U.S. Navy veteran speaks
out:
To my fellow
sailors:
Refuse your
orders to attack Syria!
The author is a former Second Class Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy from
2007-20012 and served on the USS Fitzgerald and the USS The Sullivans. He is a
March Forward! organizer in Los Angeles and is working to build anti-war actions
locally. To my fellow sailors, shipmates and service members on
active duty,
 |
| Second Class Petty Officer Ernesto
Fuentes |
Many of you are now in the Mediterranean Sea near Syria to be used to carry
out strikes against the country. 91 percent of the American public opposes these
strikes. The Obama administration has failed to produce the “evidence” it says
would justify them.
Do not be fooled into yet another war based on lies
in the Middle East. The events that came to pass in Iraq and Afghanistan go to
show that "defending freedom and democracy around the world," as the Sailor's
Creed so wrongfully suggests is just a scheme to defend the interests of the
rich at our expense. Syria—which is the only remaining country in the Arab World
that is independent of Wall Street—is a huge prize for the oil and defense
industries. But the billionaires who will profit don’t send their own children.
They send us.
What we learned from the Iraq war in particular is that
the U.S. government will fabricate intelligence, lies to our faces, and create a
false story about “protecting civilians” to cover-up their true
motives.
Don't be a part of a war machine that kills innocent lives and
separates entire families. Tomahawks and MK 45 rounds kill
indiscriminately.
Do not be fooled into yet another endless watch, duty
day, sleepless night and deployment in support of a corrupt system that
constantly puts you in harm’s way. I ask you, is it really worth it?
I
enlisted on July 20th, 2007 right out of high school in the hopes that I could
peruse an education and travel the world through the Navy. The longer I was in,
the more I realized that the community I was exposed to in the Navy was so far
removed from the everyday lives of American civilians. Military spending always
goes up. I was surrounded by billions of dollars’ worth of equipment, while
schools have to fundraise for supplies and scholarships, whole cities were going
bankrupt, and students struggled to pay their loans. I realized then that the
system in place had left me no choice but to join the military. It was an
illusion of choice when the reality is that more and more of us join to escape
economic hardship. Then we are used to carry out missile strikes against other
struggling people just like us all over the globe. It is a cycle that continues
to fuel the war machine.
To me, patriotism is doing what you think is
right for your country, not blindly following its government. It means that when
we receive orders from corrupt high-ranking officers to launch strikes against
Syria, against the will of the American people and against the will of the
Syrian people, that it is our duty to refuse to carry them out.
Getting out
of the military was the best decision I ever made, because the military tried to
make me into a tool of oppression for other people around the world—but failed.
If I were at sea now, ordered to carry out this new war, I would
refuse. You can too. Disobey the bogus orders to launch a new war.
Refuse deployments and reenlistments. Come home to your families and fight the
real battle that has been waged by the government against its own people in the
form of unemployment, poor education, high interest rates for college students,
police brutality and the erosion of our civil liberties.
Second Class
Petty Officer,
Ernesto Fuentes
USN, 2007-2012
March
Forward! is dedicated to building the anti-war movement among veterans and
active-duty service members. Click here to make an urgently-neeeded donation to
help us with out organizing and outreach efforts against the Syria war.
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