File photo (Bumble Dee/shutterstock.com)
Whether it is soldiers deployed to the Middle East or soldiers deployed to the streets of our country, viewing threats, including our present civil unrest, as “war” brings more spheres of human activity into the ambit of the law of war, with its greater tolerance of secrecy, violence, and coercion — and its reduced protections for basic rights.
The civilian must accept his or her role in the issue. Elected representatives appropriate money and approve U.S. activities in other countries [and in our own].
Solders go where they are ordered by their commander.
If the civilian wishes change, then change can be at hand if the elected official is contacted and a strong input from the citizenry makes the demand heard. [violence is deafening and self-defeating].
Asking warriors to do everything poses great dangers for our country — and the military. Our armed services have become the one-stop shop for America’s policymakers.
Here’s the vicious circle in which we’ve trapped ourselves:
As we face novel security threats from novel quarters — emanating from [civil unrest, pandemics] non-state terrorist networks, from cyberspace, and from the impact of poverty, genocide, or political repression, for instance — we’ve gotten into the habit of viewing every new threat through the lens of “war,” thus asking our military to take on an ever-expanding range of nontraditional tasks."
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