Re: UNCLASSIFIED////

I wrote back to the good SGT:

Sir,

I just don't know what to say. I've talked with a number of military representatives, both there in Lincoln and now here in Santa Fe. I have a strong history of significant military involvement and accomplishment in my family, especially during WWII, sure; but a lot has changed since then.

Honestly, if I were a proponent of using violence over diplomacy as a way to establish stability in the major oil supplying countries - I would certainly join Blackwater. The pay's better, and, unlike what we're to believe about our military, Blackwater cannot be held accountable! http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6849 & http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Blackwater_guards_fired_unprovoked__09302007.html. Good news for the good guys. But, as with most things, we're slowly moving away from that which holds us back: http://www.theaircar.com/ & http://www.zapworld.com/. I do suspect, however, that it isn't oil that's important to the US, but rather the profits gained from the processing and sale of oil products.

Surely I would be needed in Iraq, but I just read a news piece that names a few US Generals who actually oppose the re-colonization of Iraq: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6920. The British had their turn, now we have ours! What I like is that Venezuela has offered oil and gas to low-income neighborhoods for heat and electricity at an incredibly reduced rate, something like fifty bucks a barrel.

Most significantly, I don't believe in any use of an offensive military; none at all. I think that those people who willingly help an offensive military (knowingly or unknowingly) are the worst moral deviant sinners our great land has ever had the good opportunity to support. Think about this: if we had been giving two billion dollars a day to a pro-democratic regime in Iraq, rather than spending it militarily, that person/group could have toppled Saddam purely with the resources that would have been available to them.

And what's this I hear about some guy named Bremmer taking out all the social-justice measures in the Iraqi constitutional draft? That's just plain evil.

The problem I think I've run into is that I'm a socialist - not a communist - a socialist. I would describe myself as a Anti-Authoritarian Anti-Republic Democratic Socialist. These beliefs are fundamental to who I am, and because I firmly believe in anti-authoritarianism, how could I endorse a pre-emptive military? How could I contribute to an ultimately oppressive force like that?

And what about Iran? I've heard civilian death toll in Iraq is something like eighty-one thousand on the most conservative estimates http://www.iraqbodycount.org/. I have to think about this when I wake up; when I get ready for work; when I come home; while I eat dinner; while I go to school... How many innocent people will we kill in Iran? And will we use nuclear weapons (outside of DU)? This saddens me so. Can we justify this?

Why does Israel get nukes? Why does the UK, France, China, Russia, India and Pakistan get nukes? I'm more scared of Israel than I am of Iran. And do we know without a shadow of a doubt that Iran has or is planning for nukes outside of electricity? Like we knew Saddam had WMD (well, we did, but they were the ones we sold them that they forgot about and we couldn't find later)?

What about women's rights in Saudi Arabia? Why haven't we issued sanctions against them? None of this adds up and I am always searching for answers. If the liberal media is so liberal, why don't they discuss these things? Why can I only find solace with the progressive peace movement?

Why am I uninsured? I work fourty-eight hours a week and am full time in school? If I lived in, literally, any other industrialized nation I wouldn't have to worry about getting sick.

There are just so many things that I see wrong with this country, why does our military even worry about solving problems in other countries?

Often, when approached by the military, I have asked many of these questions, and sure you're reading all of it in its most tangential state; I don't have the time to go connect all of it properly, but they are all things I have to consider when I'm asked to enlist.

If you could answer these questions for me, and please, tell me what you thought about before you enlisted, I would love to read it.

Thank you so much for your time,
Forever patriotic,
Tyler