Should Active Duty Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight Be Allowed Out of the Service?

Question

I personally think that one must follow his/her conscience and if that means 10 years in the brig then more power to you. Some people say signing up for military service requires a man or a woman to do their part to carry out ANY objective he or she is ordered to do. What about you. What do you think about it? Should soldiers and sea men who refuse to ship out be punished?

Answer 1

It all depends on the situation.
Just not wanting to fight after you enlisted, is much different then not agreeing with a current reason for war.

Lt Watada is leading that charge, as he refused to ship out with his unit opposing this war.
In his statements you see it very clearly,hes not opposed to war, only this particular war.

Which is exactly what responsiblity every soldier has, with every order that is given to him -- is it a legal, moral order.

With that being said, going back to my initial words, a person deserves punishment if they just dont want to go out to battle.

If a person feels they cannot engage another human being, they are allowed to file conscientious objector, which basically means they oppose the use of force and will be able to engage enemies -- at which time th military - after trying to persuade them -- will change their MoS altogether or discharge them.

Lt Watada's first trial ended in a hung jury, which means under double jeopardy his most likely result will be a discharge -- most likely a general discharge under honourable conditions.

This war is a warwe shouldnt have gotten into, shouldnt have been forced to stay in this long, and was bush's agenda all along.
especially when just now hes being discovered for funding groups linked ot al queda to fight against Iran.

Bush sidestepping a true deployment in Vietnam.
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm#vietnam

quick back to the question -- ordering a soldier to fight in this war, is the same as asking him to kill an innocent civilian in war time.
should that soldier be punished for not following that ordeR?

In reading most of the abov answers about soldier should follow all lawful orders -- what about the fact that this white house has manipulated data topropel us into war.
Under that same arguement, shoudl the leaders who give unlawful orders by misleading data presented be punishable under your same arguements.

Or should we just focus on the fact that our soldiers need to fight because they are told to.

this from a former soldier
All the Way!

All these people with the tough worded answers for punishment are exactly as dumb as the military wants you to be. Robots with a weapon,no conscience, no ability to decipher right from wrong. And an inability to see the b.S. that this government has created in IRAQ.
If this was a legal war against afganistan who attacked us on 9/11 you wouldnt have this question. but since we took a hard right somewhere and went after someone all intel said wasnt a true threat, how many field generals have been replaced for disagreeing with the justifications for this war?
if you cant see that, you are as dumb as the military wants you to be

Answer 2

I think they should be jailed and lose all benefits. They signed a contract, period. Ignorance is no excuse. I think if you sign on the dotted line and say you are going to do X, then you DO X. If you don't, you are subject to the highest penalties under the law. The whole point of a contract is to deter the signatories from exploiting each other by not following through on their word. Legal punishment is the deterrent. If that punishment and deterrent was removed...what would stop anyone from exploiting the military? A ton of people would sign up, get nice job training, skill training, bonuses, and easy money. Then if required to earn that money by shipping out, they could just say, "Sorry, don't wanna do it" and break contract with no threat of legal penalty. That isn't right.

I don't care HOW you view war on a philosophical level. If you are that morally opposed to something, you shouldn't be signing up in the first place. If you sign up and realize you have made a mistake...you had better figure out where your priorities lie (as an adult). Do you care more about being free or do you care more about your conscience?

Answer 3

I say - make more brigs if necessary.
Active duty soldiers signed up to serve in the military. Whether regular military or reserves, they signed up, were paid for training & took oaths - too late to change your mind. We can not let the military vote on whether to serve once they have signed up. They must serve out the enlistment or off to the brig for longer than their enlistment time.

Answer 4

1st make them real soldiers, if that don't work, then give them a Dishonorable Discharge, ban all military benefits. In a war zone shoot them. When they signed those papers they just became property of the U.S. Gov't. They are not heros, they signed up to do a job, if that means killing the enemy, they weaken your strength and could get everybody in the platoon killed. There is no place for them or excuses. This shows the weakness of the all volunteer Army. Regular Army like me, we don't have a choice.

Answer 5

if a man or a woman joins the military during peace time and then, the country goes to war, they are obligated to go to war or suffer the consequence's. most people now a days join just for the money and the college benefit's, but does not want to fight . i feel they should be sent to prison for at least twenty years. the punishment used to be death by firing squad.

Answer 6

yes...I think soldiers who dont follow orders should be punished, I signed a legal and binding contract when I entered the service to follow any and all lawful orders. Let alone I built a comradre with my fellow battle buddies and dont want someone in my Army who will turn high-tale and run when i need him to cover my back.

Answer 7

Right after their courts-martials and punishment.

Anybody who volunteers for military duty knows that they signed up "without reservation", and have taken an oath to follow any legal order given them.

To disobey such a legal order warrants charges and punishment. Period.

Answer 8

I think that active duty soldiers who refuse to fight should, at least, be court martialed for dereliction of duty and sentenced to hard time. Perhaps, they should be tried in a military court for treason and shot.

Answer 9

WHAT!!!!!! ... .you have to sign a Contract in the USA to go to war. Good grief. If I put something on Hire Purchase and given a contract to read .... it would take over an hour to read all the small print.
So a Soldier is given a contract ... is he given time to read and to really think about it .... or is the "whoever" standing beside him saying "Hurry, Hurry, Hurry ... there are people standing behind you"? Are they allowed to take the Contracts home with them to let their parents read it with him/her?

Answer 10

While it seems true that you cannot run a disciplined military unit if people can just drop out, it is much more important to allow people to follow their consciences and be true to their beliefs than it is to have a powerful military, especially when that military is misused in wars against countries that pose no threat to us. People shouldn't sign up for the military if they don't want to go off and kill people just like themselves, but having said that, if they have pangs of conscience about it later, they should be released.