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%ALIENATIVE MILITARY LEADER ENEMY WAR VIOLENCE KILL 890628

     Conventional  military leadership lacks integrity  by
the very nature of conventional military responsibility.

     It  is  the responsibility of  conventional  military
leaders  to prepare armed forces to kill men,   women  and
children who are regarded as the enemy.   To be successful
in  conventional military activities the rule is "When  in
doubt kill."

     Having  too  much information about  individual  men,
women  and  children who are regarded as  the  enemy  will
inhibit   conventional  military  activities.     Military
leaders must prevent gathering too much information. Thus,
military intelligence must be strictly limited. Members of
armed forces must not think too much.   If they do,   they
may not kill enough.

     To prepare armed men to kill enough,  it is necessary
for military leaders to train their men to regard  members
of  the identified opposition as unquestionably enemy  and
not worthy of survival.   Armed men must not ask too  many
questions.   If they do think too much they will not  kill
without  thinking  about  the long  term  consequences  of
enough killing.   Too much thinking will get in the way of
conventional military success.

     It  is  the conventional responsibility  of  military
leaders  to  lead their men to regard the members  of  the
identified    opposition   as   less   than   human,    as
unquestionably  expendable.   Military leadership  entails
mandatory  depersonalization  of the enemy in  preparation
for  killing the enemy.   Thus military leaders teach each
other  to  oppose becoming familiar with men,   women  and
children  of  the enemy.   Personal familiarity  with  the
enemy gets in the way of conventional military success.

     It  is  the conventional responsibility  of  military
leaders  to  promote alienation to insure that  their  men
will  be  willing to kill men,  women and children of  the
identified  enemy without thinking too much about them  as
fellow human beings.   Alienation is essential to military
success.   Personal information,  thinking, sympathy,  and
mutual  understanding  stand in the  way  of  conventional
military success.

     The  more  powerful the military weapons have  become
the  more  important to military success  has  become  the
process  of military indoctrination.   The  more  powerful
military  weapons have become the less discriminating  has
become the process of waging war.  In modern technological
war it is impossible to be discriminating in killing;  one
must  be  willing  and ready to kill all people  in  major
metropolitan areas without thinking about the order  which
has been given.

     Improvements  in military technology have lead to the
impossibility  of conventional military success.   Further
improvements   in   techniques  will  not  lead   to   the
possibility   of   conventional  military  success,    for
improvements in the power to alienate and disintegrate the
enemy can no longer lead to conventional military success.

     In  the  past it was possible to separate in  thought
the   long   term   consequences  from  the   short   term
consequences   of   military   ventures.     When   global
destruction  can take place in ten minutes it is no longer
possible for thoughtful people to separate in thought  the
long term consequences from the short term consequences of
planned military ventures.

     It  is no longer possible to participate in  planning
conventional  military ventures without  participating  in
addictive  games of mutual self deception.   Only  addicts
can  participate  in conventional  military  planning  for
nuclear war.  It is not possible to maintain both personal
and  communal integrity while planning to totally  destroy
all  life on the planet.   It is not possible to  maintain
personal   and  communal  health  and  well  being   while
indoctrinating   armed   forces  and  civilians   into   a
thoughtless pattern of preparation for global destruction.

     Addiction   to  the  conventional  military  way   of
thinking  and feeling is a threat to the survival  of  all
forms  of  life on Planet Earth.   We  must  confront  the
dishonesty  of conventional military thinking if we are to
survive.    Continuing to live conventionally according to
traditional  military  patterns of though  is  impossible;
just as it is impossible for an addict to continue  living
while believing that salvation is just another fix away.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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