In a Democracy should not the military be Democratic?

Question

In a Democracy should not the military be Democratic?

Should military personnel (soldiers, sailors, etc) be thoroughly informed of the complete details of a proposed war so that an individual, inteligent decision can made, then allowed to vote to participate in the fight? If the majority votes in favor,THAT majority goes to the war, instead .of the participation being arbitrarily dictated by those who would send them and not participate.

Relevant reading

http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

Answer 1

They volunteered to fight. You can't receive the benefits of militart service in peace time and not fight in war.


We do live in a Republic.

Answer 2

If by democratic you mean that soldiers should elect their officers or they should vote on tactics, strategy, or even participation in a given conflict, then I would have to say no.

Military success depends on group success. Often that involves secrecy, and sometimes a commander has to make a hard decision that will cause causalities to those involved. Such decisions cannot be made democratically, but must be made objectively. In other words, I think the current system of merit is the best.

Decisions about war and peace are not and should not be made by the military. These are political and moral decisions made by the civilian command. I would not like the military to subvert the power of Congress. As much as I dislike George Bush, having civilian control of the Pentagon and White House is still better than creating an autonomous military.

On the other hand, if you think that in a democracy individual soldiers should have the right to express their political opinions and to criticize governmental and/or military actions, then I agree. If a soldier or an officer refuses to obey an order and alleges he (she) did so because the order is illegal, the issue should be fully explored. S/he should be allowed to present evidence in court and defend his/her opinion.

Answer 3

No country can have an military that is democratic. It is the duty of all service personal to follow orders. Those orders come from the commanders who follow orders from the Supreme Commanders of the military.
How could we have won the 2nd W.W. if every man chose not to invade Normandy, refused to fight the Japanese?
When you enter the service of your country, you give up the right to individual choice. You take an oath to that effect. If an oath means nothing to you, then you become a traitor to your country.
Please think before you advocate such an idea.

Answer 4

The shear nature of warfare is not conducive to a voting procedure --- that is an exact reason that there is the system of ranks and ratings within the services---- the chain of comand ---

Within a war situation there is not time or convienience of settling issues that arise by a vote process---when bullets and RPG fire are whizzing around it's no place for a campaign on what to do !!!

Answer 5

No, and if you've ever served you would know the answer. In a War secrecy and execution is the most important. When a General commands, the whole system would collapse if soldiers said, "why", "i don't want to go", "My feet hurt", it is not possible to run an army that way. Besides this is a republic.

Answer 6

No. You join the military because you want to serve America, whatever the cost. If you join you have to fully prepared to be send out to active combat, whatever your personal politics are. If what you are suggesting came true then we would have an entire army of Watadas crying in court.

Answer 7

While we're at it.. let's have police vote on which laws they want to enforce. And the fire department vote on which fires they feel like putting out.

Answer 8

While the answer to your question is yes,The US is not a Democracy it is A REPRESENTATIVE REPUBLIC!

Answer 9

good question.