. I've found equanimity practice in all its forms to be a great challenge but worth every second of it. I've also found it easier to generate loving kindness for those I don't know well than to do it for my own sister with whom I have issues. It's a practice I need a great deal of work on but it's rewards are sometimes astonishing. Generating loving kindness and equanimity has developed more strength in me than any other single practice. Just thought I'd throw that our there.
There are some clauses of the "Soldiers' Creed" that worry me:
Does this mean that the mission trumps all other considerations such as law or the Noble Eighfold Path? Are you and your colleagues trained in how to resolve the ethical dilemmas when this clause contradicts the "Army Value" of Integrity (Integrity: Do what's right, legally and morally)? It seems to me that this conflict has been brought into stark reality during the present conflicts. As I understand it, it is military personnel who are used as prison guards in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. If you were posted there, how would you resolve the conflict?
As this is a soldier's creed, surely the wise soldier knows when to accept that an action has been lost and judges when it is wiser to withdraw. Not for nothing do great soldiers read and study Sun Tzu. Knowing when not to fight is quite as important as actually fighting.
Much the same can be said as above.
It would ill suit me to comment on the matter of "American values" and the "American way of life". I may have reservations about these clauses, but recognise that they are part of the cultural rhetoric. What concerns me much more is that the ethical problem of combat is concealed. No protection is offered within this creed for the soldier who refuses to carry out an unlawful order as required by all civilised nations and enshrined in our own joint history at the Nuremberg trials.
Irrespective of my own views of the current conflicts, I believe that the soldiery should be afforded protection and education as to moral and ethical concerns which may override "the mission".
Allegiance to what? A flag? Democracy? People?
Like Simon said, this sounds like it could be dangerous if taken too far. This statement got me thinking about some of the WWI battles I studied in class. British leadership clearly put the mission first in the horrible Battle of the Marne. Sadly, that mission was put ahead of the tens of thousands of troops lost just on the first day.
"A good general knows when victory is possible and when it isn't"----Sun Tzu?
I am reminded of that bastard General Custer and his unfortunate troops. The hard headedness of Custer and his 'no defeat' attitude even in the face of overwhelming odds may have seemed noble, but it was disastrously foolish. Maybe he realized that as his army was massacred before his eyes and a bullet went through his head.
I have lived here my whole life but I still do not understand what this American dream or way of life is. Cynics of this elusive dream like George Carlin suggest that it must mean we have to be asleep to believe in this dream.
I want to stress that my comments are meant as constructive and should in no way be taken as any sort of disrespect to you or to your colleagues under arms. It is, and always has been , my ambition that we should so structure the armed services that they are of service! I have also had to 'mop up' too many post-war casualties among Falkland and Gulf One veterans: post-conflict and post-service support is a major problem.
Ok, as for integrity and placing the mission first, there is such a thing as going too far in placing the mission first. Same as never accepting defeat or quitting. What it means is that I won't let the little things stop me, or allow myself to be easily captured. I have a broken leg, obviously, I'm not mission ready. I have a sprained ankle, well, a brace and some motrin, and I can still do something to support the mission.
Also, had I been at Abu Grhaib at the time of the incident, I would have been one of the whistle blowers. There is a difference between interrogation and blatant, sadistic, torture. The soldiers who were sent to prison and LTH discharged deserved what they got.
KoB, as for allegiance, it is fully to the US Constitution, the Army, My unit, and fellow Soldiers.
Edit to add: I've also learned my lesson about taking "I will never quit" too far the hard way.
How long is a whole life. That's the problem with schools today .. you can quote Sun Tzu but don't know your own country. :scratch:
America has a lot to offer the world ... find out what it is.
Myself I would have a hard time being in the military .. it's not my path ... still one must follow their own path and then what will happen will happen.
Good Day ...
Palzang
17 years actually.
I am very much a history buff. I am currently reading works by Thomas Paine actually. It's just that I have never been all that sold on the idea of the 'American Dream' or something as vague as 'American Values.' Whose values? Everyone's? I was not aware that there were any universal values shared by this country.
We must be doing SOMETHING RIGHT ... Palzang. Try being a monk in North Korea.
Much wisdom may have come from the east but boy it's not practiced in the east.
KNIGHT ... the clinker is you have not been sold on America .. you have been sold on a lot of other ideas. GET unsold of all of it someday and find the truth.
Good Day ...
I accept ideas and philosophies that fall in line with reason and those that respect human beings.
With respect to my views on the American dream.....Greedy, American capitalism and rampant materialism is a necessary evil. Much like bullshit. We hate it but can't logically function without it.
Not sure what you mean by being 'unsold' of my ideas, though.
Are they your ideas ???
Well that rampant capitalism has produced a lot of doctors .. scientist and a lot of other good people that have helped the world. Nothing is perfect. Where are you getting your post high school education ... India ... Vietnam ? Where do they go for an education ? The United Staes ?
People like to knock America for it's green house gas producing economy .. How much gas will the Chinese produce if there economy ever gets going without falling flat on it's face.
Where would the Chinese be if it were not for our rampant demand for toy soldiers ? :buck:
Good Day ...
Good Day ...
While avoiding the indulgence and the rat race of consumerism the best I can, I have no real qualms against capitalism.
Are they my ideas? No. I just agree with them, that's all. Ideas don't have to be our own to be valid, they just have to be critiqued and validated with trial and experience.
I started this thread to put forth the Ideals I feel are worth living by within reason. KoB, the American Ideal, the American Way of Life, is what you want it to be. You have the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. I know that alot of US history tends to point in the other direction, but the ultimate fact of the matter is that in modern times, the US has become more about those Ideals than almost any other nation. You have the right to believe what you want. You have the right to practice what you believe how you want, provided you don't impinge on the rights of others. You have the right to speak out against government misbehaviour and societal ills and injustices that you see. The True American Dream is that you can contribute to society and help build a better nation for the future.
I cannot imagine the things that you have experienced as an American soldier. Thank you for sharing your point of view.
Bunny_Here
Kudos to you for opening up this thread.
The possible responses and criticisms? Took some major cajones.
-bf
There have been replies that pointed out flaws if you follow the Creed completely literally. Obviously, something like "I will never accept defeat" does not mean I will continue to fight even when the situation is overwhelmingly hopeless. What it does mean is that I will pick my battles wisely, and fight the ones I can win. When I can't win, I will retreat, to pick a better battle to fight. That apparently doesn't apply to the upper levels of Command in recent history.
I do appreciate the replies received to this thread. I'm thankful that everyone here is willing to learn about my POV and how I think. You've all given very constructive replies, when there are a few forums out there (even Buddhist oriented ones) where this would have turned into a category five firestorm.
* if we think we know it all, we cannot learn anything new;
* a good debating point is no substitute for humble truth;
* understanding comes as slowly as a winter dawn;
* only by loving can we learn to love.
I have been faced with many ethical challenges for myself. I am a healer by nature. Medics are referred to as "Soldier Medics" throughout their career. I consider myself a medic first and a soldier second. I treat all as equals regardless of their nationality or reason for being wounded. Many of my "comrades" have had difficulty in accepting this, but they must deal with their own conscience in due time.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I do honor the Army values my own come first. If that makes me a lesser soldier, so be it. My mission is to treat the sick and wounded regardless of who they are.
Bushi, I was also stationed in Colorado for a long while. How are things there?
Bushi, didn't you say you were at Ft. Carson? I heard a report on NPR yesterday about the Army's difficulty in handling all the psychological problems troops sent to Iraq are coming back with. Over a quarter of all troops coming back from there (at least not in a box) are suffering from some form of mental problem, whether post-traumatic shock syndrome, traumatic brain injury, depression, whatever. Up until recently the Army (and the other services) pretty much ignored their plight -surprise, surprise! The person doing the report on NPR was one of the people who had been sent out to survey and assess the problem, and he had gone to Ft. Carson where he found that anyone who complained of any mental problems due to their service in Iraq were treated very harshly. They were punished rather than offered any type of help, such as put on latrine queen duty every day, made to sit for hours in a corner like a dunce, etc. The Defense Dept. has finally been forced to do something about the problem rather than treating it as a disciplinary or morale issue. They are going to hire over 200 mental health professionals to start treating these troops. Some things about the military never change...
Palzang
As far as what NPR reported, I have not seen or heard any cases of that going on. If it were occurring I think that someone would report it and heads would roll. Not to say that it's not happening, but just unlikely.
We have been remembering the Falklands War which took place 25 years ago. One of my friends was there and, subsequently, in Gulf 1. He said that there was a major difference after the end of the war. After the Falklands, they returned to the UK by ship, a long, slow process but during which they had a chance to 'debrief' - informally, of course, but within the security and companionship of their regimental structure. We certainly noticed far less PTSD than after Gulf 1 where our forces were immediately flown home. (As a P.S., I should tell you that Steve hanged himself on November 11th, Armistice Day, two years after returning from the Gulf - no psychological support had been offered by the Army nor had he felt it OK to ask.)
We are seeing an alarming increase in self-harm and suicide amongst returning service personnel from both Iraq and Afghanistan. These are/were our investment in the future, our young, and we are wasting them uselessly.
As for medics and the Geneva Convention, you are a healer first. You are protected in any conventional war, provided you only engage an enemy to protect your patient.
BTW, it's good to be back from the desert and in the modern world again.
Palzang
Yea, Bushinoki, welcome back. Glad you're out of the desert and enjoying your just deserts.
The dust devils really kicked my butt. I had one hit the guard post I was manning and knock down all my shade.
Honestly, if I could get orders for Ft. Irwin, and had a room in garrison, I would actually be very happy.
They put AC in the tents!? What a bunch of wimps! Now, back when I was in the military...oh, wait, I was in the Air Force. Sorry, scratch that!
Palzang
Palzang