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From: grossg@patriot.rtp.dg.com (Gene Gross)
Newsgroups: trial.talk.politics.peace,alt.activism.d,talk.politics.misc,soc.men,soc.veterans
Subject: Re: Conscience and Cowardice
Message-ID: <1991May28.143655.18701@dg-rtp.dg.com>
Date: 28 May 91 14:36:55 GMT
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In article <9105181851.6056@mydog.UUCP> gcf@mydog.UUCP (Gordon Fitch) writes:
>As long as you believe that cowards are worse than killers -- as
>long as you are more afraid of cowardice than killing -- you will
>have war, because it is a simple matter to manipulate a person
>with such beliefs and feelings into attacking a stranger as a
>matter of duty.  It has been done again and again, for thousands
>of years.

Gordon, the issue is not one of love for war or fear of cowardice more
than fear of killing another.  This is a red-herring on your part, and
I would expect much better from you.

The point is one of personal duty, honor, and integrity.  When you
give your oath, your word of honor, that you will fulfill a certain
responsibility or post, is it not incumbent upon you to do so
regardless of the personal cost?  If you for one moment think that any
of us really found great pleasure in war and the carnage that takes
place in war, then rethink your position.

I will not speak for others on this group (soc.veterans), but as for
me, war was the most distasteful and wasteful enterprize that I've
been involved in -- except maybe cleaning out a septic tank.  This is
not to minimize the great heroism and glory that men and women
sometimes attain to as a result of being in war.  To ignore such is to
ignore the very core of the human heart.  No human ever rises above to
make an heroic and courageous stand except when faced with
extraordinary circumstances, be it war or something else.

To the case in point, the men and women who refused to fulfill their
obligation.  I do not argue that a person can, through a veriety of
means, come to the decision that they cannot in good conscience bear
arms against another human being.  I can respect that.  However, so
far, I have seen nothing that merits my reconsideration of my original
opinion concerning the ones who refused to go to the Gulf.  These
people are merely shirkers of the worst sort -- they have no personal
intergrity and honor.

They are the ones who raised their arms to take the oath.  No one was
standing there holding a gun to their head.  And they did this since
the repeal of the draft and the institution of the all volunteer
military.  During the years of the draft, the status of CO was one
that had honor to it.  These people have turned it into something akin
to an epithet.  Why!?

The answer is simple, in my personal estimation, they chickened out.
The thought of putting in on the line took far more guts than any of
them had.  And now that it is time to pay for even this stand, they
are screaming foul and seeking help.  This is why I don';t believe in
their claims of CO-hood.  If they were really opposed to war and
killing (which is the CO-stand as I understand it), they would stand
tall and proud in the courage of their convictions.  They would not
whimper and whine before the court of military officers or the court
of public opinion.  Yet, what do we see but a bunching of sniveling
cowards proclaiming that they are innocent because of their "new found
views" of pacifism.

Did Thoreau whimper and whine when he had to pay the price for his
stand?  Did Rev. Martin Luther King whimper and whine when he had to
pay the price for his stand?  Need I point to more men and women who
had personal honor and integrity and a sense of personal duty?  These
are heroes not because they held to positions that I agree with,
because some of the views I disagree with vigorously; they are heroes
because they had the sense of personal duty and the personal honor and
integrity to stand by their words, to maintain the course of their
convictions regardless of the personal cost to them.  And they did not
whimper and whine like some delicate little flowers.

And that is what the ire is all about.  That is what has me sick and
disgusted with these individuals.  They are cowards who wanted a free
ride until it was time to pay for it.  Then they tried to escape their
responsibilities.  Well, sorry about that, Charlie!  What ever befalls
them is probably far less than they deserve.

Gene Gross