On
June 17, 2014 I issued a call
to arms
on this link:
Some
of you who read that piece might have thought: “Attacking the
military oath of induction isn't a new idea – wasn't that tried by
draft resisters during the Vietnam Era?” No, it wasn't. They tried
to avoid taking the oath, hoping that would make a difference; there
was no thought of renouncing it once taken or replacing it with the
several suggstions I made on the link above.
Right
now, we have a volunteer military, so – one could say – the
pressure is off. During the Vietnam Conflict, the mighty machine
known as the Selective Service System was very hard to resist. When
your number was called, you went and you were mercilessly pressured
into being processed into service. And that's exactly why now is the
time to start applying our own pressure by encouraging current
military to revise/renounce their oaths. I believe we're going to be
snookered into reestablishing the draft, which might be too late to
challenge once it's been resurrected from the dead.
Face
it – we're always going to be at war. And we'll always have faux
anti-war pols like then-Senator Obama. And people will believe in
them. I think our next conflict will be in Africa which, at first, a
lot of [USA] Americans won't mind. They'll see that as easy as
shooting fish in a barrel. But even if that were to be the case, that
doesn't make right our projection of force.
Now
is the time to take concerted, aggressive action to challenge the
machine. I direct these comments to career officers and enlisted
personnel current serving:
If
you really want to “support and defend the Constitution” as
called for in your Oath, then the best way to do so (ironically)
would be to renounce your original oath and proceed in the manner
I've prescribed. You cannot avoid
concluding that the Senate's filibuster rule is unconstitutional.
And you should not have to wait for the Supreme Court to act, which
it never will by the way. Once the Constitution has been violated,
your current oath makes you duty-bound to do something about it.
And
it shouldn't matter that the filibuster has been a long-standing
Senate institution. Violations of long-standing are still violations.
And they should be resisted when a threshhold of public consciousness
has been passed. When large numbers of people come to realize how
badly they have been cheated and for how long, terrible retribution
cannot be far behind.
Many
are aware of this abuse and have been for a long time. But they felt
powerless to act. By means of my “Call to Arms,” I am telling
them they have a tool which they can use to take back their
Constitution. So what can you do? Spread the word. It
doesn't get any easier than that. You might not think your
promotional activities will make any difference. But just remember: A
journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step. You can do this and
we have to start somewhere.
A
new wrinkle
I
thought of yet another strategy since posting “A Call to Arms.”
I'd like to see an on-line petition set up which will allow
active-duty military to state publicly:
I,
[name, rank, and branch of service], hereby cast my vote – that I
believe the US Senate's filibuster rule is unconstitutional and
should be actively opposed by our military establishment, up to and
including the arrest of all Senators who refuse to act to permanently
strike this rule from the books.
If
military brass would try to thwart such a petition by ordering troops
to ignore it, that would (in effect) be the same as ordering them to
ignore their oath. Which of course they cannot do.
A
note to progressive activists
It's
time you stop playing around by doing useless stuff like
kneejerkingly supporting a black man for President – or whatever
the future equivalent of that support would turn out to be. You've
got to start focusing on stuff that will work. We don't have all the
time in the world for you to entertain us with your more far-fetched
fantasies, one of which I'll address now: The ESRA – the
Environmental & Social Responsibility Amendment.
This
proposed amendment to the US Constitution has been promoted by Rabbi
Michael Lerner for over four years now. He is currently trying to
enlist the aid of MoveOn.org to generate some traction for this
dubious cause. On May 18, 2010 I had sent Rabbi Lerner an email which
included this sentence:
“The
ESRA, with 1527 words, is 3.5 times wordier than the Fourteenth
Amendment, the currently wordiest of them all.”
That
was four years ago. Well, now the amendment is 4234 words in length,
which is just about as long as the entire US Constitution (main body
only, minus the amendments), which is 4440 words in length. This
alone should argue against its merits. But I will direct you to a
post I'd written four years ago which contains specific arguments
against this mess of an amendment:
This
link connects you to the current incarnation of the ESRA, of which
you will notice my arguments posted four years ago still apply:
There's
a saying: The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. We can't
afford the luxury of indulging in such good intentions as the ESRA.
We've got to get sober and put serious effort behind strategies which
can work. Compared to the ESRA, any serious movement to challenge the
illegitimate filibuster rule is far more worthy of your time and
attention.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Steven
Searle, just another member of the
Virtual
Samgha of the Lotus and
Former
Candidate for USA President (in 2008 & 2012)
Contact
me
at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com
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