Is it unethical or immoral for a man or wife to leave their family to fight in a war based on false premises?

SFC_Ollie

The iraqi war was not based upon false premises, Saddam Convinced most of the world that he had WMD. the world knew that he did have them because he used them. The world also knew that he would use them again if given a chance. Saddam admitted that he wanted Iran to believe he had WMD so they would not attack him.

My family has always been important to me, that's why I served 22 years, to keep them free. Now sometime during this Christmas season go out and thank a Vet.

SFC
US Army
Retired

Scrappy52

Sorry, but you do not have the ability to understand.

laughter_every_day

There are those who debate it. At West Point, for instance, the cadets are drilled with the phrase, "duty, honor, country." Familly is farther down the list.

Krytox1a

hey even Clinton thought saddam HAD wmd ok kid!

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1998/12/16/transcripts/clinton.html

http://www.cnn.com/US/9812/16/clinton.iraq.speech/

Bush inhered the mess from Clinton!

you kids ....NO Knowledge of history!

get a clue!

Black Sabbath

It's probably less ethical for them to let Iraqis kill each other off in a war which has already started. Who cares if the war was justified or not, it happened. All that's left to do is damage control.

DOOM

Enforcing the ceasefire agreement that Saddam Hussein violated 17 times is a false premise? How so?

Obama left his family to go to Iraq. Are you saying that Obama is immoral?

G M

You can't choose which wars you want to go to based on some peoples opinions.

junipero locke

Is it unethical or immoral to assume that soldiers fight FOR official premises, arguments, and resolutions?

ProUSA2

What "false premises"??

He invaded 2 foreign countries unprovoked.

Saddam Hussein had...and USED weapons of mass destruction against his own citizens, killing tens of thousands of Iraqi people.

He was a ruthless, sadistic leader that regularly tortured, maimed those opposed to his regime.

TrueGrit

When you join the military you put country first and you do what the people that are in charge tell you to do. Kinda like a real job..you know the ones with a boss that tells you what to do and you ..oh I don't know.. do it. You may not agree with the boss or even like him but that's just it he is YOUR BOSS. If they didn't want to go to war then they shouldn't have joined the military.. I have seen countless remarks of pure idiocy about how people got duped into the military and they didn't expect to go to war... That's like a Peta member whining that they started working at Burger King but didn't know they would be around meat. Anytime I hear a person whining about how they joined but they felt lied to because they had to go to war I look at them and say " So...you joined the military and are upset because you had to fight? You aren't known for you thinking skills are you?"

luis e

There's several parts needed to answer your question. (If you don't want to read my whole speech then go to the end which summarizes it as best I could)

-The first being whether the war is truly based on false premises, which while I personally believe it is there are people there that believe that we are really doing this for the furthering of democracy.

-Second is the simple fact of were you a soldier before the war began because while many people might say otherwise are army's size is quite substantial even in peace time. If you were a soldier before war-time you have taken a commitment to answer your country's call to arms even if you personally might not agree, as it is in the vow you make when you join.

-Third is your personal opinion of war and several other key components. One of which is that many Americans join the military in the ideal that they are fighting to protect our nation and its ideals, this includes our families. By stating this I pose another question to you, do you believe that it is ethical to kill in self-defense? Because there are soldiers that believe this is what they are doing. They fight in this war to protect their families.

-On the other hand there are some people that fight merely to fight, because they enjoy it.

-If you are christian, and I believe Judaism teaches the same but I am not 100% sure as I am Christian, then god in older scriptures does not condemn the act of killing in self-defense but instead condemns the act of murder of another with the full conscious understanding that it is without justice.

-Much of what we believe ethical has come from religion. Our nation is founded on religious ideals, but above all we believe in the act of serving your nation with honor and dignity. Whether leaving your husband or wife to fight in a war allows you to keep your honor and dignity in the end is based upon your personal beliefs and what you feel.

- I think I've gone on a bit of a side-track, but in conclusion I'd like to repeat what I hope I've stressed, that there are many people that joined the military believing that we were helping the world, whether that still holds true at this point or not cannot be said. The problem with leaving though is, can you really leave once you begin?

In the end your question is one based upon your personal morals and ideals. There will be many people that disagree with you, that it is perfectly ethical to leave your husband or wife to fight in the war, but I think you'll find many more that feel like you do. The only thing you can try to do is look at it with an open mind and remember that just like a police officer is only doing his job when he arrests someone, these men and women are just trying to do what they can to help their country.

dgvella

God tell's you what to do. If you were like me you will do what your heart tells you to do

Ryann K

ummm, the main reason for the military is war, that is what they sign up for. it's unethical for a person to sign up and then not go, everyone else does.

amp9C1

Not necessarily. The family doesn't choose when the well-being of 3^9 people are at risk. And Operation Iraqi Freedom was not based on false premises anyway. The majority of the world believed the intelligence information that declared Hussein a significant threat to world peace. By the way, the a--hole said that the Columbia space shuttle accident occurred over Texas, George W. Bush's home state, as a gift from God.

Trevor S

It is unethical and immoral, but once you sign up for the military you're screwed. They OWN you after that. By the time you realize that your job is to kill Iraqis so that America's rich can steal their nation's wealth, there's not a damn thing you can do about it without facing the full power of the U.S. government.

-----------------------------

War is a Racket
By Major General Smedley Butler

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the many.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

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