What is the difference between free speech as an individual citizen vs. that of a soldier?

Question

When do soldiers have a right to speak for themselves?

Answer 1

With the advancement or times, so changes the Army. We are not free to speak against the President. That is disrespecting an Officer. We cannot speak badly of our NCO, Officer or any politician. All falls under disrespect.

Now, we can speak our minds. As long as we do it the right way. When given an order to take a location with my men, then that is the mission. Dangerous, yes, possibility of death and injury? High. It is an order and i must follow it because it supports the overall mission.

Should an officer tell me to transport his personal gear along with other Officers / NCO's to a location that takes me out of the wire with no armed escort, I can easily say no. That kind of order endangers Soldiers lives and military equipment outside of the mission.

Yes, we lose some rights, but in the world of combat and combat support, it is necesary to complete mission.

Imagine being an NCO. Your mission is to advance your line to the next phase line. You order your troops to gear up and line up. Two or three say no, I'm not doing it. In the civilian world, you would fire them. In combat you don't have that luxury. You order them again and again they refuse. You then sieze their weapons, secure them and move on with mission.

Failure to follow an order in combat is a judicial offence and must be tried by Courts Martial. Levenworth is plenty of motivation to get most hard heads to move. Should they come to their senses and executre the mission, you counsel them or you give them Non-Judicial punnishment (Article 15) for failure to follow orders.

We may have rights taken away from us, but there are people in America using and abusing those rights for all of us.

Answer 2

Members of the Military when in Uniform represent the US Government and are limited in what they can say publicly.

A forum like this is very informal and unofficial, so a soldier could say whatever he wanted here. A soldier in private can say whatever he wants.

The soldier is only restricted when it is a public forum, like being interviewed by a reporter or being in a public place like in a shopping mall.

This is part of good discipline. Civilians can also get in trouble for saying stupid things in public or to a reporter, but it is usually only the higher ups that have to watch what they say. (This also true of the military, a private can get away with saying a lot more than an officer can)

Members of the military are volunteers. When they take they oath they voluntarily give up some of their rights. When their contract is completed they get all of those rights back. It's not a perfect solution, but it works.

Answer 3

Unfourtanatley, many soldiers have very limited freedom of speech that is repressed by their commanding officers. Yet they dont know that whenever there is something they would like to say, for example, report that his team needs more ammo, or armor for their vehicles, they can report to a higher command and still not get in trouble, because as soldiers they are still Americans, and their rights should still be recognized. The commanding officers are usually told to keep the soldier mouth shut, even if it threatens their life. This also happens when illegal activites happen in the millitary. Yet most of the time, it is done to protect others from the information that is prone to be realesed. When you join the millitary, you should know that most of your basic rights as an American go away, at first, and your only the bottom of the chain of command, along with others who joined the millitary. So hope this can clear things up and that you find the answer your looking for.

Answer 4

when they are out of the military once you become a soldier you give up your civilian rights and you become a number of the government it doesn't matter what you think but it does matter what you say you will get into big trouble if you speak out against the president just like at your job if you say something bad about your boss and someone over hears you will be in a lot of trouble and that is the difference between being a number and being a person after all when all these wonderful soldiers give their lives fighting this stupid war for their stupid boss and they die guess what they are to him just another number that is being replaced the moment they take their last breath and then they are a number in a box being shipped home to their parents for them to deal with it is a very sad reality

Answer 5

They can speak for themselves as long as it fits within the guidelines of the Military. The soldier works for the government 24/7.

Answer 6

Freedom of speech is what promises the right to apply the hateful speech you make the most of adversarial to conservatives. It also provides Palin the right to assert what she needs even if you disagree with her. i understand you're perplexed thinking liberals in worry-free words imagine about Constitutional Rights even as they serve your interest and disrespect them even as they don't.

Answer 7

They don't have a right to speak for themselves. While on active duty they are owned by the US Government and the Commander and Chief is their lord and master. This is why we need to support our troops and stand up to Bush and his administration when we feel they are being abused!

Answer 8

Basically, as a military folk, you signed up to DEFEND the rights theat you WON'T have such as the "Freedom of Speech" in this case.
Cheers.

Answer 9

Soldiers are viewed as "property" of the US govn't.

As a soldier, -and they talk, it's gonna be viewed as a mouthpiece of the govn't.

The govn't wants to "manage" it's media outlets.

Answer 10

They dont, you waive that right when you took the oath.
You are "property of the US govt "
I found this out when I was in, Had to write up a young sailor that got sunburned...IE: destruction of govt property!!!