I know from first-hand experience (spending four years in the U.S. Air Force) that the “troops” are overly romanticized and glorified. The vast majority are not disciplined and stoic defenders of liberty and virtue. They are not hardworking, competent and efficient. In fact, they are infantilized and coddled. They are given “free” healthcare, dental care, housing and food. They are even provided interest-free loans when they accrue overwhelming financial debt (despite having all their necessities paid for and being over paid).
They see the world in black and white: enemy or ally, within regulations or outside of them, complicit with orders or insubordination, higher ranking or lower ranking, etc.
Most troops are simply bureaucrats in a system wrought with moral hazard. At the end of every financial term there’s a race to spend whatever section’s entire budget, lest they let on that they can perform the same job more cheaply and have their budget cut accordingly.
Troops go to base-wide or wing meetings where their blood lust is inflamed with videos of AC-130s utterly destroying humans arbitrarily deemed “terrorists” with its cannons. The room roars with cheers and patriotic fervor. They are told that the higher the value of a given “target,” the more collateral damage is acceptable, which is euphemistically measured by the quantity of “little pink bodies.” They are told to run over women and children in the street on the off chance that they may be ambushed if the convoy is stopped.
Then of course the public condemns those who aren’t filled with righteous indignation at the sight of a veteran amputee, who don’t harbor a deep sense of admiration for this troop who “admirably sacrificed himself for the country” (whatever the Hell this means), and whose hatred for these “terrorists” simply seeking to repel an aggressive foreign military occupation is not evoked.
Do not support the troops, in their capacity as troops. If you care about these men and women then please help illuminate the lies they’ve been told to secure their loyalty. Show them that instead of defending our liberties, they are endangering them by blindly following the orders of that imperialist institution that presents the greatest threat to them: the U.S government (or the State).
There is nothing honorable about being a “troop.” Honor is found in peace, liberty and the respect for the property of your fellow man. These are the fundamental values which breed cooperation, empathy and compassion for one another.
Peace. Love. Free Markets. Anarchy.
Chase Rachels is an anarcho-capitalist and author of the book “A Spontaneous Order.” He lives in Asheville.