Friday, February 6, 2009
Nashville Peacenik Chris Lugo Goes to Marine Training Camp
Posted by PJ Tobia on Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 6:00 AM
The Marines have a week-long PR/recruitment program wherein journalists visit bootcamp at Paris Island, S.C. Strangely, they invited former U.S. Senate candidate/dreadlocked white guy and local peace activist Chris Lugo to come along for the ride a few weeks back. Even more strangely, he accepted. Lugo posted an essay about his experience here. The gist is that he was surprised and appalled at the level of groupthink going on in the Marines and also at their unquestioning obedience. "The whole idea of boot camp is to completely break [a recruit's] spirit and make them into something that follows orders and kills instinctively," Lugo told me over the phone yesterday. "Yeah," I replied. "Isn't that kind of the point?" Lugo responded that in his view, this kind of training is what led to civilian deaths in Iraq. He essentially said that because Marines are such capable and efficient killers, it's easy for them to kill a lot of people in short time and when they make mistakes, the mistakes are bloody. Lugo is quick to point out that he doesn't "blame Marines for civilian deaths in Iraq," he puts the fault with our national leadership. But he does take issue with individual Marines refusing to question why they are fighting the wars they fight or if some orders are good and others are more questionable. This, of course, flies in the face of just about every tenant of serving in the Marine Corp. I think Lugo gets this, but he's just so dogmatically positioned toward peace that anything--whether it be a code of conduct, training regimen or world view--that makes wars more easily fought, is tough for him to come to grips with.
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"Lugo is quick to point out that he doesn't "blame Marines for civilian deaths in Iraq," he puts the fault with our national leadership."
Most of the civilian deaths in Iraq have been inflicted by the terrorists.
The blame lies entirely with them.
I appreciate and share Lugo's concern about civilian deaths. But it isn't realistic to expect Marines to engage in spirited discussion over orders in a combat environment. I would also question his assertion that they do not question what they are doing. I am a Marine Vietnam veteran. I can assure Lugo and others that many Marines do question policy. I knew several Marines who were very opposed to the Vietnam war. Indeed, a former Commandant of the Marine Corps and recipient of the Medal of Honor in WWII, General David M. Shoup, was an outspoken critic. Fortunately for all of us, they understand that they do not make policy, but simply execute it. When our armed forces are deciding what they will and will not do, we are in serious trouble. They are also taught that there are such things as illegal orders, and that they are not obliged to follow them. I concede that this is easier to say than do in a combat environment however.
